Islamic Development Management

No doubt that endowment fund contributes much toward social and economic development in different societies. The same have been proved by University Endowment Funds (UEF) like the top ten UEF and others. This contribution to the society on high learning process is made possible through this fund under a corporate structure that directs all its activities. Due to the importance of governance in any organization, hence this study aims to the analyze current governance structure, specifically board composition of the top five UEF. From it, suggestions can be given for universities undertaking Islamic Endowment Fund for improvements so as to become much better in terms of performance through good governance structure. Data were retrieved through content analysis from top five UEF reports. The study observed that there were two forms of board structure used on the governance of endowment funds at universities. These include single-tier and two-tier model. While the former comprises of a board that oversee the activities of the fund, the later consists of a Board of Trustees that formulate the policies and investment committee that executes the policies formulated. In either of the two models, the average size of the board is 9 members. The board comprises of male and female members and the meetings are held 4 times a year. Also, most of the funds engage in real estate business and most of the board members are professional finance experts. Based on the aforementioned, it is suggested that the management of the fund should be separated from the university management.

This paper aims to review and evaluate patterns of past literatures on Shariah governance regulatory framework, characteristics of Shariah governance mechanisms, and its relationship with the financial reporting quality. Shariah governance has been the main subject of numerous studies in Islamic banking for the past few years. Specifically, this paper focuses on cross-country empirical studies. An electronic search was utilized to identify the relevant studies using the key words such as “Islamic banking” and “corporate governance” or “Shariah governance” or “Islamic banking” and “earnings quality”. The paper has identified various types of Shariah governance regulatory frameworks have been established across the Islamic banking operating countries depending on the country’s needs, the economic market as well as law and regulation. Board of Directors (BOD) and Shariah Supervisory Board (SSB) are the most examined mechanisms in which BOD’s characteristics of size, independence director, and duality role and SSB’s characteristics of size, member’s expertise, cross-membership become the main focuses of the studies. Overall, the evidence show mixed results but still limited. The measurements of the earnings have been proxied by discretionary accrual, loan loss provision, and earnings loss avoidance. It is concluded that the Shariah principles embedded in the operation of the Islamic bank and the presence of an additional layer of Shariah governance impact the managerial behaviour of Islamic banking. As such, this review of literature is hoped to shed light on the past studies of characteristics of corporate and Shariah governance mechanisms and serve as a preliminary study to further research this topic in the future.

The paper attempts to assess the level of Islamic corporate social responsibility (i-CSR) disclosure for the Shari’ah Compliant Companies (ShCCs) and to examine the relationship between the corporate ethical identity (CEI) of the ShCCs with the i-CSR disclosure. In doing so, the study developed an i-CSR disclosure index that was based on the CSR framework introduced by Bursa Malaysia in 2006 and incorporated it with the five values of Maqasid Shari’ah and Maslahah. In addition, this study employed the CEI index that was developed by Haniffa and Hudaib (Account Commer Financ: Islam Perspect J 6(1/2):1–71, 2007) and Said, Daud, Radjeman and Ismail (Procedia Econ Financ 7(Icebr):230–235, 2013). The content analysis was used in the study and a sample of 187 ShCC annual reports for the years ended 2008 until 2013 were used. In this study, the STATA was applied to assess the level of i-CSR disclosure and to test the relationship between CEI and i-CSR disclosure. Based on the descriptive analysis of the i-CSR disclosure, the result indicates that the level of i-CSR disclosure for the protection of faith (Al-Din), overall, was at a very minimal level. While the result of the relationship between CEI and i-CSR disclosure after being statistically controlled by firm size (proxied by total assets) and profitability (proxied by return on assets, net profit margin, and return on equity) showed that CEI was strongly significant at β = + 0.449, p < 0.01. Thus, it implies that the more the ShCCs emphasized their CEI as Islamic-based companies, the higher their i-CSR disclosure. Therefore, by providing the activities which achieve the dimensions of Maqasid Shari’ah and Maslahah that give benefits and meaning to the ummah, the image of the ShCCs will be improved.

