Islamic banking has seen rapid growth during the last two decades as a result of economic growth in the Islamic world, fuelled primarily by oil wealth. The main issues of concern surrounding this growth are the conceptual framework and viability of interest-free banking and the assessment of its performance in the future. In a world where conventional interest-based finance is the dominant framework, Islamic banking faces many challenges. This book is the first to address different Islamic banking issues from both the researchers and practitioners' perspective across the world, reviewing their past experiences of Islamic banks, to provide an objective assessment of their success and failure, and to discuss the contemporary issues and challenges confronting them. The Islamic banking system is not only popular within Islamic banks itself, but is also popular within international and other conventional banks. A majority of international banks are adopting Islamic banking in order to serve their new clients with their specific needs. Examples of such banks are Citibank and HSBC which starts their Islamic operations worldwide to expand their business