When Caribou Coffee in America went public last year, sharp-eyed investors noticed some unusual promises in its prospectus. Caribou, the second-largest coffeehouse chain in the US, said it would never sell pork or porn. It wouldn't charge or receive interest, either.

By following financial rules that are part of the Islamic Shariah code, Caribou is among a small but growing list of Western businesses looking to make themselves as attractive as possible to Muslim investors both in America and the UK.

Some, are motivated by principle, while others see Muslim investors as an attractive new source of money. Middle Eastern investors flush with oil profits are looking for new places to invest, and American Muslims are looking to invest in a way that doesn't conflict with their faith.

"There is a group of Islamic investors who are prohibited from a lot of regular investments, so a lot of money is sitting in cash not earning anything at all," said Khalid Howladar, a vice-president for Middle Eastern and Islamic Structured Finance with Moody's Investors Service in London.

Companies and governments who need to raise money are saying, "'There's a bunch of people out there with money they can't spend - how about I create something for them?"' he added.

In America, Dow Jones created an Islamic investing index for example, a Texas company issued almost US$166 million in Shariah-compliant bonds to finance natural gas operations in the Gulf of Mexico.

Market traders say says Western banks and financial institutions need to have Shariah-compliant products or risk losing market share.

There is a younger generation of Muslims who have grown up during the last 20 to 30 years that have a re-awakened sense of nationalism and religious pride that motivates them to invest according to their faith.