Quality management system is an important element in the management of an institution or organisation with efforts to achieve the quality objectives of an institution or organisation, increase procurements, renew and enhance quality as well as increase effectiveness or change organisational vision; hence, an appropriate quality management system should be used. However, most quality management systems currently available are actually a fad. These systems are only adopted for a specific period, hence, there is not enough time for the systems or their effectiveness to be fully appreciated by the institution, as they eventually become obsolete. This is due to the emergence of new quality management systems that are more attractive and effective. Hence, this paper had suggested the halal and green concepts as the fundamental or important elements in building a quality management system so that a sustainable quality management system could be created. This suggestion is based on evidence concerning the sustainability of both these concepts through narrative studies carried out on publications found in Scopus’s electronic databases that had no limitation on years of publication. This study found that the dramatic trend in the study on halal and green and also that these concepts could become an influencing factor to make the halal-green concept an important element when building a more sustainable quality management system. Lastly, this paper had outlined factors that could make the assimilation of the halal and green elements into the quality management system more dynamic, sustainable and relevant across time.

Malaysia has emerged towards Muslim-friendly hospitality services (MFHS) that sees the formation of two main industries, hospitality and tourism to move side-by-side hastily today. The positioning of Malaysia as the pioneer in promoting MFHS foresees to transform Malaysia into a high-income nation by 2020 to achieve the target to become the leading tourist destination. It also will heighten the target of 36 million tourist arrivals and RM168 billion in receipts to intensify the existing Islamic tourism sector for the desirable economic benefits. Muslim-friendly hospitality, however, is a holistic tourism services that adhere to the Islamic values but with more sufficient outlook. It is very important to outline the emerging MFHS industry in Malaysia to ensure that the new label of MFHS in Malaysia is emergent globally. This study overview MFHS as the emerging hospitality industry in Malaysia and where the direction should be. The methodology of this study is exploratory with the main data collected by using library research. The findings of the study found that the emerging hospitality industry in Malaysia is on the right track and should focus on the structure of the MFHS concept to maximise the economic benefits and to maintain the sustainability of the industry.

The study examines the relationship between the corporate governance mechanisms and the financial performance of banks, by comparing the financial performance of local conventional banks with local Islamic banks in Malaysia. This study focuses on seven local and full-fledged Islamic banks and eight fully local-owned conventional banks in Malaysia over the period of 7 years which span between 2009 and 2015. This constitutes a total of 105 number of observation. Henceforward, the corporate governance variables being used as independent variables are board size (BS), independent director proportion (IDP) and CEO’s gender (CG), and firm age and firm size act as control variables. On the other hand, the financial performance of both types of banks as dependent variables are calculated based on the accounting ratio to measure liquidity ratio (current ratio—CR), profitability ratio (return on assets—ROA), risk and solvency (loan-to-deposit ratio—LDR) and efficiency ratio (asset utilization ratio—AU). Pearson correlation matrix, panel data analysis (fixed effect model) and independent samples t-test had been used in this study. Based on the findings, only CEO’s gender showed a significant influence on liquidity, profitability, risk and solvency and efficiency of conventional banks. On the other hand, the independent director variable is examined to be only significant with the asset utilization ratio or efficiency for Islamic banks. Interestingly, there is a statistically significant difference in mean on the current ratio (CR) and asset utilization (AU) for performance between both banks. Meanwhile, there is no significant difference between Islamic banks and conventional banks on the financial performance of loan-to-deposit ratio (LDR) and return on asset ratio (ROA).

