some practices like interest-bearing loans within the same family are very rare ; gratuitous mutual aid is much more common.its is uncertain whether this is an extension of the zakat, one of the five pillars of islam, or, more prosaically , the result of being part of a minority and so giving rise to the need to be mutually self-supportive.the most devout even repudiate having recourse to the thai banking system as it does not conform to islamic prescription. This attitude leads to self-supporting practices which increase social cohesion.in a country where credit dominates and most of the population is heavily in debt, muslims are probably rather less so than other.