The first official Islamic bank was established in 1975. The characteristic of an Islamic bank is that the bank is based on an interest free system. The interest free system is a requirement for an Islamic bank. The Islamic bank system is based on Sharia laws which are laws that are followed by Muslims and it is based on the text from the Quran. The Islamic Banks had a rapid expansion between 1993 and 2003, the expansion was about 23 percent and since 2003 have the expansion been about 20 percent. Today are there more than 300 Islamic bank offices in approximately 75 countries with a total asset about 250 billion dollars. The recent expansion of those Islamic banks has made it interesting for us to study the internationalization process for these banks.

The purpose of the survey is to reconnoiter the factors that escalate internationalization process of Islamic banks.

The survey approach is qualitative method by interviews. The interviews were reciprocated by five bank officers from five different Islamic banks. Three of the bank officers responded the questions by mail, while two of the bank officers responded the interview by telephone.

The study shows that Islamic banks have serious opportunities for internationalization.

A number of elements accelerate the internationalization process of Islamic banks. The elements that accelerate the internationalization process of Islamic banks are networks, knowledge, diversity, history, population.