Will Islamic finance go Dutch? With significant demand for sharia-compliant products in the Netherlands, the challenge is on
for the authoritiaes to change their tax treatment of such products and develop an industry currently in its infancy. Niels Muller and Kees Hooft report
On 23 July this year, Bilaa-Riba Islamic Finance BV (Bilaa-Riba meaning ‘no interest’ in Arabic), a Dutch entity which had been set up for introducing Islamic finance products into the Dutch retail market, announced the closure of its operations. According to a spokesman for Bilaa-Riba, the main reason for closing down was the lack of cooperation by the Dutch Revenue Service.
