Are the Muslims Right about Debt?

The Quran denounces riba in the most categorical terms. The term riba is synonymous with the traditional concept of usury, and in modern terms, generally means interest, i.e. exploitative interest on debt, especially to the poor.  Generally, it excludes commercial discounting on current trade — which is not usury or riba for obvious reasons.

Prohibition on usury was enacted by all three Abrahamic faiths, but in modern times, it is actively preached only by Muslims. Here is an excerpt from Matthew Green’s take on this:

What those old Jewish and Christian fathers understood, and Islamic scholars still understand, is that debt creates moral problems by dehumanising the relationship between debtor and creditor. Financial assets are in fact human relationships between real people, which we are attempting to abdicate responsibility for. Alas though, it is unthinkable that our current economic system, with its manifold benefits, can be created or sustained without them. But we would all be better off if we understood the moral and personal implications, and consequent limitations, of financial assets and the markets through which we acquire them.