Firms are placing more emphasis on sustainability, prompted by increasing pressure to divert focus from profit generation and take more interest in society and the environment. In the case where the goals and intentions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) have been reoriented to fit a paradigm of strategic CSR, companies are receptive to the government initiatives in order to make CSR practices more strategic in nature. The economic and social effects of this can be evaluated by carrying out CSR activities in a context where private firms, the social sector and the government are in collaboration with each other. In this way, social issues can be better tackled through the lens of providing aid or services with sustainable impact. In addition to that, The Central Bank of Malaysia and its Value-Based Intermediation (VBI) approach is a strategic attempt by the government to ensure that there is value in the effects of a company’s social responsibility undertakings, and consequently allowing for this valuable impact to be sustainable for the socio-economic welfare of the community. The present study emphasizes strategic collaboration in the context of VBI methods. This is illustrated through ‘CSR-VBI’ e-canvas, whereby it was developing specifically for the organization to develop its CSR project as well as measure their impact, doing so it promotes the proactive approach of CSR which is crucial to the organization for sustainability goals. Then, in order to reinforce the impact of VBI in the collaborative dynamic, it is posited that waqf orientation should be put in place to fortify the strategic effects from the corporate collaboration, and ensure that these results are consistently perpetuated in a manner, which is beneficial to the socio-economic growth of the company and its surrounding community in the future. In relation to this issue, the current study has conceptualized the role of Waqf Orientation as a moderator in the dynamic between strategic collaboration towards sustainability. This is prompted by the inconsistent meaningful results in research related to strategic performance in a collaboration with the aim of sustainability.

This paper aims at investigating the operation of Islamic microfinance in Malaysia, analyses the challenges for their sustainability and the possible solutions. Among the notable institutions offering Islamic microfinance in Malaysia are Amanah Ikhtiyar Malaysia (AIM), Yayasan Usaha Maju (YUM) and Tabung Ekonomi Kumpulan Usaha Niaga (TEKUN). Banking institutions and development financial institutions are also a major provider of financing to small- and medium-size enterprises in Malaysia. It was found out that most of the microfinance institutions in Malaysia depend on a single Islamic mode of financing, which is qard hasan and charge a fee for the service provided. A variety of Islamic modes of financing are suggested to overcome this issue. Moreover, Islamic microfinance institutions do not offer any other significant services other than the loans and there is no integration of zakat and waqf with the microfinance operation. On the other hand, commonly the risk management tools, training and marketing strategies have some shortcomings which might be a threat for their sustainability. Furthermore, the dominance of mainstream banking institutions and development financial institutions in providing microfinance may not always be right as they have some limitations. Similarly, operating under the government might not be a positive approach for the microfinance institutions concerning their efficiency and political influence.

This paper attempts to draw the attention of researchers about Islamic Entrepreneurship, a dimension out of focus for at least two decades. Extensive work on literature search found that there is scarcity evidence on intellectual and scholastic research done on Islamic Entrepreneurship. Albeit this study never claims as the most comprehensive work in this area, at least it fills the vacuum of two decades with the latest coverage on Islamic Entrepreneurship process and values without merely targeted on monetary profit. Working along that line, this study offers a discussion on the importance of Islamic Entrepreneurship based on the Islamic Value-Based Entrepreneurship (IVBE) model. This study reviews on several models of Islamic business perspective, Islamic civilization and entrepreneurship, individual ethics, and modern day of Quadruple Helix Innovation approach. Hence, this needs more study if we are to address the question of “Have we learned enough about Islamic entrepreneurial values?” and “Is there any model approach can be adapted?”

Asset redistribution is one of the areas that is very important in Islamic financial planning. The objective of the asset redistribution is to ensure the smooth transition or transfer of the asset of the deceased to the beneficiaries. Among the methods that can be adopted in asset redistribution by Muslim is through wasiyyah (Islamic will). In Malaysia, it is reported RM42 billion of assets that need to be distributed to 500,000 beneficiaries has been frozen due to the absence of legitimate wills. It shows that the awareness toward asset redistribution by Malaysians, especially, Muslims toward wasiyyah practice is still very low. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the factors influencing the awareness of Muslims toward wasiyyah practice. A survey via questionnaire is carried out with the target samples of 81 respondents residing in Kedah. The study will examine the relationships between awareness of wasiyyah practice with independent variables such as knowledge, life events, and institutional factors. The data is analyzed using binomial logistic regression. Based on the findings, it shows that the most influential factor that influence the awareness of wasiyyah practice is knowledge. Hence, the more their knowledge, the higher the level of awareness of them toward wasiyyah practice.

