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The purpose of this paper is to examine libraries’ responsibility to engage with and support communities of color as they challenge systemic racism, engage in the political process, and exercise their right to free speech. Many libraries have ignored the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, citing the need to maintain neutrality. Despite extensive scholarship questioning the validity of this concept, the framing of library neutrality as nonpartisanship continues. This paper examines librarianship’s engagement with, and disengagement from black communities through the lens of the BLM movement. It also explores the implications of education, engagement, and activism for people of color and libraries today.

The authors have engaged the topic from a critical race perspective as a practice in exercising voice – telling stories, presenting counterstories, and practicing advocacy (Ladson-Billings, 1998).

The assertion that libraries have been socially and politically neutral organizations is ahistorical. When libraries decide not to address issues relevant to people of color, they are not embodying neutrality; they are actively electing not to support the information and service needs of a service population. In order for libraries to live up to their core values, they must engage actively with communities, especially when those communities are in crisis.

As a service field, librarianship has an ethos, values, and history that parallel those of many other service fields. This paper has implications for developing understanding of questions about equitable service provision.

This chapter argues that, though the field of library and information science has made some progress in advancing diversity and inclusion, race still needs to be acknowledged as a barrier and its collateral damage needs to be spoken in order to ensure equity in our practice, research, and/or service. Core to the argument is that race as a univariate measure, equated with phenotype, is problematic and simplistic. This chapter instead makes a case for race as multidimensional. Although race figures in how one is perceived, this lens diminishes the agency of people of color to define themselves through their own worldview, experiences, and actions.

The chapter is a collection of interwoven first-person essays that reveal what people see, perceive, and mask, with the intention to continue to push an authentic conversation on race in the field. Contributors include librarians, educators, and scholars, who represent distinct dimensions of the race spectrum, question such categorization, and do not necessarily neatly fit into a racial category. They explore how they view race in the library and information field, the extent to which they feel included or not, and how they have attempted and continue to shape the field through their practice, research, and/or service.

As individuals, each contributor speaks in their own voice, and as a collective, the authors move the race dialogue forward by speaking about dimensions of race from their own experiences, representing individual stories, and allowing their intersections to be revealed.

The purpose of this study is to understand and evaluate the roles and functions of the Sharīʿah committee (SC) of Islamic banks (IBs) in Malaysia and to recommend a resetting of the scope of responsibilities to enable the SC to effectively respond to current market needs.

A Likert-type survey questionnaire was developed and distributed to all available SC members through e-mails and online surveys as well as self-administered questionnaires. At the end of the survey, 87 useable questionnaires were collected from 161 SC members, representing a 54% response rate.

This study finds that most SC members have the necessary Sharīʿah qualification, and they are mostly academics with doctoral degrees. However, there is a noticeable lack of diversity in the composition of experts in the committees. Respondents indicate that their main functions are to ensure Sharīʿah compliance of bank operations and product offerings. This is of course consistent with their stated functions as outlined in the Bank Negara Malaysia's Sharīʿah Governance Policy Document (BNM, 2019). The study finds that SCs are not involved in product development, nor responsible for financial performance. Respondents indicate three ways to enhance the role of SCs: improving banking knowledge of the members, more engagement with the board of directors (BoDs) and broadening the functions of SCs.

This study highlights two policy implications. First, there is a strategic need for IBs to consider having a diversity of expertise in the SCs while maintaining the Sharīʿah experts as core members. Second, this study recommends a reset of the scope of duties of the SC to include three new areas: risk management, product development and financial performance.

This study evaluates the current functions of the SC of IBs in Malaysia and provides suggestions for improvement in the composition of the committee and in the scope of duties of SCs based on contemporary needs.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the different motivational factors that lead to customers' Islamic bank selection decision in Pakistan. In particular, it aims to look into the importance of Shari'a compliance for Islamic banks' customers and thereby the potential risk of deposits withdrawal in case of violations of Shari'a principles.

