Why Southeast Asia Is the Undisputed King of Islamic Finance

The annual World Islamic Economic Forum is always intended to be a global discussion. Nonetheless, this year's forum, which ended on Thursday in Jakarta, highlighted one region in particular as a heavyweight in the global Islamic economy: Southeast Asia. That 63 percent of the forum's 4,200 participants from 73 countries were Indonesian, and 24 percent Malaysian, was not just a function of geographic proximity and ease of travel. Even when it is hosted elsewhere, the forum reinforces the countries' dominance in the burgeoning world of Islamic finance....