Then a real good paying PR piece -- the kind that's passed as an actual article.

Could you please identify the PR for me? I'm genuinely intrigued: all I see is an observation that different kind of bank has an audience outside of its intended audience, an explanation of how it operates differently, and criticism that it is not as different as it makes itself out to be.

By PR he means advertising. This article functions as advertising for Sharia banks.

I don't get it. "Sharia bank" is not a partnership, chain or franchise, it's a concept like "British law".

Read the article, there are 2 entities mentioned, one of them prominently.

Then almost every article in TechCrunch is... never mind.