There is a growing stream of research on impulse buying behaviour, which is most likely conducted from retail purchasing context and was revealed that there are varieties of factors contributing to this behaviour. Generally, previous studies on impulse buying had focused on the factor that stimulates and influence the consumer to practice impulsive buying, which result in the variety of factors in the scope of the situational factor and individual factor. However, there is scarce conceptual and theoretical knowledge in marketing studies discussing the impulse buying behaviour from religious perspective. Therefore, the purpose of this conceptual paper is to review the perspective of Islamic religious towards the concept of impulse buying behaviour. It is essential to explore impulse buying behaviour from a different angle of view as this behaviour is normally conducted by all the consumers in this world. Therefore, a wide discussion of impulse buying behaviour from an Islamic perspective obviously will make some Muslim consumers understand how Islam treats this impulsive buying behaviour. In addition, this study surely contributes some additional knowledge towards a body of knowledge.

The emergence of relationship marketing (RM) evolved since the 1980s in giving an alternative to transactional marketing. RM is widely implemented in services and manufacturing industry. Literatures through studies appeared to contribute in the field by contemporary researchers through conceptual and empirical studies. Although it has been discussed by contemporary scholars, the discussions are mostly from certain perspectives. For cultural perspective, specifically, Islamic perspective is still lacking in the discussion. In present, RM is also implemented in Islamic business organizations. Why there is a need to study RM in Islamic perspectives? What is the implication of using existing RM in organizations? Therefore, this paper attempts to identify the concept of Islamic-based RM to be applied in Islamic business organizations. The findings of the study are the concept of Islamic-based RM, and is based on Tawhid. The Islamic-based RM is integrated by internal and external RM that are used as principles to be applied in Islamic business organizations.

Poverty eradication in Malaysia has been one of the fundamental objectives of New Economic Policy (NEP) since 1971. The level of urbanization has rapidly increased from 34.2% in 1980 and goes up to 71% in 2010, which contribute to urban poverty. With the increase of the urban population, the housing supply in the urban area contrarily decreases. As most countries’ prime concern in urban development concept lies on the scarcity of land, this study embarks to focus on the abundance of undeveloped Waqf land in Malaysia. Therefore, this study will be focusing on the development of affordable housing on Waqf land, which will cater to the urban poor. The objective of this study is to establish a development framework for affordable housing on Waqf land. To develop the framework, a critical evaluation will be conducted in the existing development framework from various perspectives in order to form a conceptual framework. Semi-structured interview will be carried out to test the conceptual framework. The respondents will be among the expert in their own field which is developers, officers from Waqf Departments, as well as legislators. The interviews will be transcribed and undergo qualitative and quantitative content analysis process in order to come up with emerging features for the proposed development framework. The proposed development framework is intended to solve three targeted issues in this country, namely urban poor, affordable housing, and Waqf land. The Development Framework for Affordable Housing on Waqf land is expectedly to cater to increase housing supply for the urban poor and development opportunity of the Waqf land.

The fundamental objective of Takaful services is the protection of human intellect, property and life, which are aligned with the doctrines laid down by the maqasid al-Shariah principles (objectives of Islamic law) that can be classified into five dimensions: (1) protection of religion; (2) protection of life; (3) protection of intellect; (4) protection of lineage; and (5) protection of property. Despite of the doctrines upholding the spirit of brotherhoods, the rapid growth in Takaful industries worldwide has brought in the escalating claim ratio, particularly in auto Takaful products. As a result, Takaful operators reacted in an undifferentiated manner as similar to conventional insurance towards the result by imposing strict acceptance rules on numerous adverse risks so-called non-standard risks. Although these responses are reckoned as a prudent risk management measures, it contradicts with the underlying principles in maqasid al-shariah. The aim of the paper is to conduct an insight market practice by Takaful operators in Malaysia, subsequently highlight the issue of disintegration of maqasid al-shariah principles in underwriting practices. The study suggests that Malaysian Takaful operators should take into consideration maqasid al-shariah when developing the underwriting rules.

