5th Islamic Economics Workshop “Interest from the Perspective of Islamic Economics” is jointly organized by Islamic Economics Research Centre (IKAM), Scientific Studies Association (ILEM), Turkish Entrepreneurship and Business Ethics Association (IGIAD) and Islamic Economics and Finance Application and Research Centre (ISEFAM) at March 31 in Istanbul and April 1-2 in Sakarya. The workshop took place under the hospitality of Sakarya University and issue of “Interest” is discussed along with its various dimensions.

In general, the role of interest is discussed from the perspective of Islamic Economics at the workshop by 17 presenters. By this means, it will be emphasized what kind of problems the current interest rate system has on economic, political and social areas and a solution fort his will be brought up. It is aimed at the workshop to find solid solution offers towards current situation within the frame of such subjects; The role of Interest from the perspective of Muslim Societies and the constituted alternatives against this system, transition process from interest system to interest-free economical system and the role of government in an interest-free system, relations of production in interest-free system and the future of debt based economic structure.

In general, the rationale of Islamic Economics Workshop is to find solutions to today’s problems specifically related to Muslim countries. Islamic economics is a current issue in many Muslim countries and it is also a fact that throughout the world, many Muslim countries suffer from low welfare status. With these workshops the state of affairs in the studies of Islamic Economics are reviewed and the kinds of studies needed to be conducted in the future, are debated from different points with the intent of a new approach to today’s economics issues. Also, these workshops are expected to make a contribution to the efforts of the Islamic world to find a way out of the economic and political congestion it has been going through in the last few hundred years.