مطالب

Stability analysis is one of the most important fields of study in the Islamic banking and finance industry. For measuring stability in Islamic banking, we introduced, for the first time, an Islamic banking stability index (IBS) during 2013 to 2016 which use all CAMEL factors and so seems to be more comprehensive than Z-score stability index which dominantly used in the existing literatures. To find the macroeconomic determinants of Islamic banking stability on IBS index, we have developed Generalized Additive Models (GAMs) using smoothing splines. GAMs provide a general framework for extending a standard linear model by allowing non-linear functions of each of the variables, while maintaining additivity. The results show that the proposed models have more predictability when compared by a linear counterpart. It is also concluded that Money Growth and Domestic Credit as a percentage of GDP in each year are inversely related to the Islamic banking stability of the next year. JEL Classification:

This article attempts to explain democratization in Iran through an elite-oriented approach. According to this approach, the success and failure of democratization depends on the political elite strategy. My argument is that the fate of democratization is determined by elite strategies. If their strategy is considered suppressive, an authoritarian cycle will take place in the transition stage, but if the political elite strategy is considered non-suppressive, the index of democratic transition increases. In this study, the political elites are divided into two groups: conservatives and reformists. The analysis method is historical-narrative technique. The empirical findings indicate that whenever the hardliners inside the government are stronger than the opposition groups, they constrain the democratization by suppressing the opposition (moderates and reformists), which leads to a decrease in the index of democratic transition, as exemplified in the 13 th parliamentary in 1941. Whenever the reformers are stronger than the conservatives and they are allowed to participate in elections, the index of democratic transition tends to increase, as shown in the 17 th parliament under the rule of Mușaddiq and the 7 th presidential elections after the 1979 Revolution. The data demonstrates that democratization is still fragile in Iran and it’s the fate would be determined by the relative power of reformists and conservatives. As a result, I argue that Iran’s democratic transition is fragile and it’s the fate is determined by the relative power of reformists and conservatives.

The Islamic religion is a global phenomenon and keeps expanding rapidly. Muslim law, like personal laws of other religious groups, is today facing several challenges from within the community as well as from outside. This is but natural in an era of unprecedented changes in societies everywhere. As a matter of fact, Islamic law like any other law is in need of reform. The urgency lies in the application of contemporary standards of principle of legality, equality, dignity and individual rights in matters relating to criminal law and marriage, divorce, inheritance, guardianship, maintenance and other social contemporary problems. Although religious scholars effectively terminated the practice of ijtihad five hundred years ago, the principles of interpretation are well established and hence; the need for contemporary interpretation is compelling. The practice of the Companions , the Successors and the leading Mujtahidun of the past tends to suggest that they enacted laws and took measures in pursuance of maslahah (issues) despite the lack of textual authority to validate them. Egypt is often taken as an example for a distinctively Islam nation and in the Western world it is often assumed that its legislation is based on Islamic principles. In recent years, the Iranian system has established the Exigency Council to resolve conflict between bodies like the Guardian Council and the Islamic Consultative Assembly, with regard to Islamic and criminal law's contemporary issues.