 "Twitter shares deemed fit for Islamic investment")
Twitter executives can heave a sigh of relief right now. Not only is the company performing considerably well, it has managed to clear a big hurdle with its shares being deemed fit for investment by Islamic funds. IdealRatings, a company that screens stocks in order to determine if they meet Islamic principles, has given the micro-blogging website’s shares the green signal, indicating that Twitter is perfectly alright for investment by those practising Islam.
Reports emerged on Monday that IdealRatings had finally vetted Twitter after requests from individual investors as well as fund managers came from across the world. Twitter seems to have passed very stringent tests in order to be given a go-ahead for Islamic funding by the company. Essentially the company frowns upon firms that are involved with tobacco, gambling and alcohol. Islam also frowns upon monetary speculation, because of which IdealRatings does not deal with firms that use interest payments or have high debt levels.
Fit for Islamic investment (Image credit: Reuters)
It didn’t hurt that Twitter has been an important tool in modern day Islam either. The micro-blogging website had very famously played a role in uniting forces across the middle-east to bring about the Arab Spring uprising in 2011. The Muslim population across several countries participated in overthrowing autocratic governments in the Middle-East and it was coordinated to a large extent on Twitter. Another checkbox Twitter ticked was turning up to be positive for users, including tweets from Islamic scholars, Mohamed Donia, Chief Executive of IdealRatings said. “There is a lot of content but the majority of content is useful for the community,”
IdealRatings’ approval comes as a stark contrast to some directives being issued in India by clerics, deeming Twitter along with Facebook un-Islamic. Having virtual profiles and posting pictures on them is being frowned upon by help-lines run for Shia and Sunni Muslims in the country. However, Twitter, after the green flag has joined the likes of Google and Microsoft in order to be compliant with Islamic or Sharia principles.
According to Thomson Reuters data, there are a total of 786 Islamic mutual funds globally with $46 billion of assets under management in September, up from $41 billion at the end of 2012. The news of Twitter being compliant with Sharia laws should come as a relief to most investors who’ve been eyeing the New York Stock Exchange’s hottest property currently.
(With inputs from agencies)
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