The paper presents descriptive statistics and cross‐tabulation analysis based on data collected from 357 customers.

The findings reveal that Islamic banks' customers highly value Shari'a compliance in their banks and that non‐compliance with Shari'a principles leads to disgruntled customers. An interesting pronouncement is that if an Islamic bank is involved in repeated violations of Shari'a, the customers are inclined to switch their banks. Nonetheless, the findings reveal that Shari'a compliance is not the only satisfaction yardstick for Islamic banks' customers; they also expect their banks to be convenient, technologically advanced and provide security of their capital.

The paper has profound implications for Islamic financial institutions operating in Pakistan. Although Shari'a compliance is the most important factor that Islamic banks need to observe, they also need to be competitive with conventional banks.

The paper is a unique contribution to Islamic banks' selection criteria where the importance of Shari'a compliance and conventional bank patronage factors has been explored. The paper's has practical implications for Islamic banks' owners and regulators.

In propelling Malaysia to become a high value-added and high-income economy by 2020, the Central Bank of Malaysia has consistently emphasized the need for a new trajectory of transformation and growth which will leverage on a robust legal framework that for enhancing Islamic financial transactions. This paper aims to examine the latest major policy initiatives and legal reforms introduced to promote both local and cross-border transactions that seek to project Malaysia as a hub for Islamic financial transactions.

While adopting an analytical approach in analysing the relevant issues, the study relies on doctrinal legal method in highlighting major reforms introduced to enhance the legal and regulatory framework of Islamic finance.

The study finds that the importance of law reforms in strengthening the financial system cannot be overemphasized, particularly when it comes to the need for an end-to-end Sharīʿah compliance framework and consumer protection.

Other emerging jurisdictions aspiring to adopt Islamic finance products can learn from the Malaysia’s pioneering role in introducing an effective legal and regulatory framework.

Though there are a number of studies on Malaysia’s leading role in the law and regulation of Islamic finance, this study is one of the earliest attempts to explore the role of the Central Bank of Malaysia in enhancing the legal framework for Islamic financial transactions through the introduction of the Islamic Financial Services Act 2013 and other relevant policy regulations.

This chapter explores the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) from an Islamic Shari'ah-compliant perspective. It provides a comprehensive literature review on CSR with an explicit focus on the Islamic perspective of CSR, Islamic models of CSR, CSR practices in conventional and Islamic banks, and the consequences of CSR to Islamic banks. This chapter's main contribution lies in considering the current CSR literature from a Shari'ah perspective. Likewise, it identifies gaps in the current literature and suggests potential areas for future research. This chapter attempts to improve the understanding of how Islamic banks integrate social responsibility into their operations. The insights from this chapter are helpful to practitioners and academic scholars in Islamic finance, accounting, and CSR. This chapter emphasizes the importance of incorporating Islamic values and principles into CSR practices and encourages further research and investigation in this area.

This paper aims to provide an analytical literature survey of selective studies on legal documentation in Islamic home financing with particular reference to Malaysia.

This study adopts the legal positivist methodology, with particular reference to inclusive legal positivism which takes into consideration the possibility of moral values challenging positive law. Within the context of this study, though positive law provides for rules that govern contractual matters in Islamic home financing, standardisation is a functionality of maslahah (or public interest) which transcends the mandatory provisions of positive law but helps to protect the interest of all stakeholders. This is analysed through a systematic literature review which aims to provide practical insights into industry practices relating to Islamic home financing in Malaysia.

This paper provides information on the standard documentation used by conventional banks and existing practices of diverse models of legal documentation in the home financing sector within the Islamic financial services industry in Malaysia. It also recognises the need for standard documentation that is not only Sharīʿah-compliant but also consumer-friendly, as the terms of any standard financing agreement ought to ensure consumer protection. There is also the need for a Shari’ah-compliant Sales and Purchase Agreement, as it forms part of the complete set of legal documentation for Islamic home financing.

