ISLAMIC BANKING

Non-Muslims' Perceptions toward Islamic Banking

Services in Saudi Arabia

Non-Muslims' Perceptions toward Islamic Banking

Services in Saudi Arabia

Introduction

Majority of the previous researches on the subject of Saudi Arabia's Islamic banking system has undertaken the comparison of conventional banking system and Islamic banking system (Merdad et.al, 2010). These researchers have evaluated the major variations between the Islamic and conventional banking systems and also described the strengths and weaknesses of each banking system in particular (Ameer et.al, 2012; George Assaf et.al, 2011). These researches have been assessed through several statistical tools like chi-square and regressions analysis (Molyneux & Yip, 2013; Johnes et.al, 2012). These researches are based on the secondary data collection through the annual reports of the Islamic banks operating in Saudi Arabia (Haniffa & Hudaib, 2007; Hearn et.al, 2012).

Hidayat & Al-Bawardi has conducted a study on Non-Muslims' perceptions toward Islamic banking services in Saudi Arabia (2012). Saudi Arabia is a second home for many Non-Muslim workers and employees. These non- Muslims are from various religion, this paper examined the perception of these Non Muslims towards the Islamic banking system that is followed in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia has continuously encouraged the Islamic banking globally, and for this purpose the Islamic development Bank (IDB) in Jeddah was set up, which serve the same purpose as World Bank does (Hidayat & Al-Bawardi, 2012). The authors have undertaken the various different demographical variables including age, education, job, income, religion, nationality, information regarding the Islamic banking, Islamic banking services usage and period of using these services. The authors have also carried out the perception analysis of the respondents by taking different variables such as the reason of using the Islamic banking services, the perception about the Islamic banking services, quality and perceived benefits of the Islamic banking services (Hidayat & Al-Bawardi, 2012). The authors have collected the primary quantitative data to analyse the research and selected the diversified sample to get the better responses.

Research Philosophy

The authors have adopted a positivist philosophical research approach for conducting this research. The authors have explored and considered the perceptions of Non-Muslim of Saudi Arabia, regarding the Islamic banking system and services in Saudi Arabia. Overall, the research is concerned primarily with various classifications, conceptual schemes and models that exist, the techniques that are available for investigatory purposes, research procedures used in the past, and their validity.

The literature review is diversified and contains all the themes and factors to evaluate the Non-Muslims' perceptions toward Islamic banking services in Saudi Arabia. The methodology of this research is also very structured with adequate justification of the selected methodology. The literature review of this research is very diversified encompassing all the relevant literature regarding the perception of Non Muslims about the Islamic banking services and system in Saudi Arabia.

The positivist philosophy is appropriate for this study topic since the authors were attempting to develop an association among the various factors of the topic in a logical approach and consequently relate them to the Non-Muslims' perceptions toward Islamic banking services in Saudi ...