Eurabia Alert, and an update on this story. By James Blitz and Gilian Tett the Financial Times:
Britain is to become the first western government to issue shariah-compliant bonds as it seeks to turn London into the world centre of Islamic finance and build bridges to the Muslim community.
The Treasury will announce today that it is paving the way for the launch of the first bonds no later than next year - and perhaps within the current financial year.
The move, to be unveiled by Ed Balls, the City minister, is unprecedented. Shariah-compliant bonds have previously been issued by the governments of Pakistan and Malaysia and also by corporate issuers around the world but never by a western nation.
The UK would aim not only to issue the new bonds on wholesale financial markets but also to use them as vehicles to allow Muslims in Britain to invest in National Savings products through banks and post offices.
Mr Balls believes that the launch of Islamic bonds by the government will help to underpin London's role as an international financial centre. The Treasury estimates that total Islamic finance assets worldwide, including private equity and bonds exceed $250bn (£124.7bn).
But Mr Balls also believes that today's move will send a powerful message to the Muslim community both in Britain and around the world that the UK authorities are intent on engaging with them in innovative ways.
Mr Balls held a meeting with leading Muslim figures in the UK, including the Muslim Council of Great Britain, last Monday.
He came away convinced of the strength of support for government action in this area.
A senior Treasury figure said last night: "We hope Muslim leaders will be impressed that we are now moving towards doing the technical work on this bond issue so quickly."
The Treasury has not yet worked out what the underlying structure of UK-issued Islamic bonds will be. However, Mr Balls is confident that the technical details can be worked out by the Debt Management Office and Treasury officials.
Issuing sukuk, or Islamic bonds that make regular payments to investors, is usually slightly more expensive than raising funds with western-style bonds, because these instruments require extensive, costly legal and religious advice. Moreover, the market is so young that activity is more fragmented and opaque than in other sectors of finance.
London is far ahead of rival western financial centres, such as New York, Tokyo or Frankfurt, in terms of its success in attracting Islamic financial business.
However, it faces growing competition from centres in the Islamic world, such as Riyadh, Bahrain, Dubai or Kuala Lumpur.
In an attempt to maintain an edge, the government has already taken a number of measures designed to promote the UK as a hospitable environment for Islamic finance.
They include measures that allow sukuk to be issued, held and traded in the same way as corporate bonds. The move is expected to increase primary issuance in the UK. There is also an increasingly lively secondary sukuk market.
oh sh**t
and you think that the BNP are dangerous!!!
Unless they're going to do background checks on investors, this will allow big-time money laundering on behalf of terrorists worldwide. Cutting off their access to Western financial institutions has been a lynchpin of anti-terror efforts.
This is all a clever trick for Muslims to earn interest in a way the pretends it isn't "interest"
Taqiyya, economics-style.
They forbid "usury" (charging or paying interest) and then they use a different word to get around it (charging or paying interest).
Lies, damned lies, statistics, and Islam.
The lie that keeps lying.
And, economically, is braindead-level moronic, since it fails to understand the changing value of money over time, which prevents the lender from losing value in the amount loaned by earning "interest" (keeping ahead of inflation).
And this anti-"interest" silliness also paralyzes the borrower to an ever-deferred, sanctimoniously-impoverished existence.
(Jimmy Stewart, in "It's A Wonderful Life", explained the good aspect of "borrowing" and "interest" succinctly to the skinflint bank Mr. Potter, who thought that poor people shouldn't be able to live in a decent house until they could pay cash down for it.)
Mr Balls also believes that today's move will send a powerful message to the Muslim community both in Britain and around the world that the UK authorities are intent on engaging with them in innovative ways.
- from the article
I'm sure the Muslim community will be glad to hear of this Mr Balls.
The Muslim community might even think up new and explosively innovative ways of extracting even more concessions from Britain, now that they have seen their intimidation and terror tactics pay dividends.
You'll probably have a nice "moderate" imam knocking on your door shortly, with a list of suggestions and some advice,
"Nice country you've got here; be a shame if something happened to it".
