Sharia Banking in US and Canada

University Islamic Financial Tv Commercial (hat tip trk)

And to the North ......

Banks are helping sharia make a back-door entrance Globe and Mail (hat tip rut)

In May, 2007, The Globe reported that "Several Canadian financial institutions are preparing sharia-compliant mortgages, insurance, taxi licensing and investment funds to help serve the country's fastest-growing part of the population." Recently, the Toronto Star's business section reported that an unnamed bank may offer sharia loans as early as this summer; Le Journal de Montreal disclosed that Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation(CMHC) was also getting in on the act. Stephanie Rubec, spokesperson for the CMHC, said the Crown corporation had launched a tender worth $100,000 to study Islamic mortgages for Muslim Canadians. Could she be oblivious to the fact that almost all Muslim Canadians currently have home mortgages through banks and don't feel they are living in sin? In fact, CMHC has gone a step further: It has quietly entered into a partnership with a Saudi company, AaYaan Holdings, to develop sharia-compliant mortgage-lending systems.

Financing terror.

The origin of Islamic banking has its roots inthe 1920s, but did not start until the late 1970s and owes much of its foundation to the Islamist doctrine of two people — Abul Ala Maudoodi of the Jamaat-e-Islami in Pakistan and Hassan al-Banna of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. The theory was put into practice by Pakistani dictator General Zia-ul-Haq who established sharia banking law in Pakistan.

Proponents of sharia banking rest their case on many verses of the Holy Koran that outlaw usury, not interest.

Verses that address the question of loans and debts include:

Al Baqarah (2:275): God hath permitted trade and forbidden usury;

Al Baqarah (2:276): Allah does not bless usury, and He causes charitable deeds to prosper, and Allah does not love any ungrateful sinner.

Every English-language translation of the Koran has translated the Arabic word riba as usury, not interest. Yet, Islamists have deliberately portrayed bank interest as usury and labelled the current banking system as un-Islamic. Instead, these Islamists have created exotic products with names that are foreign to much of the world's Muslim population. This is where they mask interest under the niqab of Mudraba, Musharaka, Murabaha, and Ijara. Two authors, both senior Muslim bankers, have written scathing critiques of sharia banking, one labelling the practice as nothing more than "deception," with the other suggesting the entire exercise was "a convenient pretext for advancing broad Islamic objectives and for lining the pockets of religious officials." Why Canadian banks would contribute to this masquerade is a question for ordinary Canadians to ask.

There's more. TMI on Islam.

Comments

[Layer Seven]

Islamists are not experts (being kind) on industry and economic success, judging by the GDP of Islamic countries and especially countries with sharia law.

Canada, struggling to return its economy to pre-industrial stages, is on the correct path.

[RobCon]

Sharia is Michigan. Scary....does that make me a racist?
Americans and Europeans will have to come to terms with this very soon.

[jkp]

Rob Con, That does not make you racist, it makes you culturist. Islam is not a race. Recognizing Western culture's existence and wanting to protect it does not make you racist. It makes you culturist.

What is scary about this is that it creates an alternative. Alternatives are not scary when they are freely chosen. But when Islam enters choice is always compromised. What happens when banking with non-Muslim banks gets considered heresy and we hear chants of death to those who bank against Islam? Then we have more potential for bifurcation and disunity; Islamic institutions in the Western world are never a stabilizing development.

www.culturism.us

[EJO]

Dear Pamela;
Yet, Islamists have deliberately portrayed bank interest as usury ....

According to the several dictionaries that I have consulted, interest IS usury. Especially illegally high interest. But even legal, or low interest IS usury. In other words, ALL interest = usury.
However; in the practice of law; usury only refers to exorbitantly high, illegal interest rates. Not legal, or low interest rates.
Sincerely;
EJO

[pythagoras]

Those who finance Islam must understand that, as first degree murder is part of Islamic doctrine and practice per teachings in the Kuran (as in Surah 9.5), by financing Islam they are financing first degree murder.

[neverforget]

Well put, pythagoras.

[AdamHolland]

You might be interested in the following from the Baker Botts webpage for their Dubai office:

"Our energy-related project development and finance work is enhanced by our experience with the complex issues faced in financing these projects under local law, which is largely founded on the shari'a or Islamic law.

"The Dubai office is staffed with lawyers who have extensive experience living and working in the region. They are supported by a team of energy lawyers in London and the U.S., many of whom have also lived and worked in the Middle East."

http://www.bakerbotts.com/offices/office.aspx?id=f6f8d940-8d90-4aa5-a45b-3a174b8ab1fc