Ethics: toward globalization

The paper conveys selected Islamic perspectives on business ethics to encourage debate on the subject in the USA. The objective is to better prepare American businessmen for the ongoing shifts to global management. The regulatory climate that is currently arising is linked to the ascendancy of international accounting standards relative to the USA's generally accepted accounting principles. Islamic ethicists are seeking to install a climate of high level ethics and to weed out forbidden transactions. The revival of Muslim interest in accounting marks a revival of a historic pattern which is thought to have anticipated the rise of bookkeeping in the West. Also, there is a current tendency in Islamic states toward a unified political and economic system likely to affect international trade, hopefully with beneficial results for the USA.