The West wholeheartedly supported this banking system. Not wanting to be left out of the tidal wave of petrodollars now flowing through Islamic banks, Western banks pitched in to provide expertise, training, and technological know-how. The key American players included Citibank, Chase Manhattan, Price Waterhouse, and Goldman Sachs. The rise of the Islamic banking system coincided with the development of the neoliberal model in the West. The neoliberal guru Milton Friedman and his disciples at the University of Chicago forged close ties with the Islamists.

XREF: Connects to the larger narrative of how global capital and Islamic finance intertwined, and to Friedman/Chicago School influence in the region. SEED: Potential angle: the overlooked Western corporate complicity in financing Islamist movements during the neoliberal era.

Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politi…, loc. 241