This paper aims at exploring the concept of hajiyat in re-takaful or Islamic re-insurance in Malaysia pertaining to the dynamic development of the Takaful and re-takaful industry which is gaining its momentum all around the world. The shariah-compliant insurance embedded with shariah principles emerged as the solution for the Muslims who have been avoiding conventional insurance as it is haram (unlawful). In view of the technical similarities of Takaful and conventional insurance, Takaful operators need re-insurance facilities. The Takaful operators in Malaysia need to depend on re-takaful operators to ensure the continuity of the Takaful operators in the long term by sharing the risk with re-takaful operators. The lack of re-takaful operators in the market left Takaful operators with the dilemma of having reinsuring with conventional re-insurance in order to meet the market demands. The shariah supervisory council (SAC) of Bank Negara Malaysia, the Central Bank of Malaysia has given a temporary dispensation to Takaful operators to reinsure with conventional re-insurance. However, it is a question that whether after more than 20 years of establishment the temporary dispensation is still applicable. The arrangement of Takaful operators with the conventional re-insurance is based on the principle of hajiyat. It needs to revisit whether temporary dispensation is still applicable to the increasing number of licenses issued by the Central Bank of Malaysia to companies to operate re-takaful business. Therefore, the objective of the paper is analysing whether hajiyat still holds some ground in re-takaful

In Malaysia, there is an increasing awareness in Zakat and Waqf among the Muslims community in Kedah. There is no doubt that Zakat and Waqf had contributed a lot in the development of Islamic education among the Muslim communities especially in Pondok institution which has grown drastically nowadays. Nonprofit Organization (NGO) in Kedah is seen to be the main contributor of Zakat and Waqf to support and sustain the financial development of the Muslim community in Islamic education and other various socioeconomics projects. Due to such a scenario, the development of the Zakat and Waqf for education in Pondok Institution in Kedah needs to be monitored to maintain the good practice and governance to ensure this institution will develop and survive in the future. The significance of this research is to examine the effect of zakat and waqf contributed by Nonprofit Organization (NGO) in the establishment the survival of Pondok institution in Kedah. This empirical study includes data collection of 100 Nonprofit Organization (NGO), who actively provide zakat and waqf to the Pondok institution in Kedah. A Pondok Development and Performance Framework will be developed based on the previous study and expert opinion from Majlis Agama Islam, Jakim and NGOs to identify the important element in measuring the performance, sustainability, and survival of Pondok in Kedah. This field studies would provide additional information for the government and public to value the Pondok education and hopefully the roles played by the NGO in managing the zakat and waqf for the development of Pondok institution in Kedah will improve and enhance the development of Islamic education system for the Muslim society into a higher level and respectful way.

Islamic social entrepreneurship is an alternative to Western social entrepreneurship. This is because Islamic social entrepreneurship is based on the guidance of the Quran and as-Sunnah. The fiqh method is the method used by the ulama of mujtahid and fatwa in order to solve problems which are not mentioned in the Qur’anic and As-Sunnah verses for the new problems. There are five common methods of fiqh being discussed that each item is assessed on the basis of intentions, confidence is not lost with doubt, difficulty in bringing convenience, danger must be eliminated and custom made law. All five common fiqh methods are discussed in this paper to enable social entrepreneurs to pursue holistic social entrepreneurship. The research methodology is based on library research and content analysis based on past studies, fiqh scholars and references to the Qur’anic and As-Sunnah texts. The findings show that all these fiqh methods can be used as a guide to apply the concept of Islamic social entrepreneurship among social entrepreneurs in Malaysia. Therefore, scientific research will be thoroughly screened in this paper.

