Shariah Compliance of Palestinian Islamic Banks Exploring the Gap Between Customers' and Professionals' Opinions

The current study is exploring the area of Shari’ah compliance disclosures for Islamic banks in Palestine. In particular, the study aims at investigating customers’ and professionals’ opinions about such disclosures and the level of their understanding of Islamic banks using the case of Palestine Islamic bank. The results indicate a high level of understanding of this sector and that both professionals and customers value the same reasons for dealing with Islamic banks, and that there is a difference between what Islamic banks focus on to show compliance with Shari’ah and what customers and professionals seek to see in the annual statements. The study is done using a mixed method of content analysis and a questionnaire of 50 customers and 50 professionals. The study is limited by the small sample size and the lack of literature about this specific area of investigation. The significance is shown in exploring this industry in Palestine, and that it contributes to the literature by intro