The annual World Islamic Economic Forum is always intended to be a global discussion. Nonetheless, this year's forum, which ended on Thursday in Jakarta, highlighted one region in particular as a heavyweight in the global Islamic economy: Southeast Asia. That 63 percent of the forum's 4,200 participants from 73 countries were Indonesian, and 24 percent Malaysian, was not just a function of geographic proximity and ease of travel. Even when it is hosted elsewhere, the forum reinforces the countries' dominance in the burgeoning world of Islamic finance. The global Islamic economy is an amorphous concept comprising all manner of trade and financial services permitted by Islamic law, such as sukuk , Islamic bonds that avoid interest. In a sense, the Islamic economy consists of any transaction in which money is exchanged in accordance with Sharia principles, and the rules are never quite set in stone.