State laws provide that the State Islamic Religious Council (SIRC) is a ‘sole trustee’ of all waqf properties in such State. Thus, any party, including universities, intending to create waqf, requires authorization of the SIRC beforehand. The permission of SIRC to be sought depends on the location of universities. The willingness of SIRCs to grant the permission to universities depend significantly on their waqf state laws. A state may allow a university to create waqf so long as the provisions of the state enactment allow doing so. However, the managerial status granted to applicant universities are not standardised as each state has different provisions regarding power delegation to universities to manage their waqf assets. In fact, universities in a similar state have acquired different managerial status. The study found that there are three different approaches adopted by the state in granting the managerial status to the universities to manage their waqf assets. By adopting a doctrinal approach and semi-structured interviews method, this study examines the three approaches adopted by the selected states and identifies the relevant provisions of waqf state enactments. The data collected were then analyzed by using content analysis assisted by Atlas. Ti software.

The paper discovers the issue of Shariah non-compliance event disclosure as reported in the annual reports and Basel II Pillar 3 disclosure by Islamic financial institutions in Malaysia. The extent to which shareholders trust on the information reported in financial statements depends on the credibility of those annual reports. This Shariah non-compliance event disclosure has value-relevance to investors and the public interest, but previous studies lack the reasons that affect Islamic financial institutions’ decisions to willingly disclose the event. The paper aims to discuss whether the advisory role constrains the Shariah Committee members to improve disclosure which can increase the accountability of the company and market confidence. Shariah Committees are the backbone of Islamic financial structure and they play a substantial role in the efficient functioning of the system. Financial institutions establish the credibility of their annual report by having an independent Shariah Committee to verify the accuracy of those disclosures. This study also wants to provide understandings as to whether current Shariah non-compliance event disclosure practices of Islamic banks can achieve the anxieties of shareholders to assist them in improving transparency. This paper to uncovers the information released in the report for the year 2016 and 2017 of 16 Islamic banking in Malaysia. The paper discusses the need for improving transparency through sufficient, valid and pertinent disclosure of Shariah non-compliance event in the reports. What is required is not necessarily only the disclosure of the Shariah non-compliance event per se, but it should be consisted of an explanation, in plain and comprehensible language to mitigate the risk.

The objective of this paper is to examine the concept and application of wasiyyah wajibah in the Islamic legislature, as well as assessing the effectiveness of its implementation in Malaysia and several other Islamic countries. The study is primarily qualitative whereby the source comes from library research and literature. It provides the focus of the topic. This study found that the law of wasiyyah wajibah was against the original concept of the Islamic inheritance system but was done under the concept of maslahah. Its application is still at an early stage although it was introduced in 1999 and became effective in 2004 in Selangor. Its enforcement is inconsistent among Islamic countries that practiced it. This paper suggests that it is necessary to introduce special provision on wasiyyah wajibah in other states in Malaysia, in the spirit of tackling neglect orphans and expedite distribution of inheritance following death.

Whenever the identity of Islam in the built environment is called for as part of identity-making in the development of new public buildings including governmental institutions, general urbanscape of towns, interpretations of this requirement have demonstrated a range of cosmetically inclined cut-and-paste imageries with externally imported range of facade solutions, expressions, vocabulary and formal themes rather than localised interpretations and inventions. These imageries, which are often proposed and built, comprise of the mere mimicry of Arab-Islamic forms and traditions—reflecting an imposed hegemony linked to Middle Eastern past historiographies and origins of Islam. Due to the pressure of project development, to fulfil the implicit requirement, mimicry is often being resorted to inform and facade systems, including roof forms and urban design elements. Public built expression inevitably veers to a certain cultural image which is portrayed as the ‘true’ expression of Islam. The paper argues that the ethical and philosophical foundations of Islam calls for a complete reworking of such ‘Islamic’ meanings and a reworking on identities based on localised contextualised ‘inventive’ and ‘imaginative’ approach in public buildings. This includes highlighting elements derived from local, natural and cultural resources including histories and past ingenuities in compliance to Shariah. The ‘Islam’ in-built environment is a global expression of multicultural efflorescence rather than simply a ‘cosmetic’ imposition of mono-ethnic or romantic images from Arab Islamic past models. The paper highlights how built forms and spaces can have spiritual inferences yet be universal, without specific ethnic reference. Islam expansion was a global physical phenomena of syncretised solutions in past cities and buildings as far as China without imposing alien forms onto the local public realm nor the urbanscape. Through content analysis, and survey of the stakeholders in the industry and society with Malaysia as the case study, the research aims to highlight series of suggestive solutions representing the contextual and syncretic approach, ranging from overall forms, structures, decorative motifs and spaces in range of holistic juxtaposition as urban solutions unique to the Malaysian Muslim society as regional identity.