Mr Balls also believes that today's move will send a powerful message to the Muslim community...
I don't care who you are. That's funny.
Why not just give them everything?
The muslim financial motto goes like this, 'By Allah, I will do my best to take my share and steal the rest'. Soon Britain will belong to them anyway.
Officials like Balls will give away the farm...oh well, london Bridge fell down a long time ago...Jolly ole England aint so jolly anymore...
From the article
Mr Balls seems pretty cocksure of himself, confident that he knows what he is doing in bending and conforming British government policy to the restrictions of Islamic sharia. Mr Balls is attempting to appease the Muslim constituency by ensuring that we live our lives according to their rules. That takes guts.
This is Greed, plain and simple, why do we need all this business from people who are our mortal enemies ?
I am afraid Mr Balls has no balls.
Why is the "bridge building" always from the infidel side ?
Why do the moslems never make an effort to reach out to non moslems ?
:-)
More precisely, it takes, er, Balls.
This is the reverse assimilation that Mark Steyn warns of:
http://www.westernstandard.ca/website/index.cfm?page=article&article_id=2412
The only bond that Britian should be issuing to islamic investors, is James. Time for 007 to go to the middle east.
Pipedreams and BS concocted by limp dick (Chamberlains) degenerates who believe mercantilism overrides Muhammedan doctrine:
Foggedabboutid!
Once the bombs go off in London or in the ME you will never hear about it again...
Don't get me started on the prohibition on "gambling", which means "risky" startup companies can't even be started (the gambling prohibition applies to the founders as much as the investors) let alone funded, exactly what weak, pathetic Islamic economies need.
'London is far ahead of rival western financial centres, such as New York, Tokyo or Frankfurt, in terms of its success in attracting Islamic financial business.'
May the gap ever widen.
The following paragraph covers several things.
Issuing sukuk, or Islamic bonds that make regular payments to investors, is usually slightly more expensive than raising funds with western-style bonds, because these instruments require extensive, costly legal and religious advice. Moreover, the market is so young that activity is more fragmented and opaque than in other sectors of finance. from the story
One it fails to cover is to explain anything about the nature of how Islamic investing works. Those of us in the know understand but try reading it without any knowledge.
The second thing that is frightening is the idea that Islamics "always the victims" get to have investment opportunities that cost the government more money to issue.
Third, are these going to be available to Non-Muslims also?
Fourth is that Scary word 'Opaque' Martha Stewart alert. One should NEVER see that word used in an article about financial dealings.
sukuk ? should be UK SuKs.
What a Balls-up.
From the recent US News and World Report a story about money flowing in from overseas that is very eye opening. A portion is shown below.
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/biztech/articles/070422/30mideast.htm
The Mideast Money Trail
Oil-rich countries are pouring their petrodollars into Europe
By Thomas K. Grose
Posted 4/22/07
In a city where real-estate prices can be jaw-droppingly steep, One Hyde Park is in a lofty league of its own. Situated in London's affluent Knightsbridge neighborhood-amid exclusive shops and hotels, like Harvey Nichols and the Lanesborough-the residential complex's 86 units will reportedly sell for around $8,000 per square foot; its four penthouses have price tags of nearly $160 million each. The sole financial backer for the $3 billion project? Sheik Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr al-Thani, Qatar's foreign minister.
Indeed, as an investor, Hamad has been very busy in Europe. He also heads his government's $40 billion Qatar Investment Authority, which owns a 7 percent stake in the French media company Lagardere, is considering buying 10 percent of Airbus manufacturer EADS, and recently was outbid by an Australian bank when the British utility Thames Water was sold for around $16 billion.
"Fourth is that Scary word 'Opaque' ......... One should NEVER see that word used in an article about financial dealings."
Posted by: auntbea
Right on. For six years I was the manager of the anti-money laundering unit of a major Canadian bank. Transparency is key to identifying and combatting money laundering. I fear this action will see millions more dollars flowing to terrorist groups. Shame on Britain !
jihadwatcher
sorry to inform you but James Bond, 007 is currently on special "cultural, religious and diversity" training classes and will not be with us for some time. please try CAIR or the MCB of GB for more information.
