DUBAI — Islamic bonds, or sukuk, have long been popular with investors in the Middle East. Now they are being discovered in Europe and the United States. When the Dubai government issued a $500 million, 10-year sovereign Islamic bond, last month, 38 percent of it was snapped up by Western investors, according to research by Standard & Poor’s.

“European problems helped fuel demand for alternative products like sukuk in emerging markets, which is why we’re seeing a strong wave of interest coming in from Western investors lately,” said Mohammed Dawood, managing director of debt capital markets for HSBC’s Islamic banking division.

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