The unprecedented increase in life expectancy, as well as demographic changes over the last couple of decades, will intensify the need for adequate post-retirement saving. This paper aims to examine the factors that influence the intention to save for retirement. The theory of reasoned action (TRA) has been extended by including two additional variables––personal financial planning and religiosity to predict the intention to save for retirement. This cross-sectional study has collected and analysed data obtained from a self-administered questionnaire survey of 824 employees in Malaysia, while the SPSS package was used to analyse the data. The results suggest that TRA strongly predicts the intention to save for retirement. The study also found that personal financial planning is a significant predictor of retirement saving intention, while religiosity does not influence the intention for retirement planning saving and planning among employees in Malaysia. This study will contribute to the current literature by providing insights on retirement saving behaviour among Malaysian employees.

Zakat is one of the pillars in Islam where it is a mandatory 2.5% take on the wealth of well-to-do Muslims as already mentioned in Quran and Sunnah. Meanwhile, taxation is considered as a contribution levied on the persons, property or business for the support of the government. In Malaysia, the law governing income taxation is the Income Tax Act 1967. Both zakat and taxation play an important role especially towards the development of socioeconomic in Malaysia. However, the relationship of these two elements are hardly found in the literature. Therefore, this conceptual paper aims to explore the differences in terms of the implementation of zakat and income taxation, particularly in Malaysia. The significance of the study is to provide additional literature and knowledge to the public, so that the issues related to zakat and income taxation can be further discussed in order to give positive impact to the society and nation.

Employability is an important key performance indicator for high education institutions. UniSHAMS as a new high education private university struggle to faced high competitive challenge in education industries with other well-established IPTS and IPTA in Malaysia. The aim of this study is to assess the employability of KUIN graduates who graduate in 2016 by examining the level of employability, job position and government fund of KUIN’s graduates from Islamic studies from 2016 across all sectors in private and public sectors of all industries across Malaysia, and to identify the level of employability, job position and government fund of KUIN’s graduates towards their achievement in education throughout the year (CGPA). The results show that most of the UniSHAMS graduates prefer to work in Professional Education Services and self-employed. Almost 52% graduates employed as full-time workers compared to 32% work as a part-time workers. In order to compete, UniSHAMS need to improve the current programme offer by upgrading them to suit with The Industrial Revolution 4.0, which is introduced by the Ministry of Education such as double degree programme, twining programme with other international universities and joint venture education programme with industries.

In recent years, the Uyghurs in Xinjiang-Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) have increasingly been viewed disapprovingly by the Chinese government. This followed a series of unwanted incidents that broke out in Xinjiang, especially from the 1990s onwards. Consequently, the Uyghurs who are a minority group of Turkic origin have been subjected to some repressive measures aimed to undermine their Turkic-Uyghur and Islamic identities such as the prohibition on the wearing of veils or burqas, growing beard by young men, as well as restriction on performing prayers in mosques, fasting during Ramadhan, etc. Additionally, mass internment camps were set up for indoctrination purposes. While the Beijing government argued that the measures are necessary in order to curb possible threats to Chinese national security posed by some Uyghur nationalist and separatist groups, the latter viewed the oppressive policy as an unjustified ethnic discrimination against the Uyghurs primarily due to their Turkic–Uyghur–Islamic identity that does not blend well with the dominant Chinese or Han culture. Using mainly content analysis and library research approach, the paper sheds light on the brief history of Xinjiang and the Uyghur community, as well as their socio-economic and political conditions under the Chinese rule. The contemporary situation in Xinjiang including the tenacious issue of Uyghur nationalism and separatism form the central discussion of the paper followed by the countermeasures of the Chinese government to overcome the problems, some of which are repressive, and finally, the reactions of the Uyghurs towards those measures.