It is not an exhaustive study, as it did not consider practices in other jurisdictions offering Islamic financial services and products but only focusses on Malaysia. Though one may not generalise the findings of this study, Malaysia remains a leading model and a global hub for Islamic financial services and products.

A very useful source of information on the current state of legal documentation in Islamic home financing in Malaysia and the prevailing practices in the industry, which may serve as a guide for policymakers such as the Association of Islamic Banks in Malaysia (AIBIM) to embark on a full scale project of standardisation of all the legal documentation used in Islamic home financing.

This study fulfils an identified need of standardisation of legal documentation used in Islamic home financing in Malaysia and offers practical help to policymakers and future researchers starting out on systemic reforms.

This study aims to examine the changes in equity guidelines and initial returns in the Malaysian initial public offering (IPO) market.

The study uses cross-sectional data over 16 years from 2000 to 2016. It uses ordinary least squares for the baseline model and incorporates an interaction term, quantile regression, quadratic term, break test and logit regression model for further analysis.

The results support the propositions that lockup provisions signal commitment and demand increase initial returns. The revision in the Bumiputera equity requirement means that issuers no longer need to discount offer prices to entice investors. Finally, the revised Sharīʿah-compliance screening requirement ensures that stocks are better in quality and more transparent, leading to a higher demand that drives prices upwards.

This study’s findings provide insights into how issuers can secure good subscriptions. Besides, policymakers should ensure that firms disclose the required information in their prospectuses.

This study adds to the body of knowledge on whether and how the regulatory requirements affect IPO initial returns.

Ever since the publication of the original Jegadeesh and Titman (1993) study, momentum effect has been tested vigorously to validate its pervasiveness for different time periods and across different markets. In spite of numerous out-of-sample tests, there is one apparent alibi – little research has been devised for steady increasing of Shari’ah compliant stocks.

This study is to examine the momentum strategy returns in a global Shari’ah compliant stock setting.

It finds strong presence of stock momentum returns for Pakistan and Malaysia. And the momentum returns are neither driven by industry momentum nor by the small size stocks. Though no momentum profits are found for the portfolios formed by global Shari’ah compliant stocks, this seems to be largely due to return reversal for the small size Shari’ah compliant stocks.

The strong presence of momentum profits for relatively large Shari’ah compliant stocks is a desirable trait as it indicates that the momentum trading strategies are practical and implementable.

Given the relative importance of the Shari’ah supervisory boards (SSBs) in Islamic banks’ (IBs’) performance, this study aims to examine the impact of SSB diversity on IBs’ performance from the stakeholders’ perspective in the context of Pakistan.

Random-effects model and generalized method of moment are used to investigate the impact of SSB diversity on IBs’ performance across a panel data of 22 Islamic banks in Pakistan from 2005 to 2020 inclusive.

The findings of this study show that SSB size, SSB relevant educational background diversity, bank’s size and bank’s stability have a positive impact on IBs’ performance. In contrast, SSB age, nationality and cross-membership diversities have a negative impact on IBs’ performance. Moreover, SSB gender, tenure and general educational diversities have no significant impact on IBs’ performance.

SSB diversity and IBs practices are different across different jurisdictions. This study is conducted on IBs in Pakistan because of data constraints; thus, the results of this study may not be generalizable to other countries' IBs.

In structuring the SSBs’ framework, the regulatory authorities and policymakers should consider mandating an ideal SSB size and hiring relevant qualified members with low cross-membership to improve IBs' performance. Thus, the structure potentially attracts Muslim stakeholders, enhances their satisfaction and improves IBs' performance.

Having diversified members in the SSB, IBs equally benefit both individual and group stakeholders in society. Diversity in SSB members enhances IBs' performance and the social welfare of various stakeholders in society.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first empirical research that examines comprehensively the impact of SSB structural and demographic diversities on IBs' performance in the context of Pakistan. This paper contributes to the unique Shari’ah governance structure in the context of Pakistan. Additionally, this study may serve to assist IBs’ stakeholders in better comprehending the SSB practices of IBs in Pakistan.