"Issuing sukuk, or Islamic bonds that make regular payments to investors, is usually slightly more expensive than raising funds with western-style bonds, because these instruments require extensive, costly legal and religious advice."
This won't be a problem for the honored muslim investors since higher operating costs will most likely be spread amongst all the firm's products/clients.
The Brits are smart as usual..
first they will pull those 250bn. out of the arabs pockets (sharia-conform & clean), by the time that is done the general inflation will have stiffly risen and only needs a small tab to collapse.. Investing in the moneymarket is always connected with risk, and in that case the arabs will have to be told: "sorry, but you lost.." all the originally western money became oilmoney became sharia conform investment will be were it came from.. and the arabs can go back to camel herding... (rough layout) ;-)
Mashallah, wow I am pleased to read about this. I knew my country had more sense in it than the united snakes. Oh sorry I meant the united stits.
Britain is just bloody clever, it knows the way forward is to engage with the Muslim world through peace and commerce rather than the barrel of a gun and supporting unjust policies (like evil rulers, Israel etc)
Hurray to the United Kingdom
Bat Ye'or at Frontpage April 26 07
http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=28049
excerpt..
"The demographic Arab and Muslim weight in Europe combines with the flow of Arab capital, the globalisation of markets and the huge European financial investments in Arab lands.
All this creates important Euro-Arab links and pressures which determine a policy based on economic opportunism. The European Union (EU) runs several student programs for Arab foreigners; it finances countless pro-Arab NGOs, and has established strong Euro-Arab networks to coordinate a common position against the U.S.A. and Israel between academics, opinion-makers, journalists and union workers. European states fund and structure the ideological Palestinian war against Israel. We have seen recently that the Britain National Union of Journalists voted for a boycott of Israeli products. Last year it was the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education (NATFHE) which voted to adopt a "silent boycott" of Israelis universities, professors and students. This policy is instituted by the Euro-Arab networks that bind together European and Arab syndicates.
There is a weighty, almost iron collaboration at all institutional level between Europe and the Arab League countries. European anti-Americanism and anti-Zionism are built within this Arab and Muslim political nexus. Unless America accepts to enter into the same parallel disintegrative process of surrender and moral support to jihadist ideology that is rotting Europe, Europe hostility will not pass; on the contrary, it will increase. Europe now is chained to the Arab-Muslim world and cannot disengage or change direction."
Gordon Brown has stolen £5 billion each year from the UKs private sector pension schemes since 1997.
We had the best private sector pension schemes in Europe and he helped destroy them and thousands of livelihoods of people who had sensibly saved for their retirement.
He, and the Labour government in general, is a total disgrace.
united snakes by Abdullah
Abdullah, I don't threaten people often and when I do I make sure it is something I am capable of carrying out. Being a lady of good Southern USA breeding and with ancestors from the UK, I will tell you that if you use such a derogatory name for my beloved country again here you will find me crawling out of your computer screen and doing things I wouldn't speak about in polite company.
Consider your childish self warned. This is not a forum for idiocy, but one for intelligent dialogue.
If you have nothing worthwhile to say GO AWAY.
By the way, I doubt your welfare payments are enough to invest anyway, so this dialogue is over your head anyway.
Gee antbeash, I am scared, quaking in my boots. Please come to papa. I will feed you to the neighbour's dogs, they have a brothel set up right behind their house JUST 4 U my dear.
The Muslim World generates trillions of pounds every year (offcourse most of which the united snakes steal by means of oil-eyerack?). If anyone is on the doll, its the red neck southern bigot who know nothing except, beer-drinking and incest.
Whereas the Muslims are the best nation set forth for humanity. To guide humanity from teh depth of darkness into the light of guidance.
And offcourse thanks to Allah for all we have and all we dont.
Abdullah...if you do not live in Israel or America...do not be so concerned about weapons.
I like our right to bear arms :P, and my cowgirl attitude! And I like my cowgal hat and boot's. These boot's were made for walking but they have a point on them...boy, never make a woman mad.