What could go wrong? Well, for one thing, Sharia is a program for every aspect of life. So once one sets the precedent that it is good to accommodate Sharia, there is always more Sharia to accommodate -- including provisions institutionalizing discrimination against women and non-Muslims.
"Loan caters to Minneapolis Muslim business owners: The Alternative Finance Program respects Islamic law by offering fixed-rate loans," by Katherine Lymn for the Minnesota Daily, March 24 (thanks to Arafat):
An Islamic law enacted centuries ago was an obstacle for modern Minneapolis businesses until Minneapolis partnered with an African business resource group to allow Muslim business owners a way to both comply with their beliefs and invest in their businesses.Since April 2007, the city of Minneapolis, in partnership with the African Development Center, has given out 38 loans in a way that is compliant to Islamic law by using a fixed rate in place of a variable interest rate.
Through the system, called the Alternative Finance Program, businesses pay a set rate of return, which corresponds with Islamic practices. The program is a slightly altered version of the common "Two-Percent" loans also offered by the city's Department of Community Planning and Economic Development.
"It really amounts to the same thing," Bob Lind, CPED director of business finance, said. "But it's ... just a different way of looking at it."
Recipients of the loan operate businesses that lie mainly in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood and along Lake Street, "typical strongholds for the Somali community," Lind said.
That is, the Somali community that has seen so many of its members return to Somalia to wage jihad in recent years.
Five of the loans went to businesses that are part of a Somali marketplace in the Cedar-Riverside area.Said Karie, who works at Hijaz Clothing in the marketplace, explained that "everything that has [an] interest rate is actually a sin" for Muslims.
"It's been that way for years and years," Karie said.
The rule extends beyond just loans, as Muslims who follow the religion strictly will go as far as returning interest gained on savings to the bank or a charity, said Abdirahman Omar, general manager of Mustaqbal Computer Center.
"Personally, I wouldn't take it [interest] even if I needed it," Omar said....
The loan program is a response to the wave of Middle Eastern and East African immigrants in recent years, Lind said.
"We're just trying to work with those new immigrant populations to try to provide assistance and financing just like we would for anybody with the last name 'Smith' or 'Johnson,' " he said.
Partnering with the Minneapolis-based African Development Center, CPED has distributed almost $1.5 million to the businesses, with loans ranging from $10,000 to $150,000. Most fall between $10,000 and $20,000, Lind said.
He added that loan recipients have been good clients of the city; "[they] tend to borrow as short a term as possible [and] pay it back as quick as possible," Lind said.
Before the program, businesses were unable to get loans because of these religious beliefs, and they would turn to raising money internally, Lind said.
The program is a pathway for business owners to "achieve the American dream of creating wealth," Lind said.
He added that Minneapolis is the first city, to his knowledge, to adopt a Shariah-friendly loan program. He sees the city's version as becoming a model for others in the future.
I am sure it will be.
"Achieve the American dream..."
Muslims have no "American dreams". They have ummah dreams and will use every trick in their book and every weapon they can acquire and handle to bring it to pass.
Thsy should not be given one inch since they also demand the mile.
Sharia creep by any other name is still Sharia creep.
"An Islamic law enacted centuries ago was an obstacle for modern Minneapolis businesses until Minneapolis partnered with an African business resource group to allow Muslim business owners a way to both comply with their beliefs and invest in their businesses."
Funny, they never had a problem doing business in MN before! They also seemed to have a problem actually following sharia, go to the local casinos, you'll find them, also drunk and watching porn in the library, all against sharia. But no surprise, Minnesota is a hotbed of weak minded liberals who think they are helping to promot multiculturalism, they are really just speeding an end to their way of life. I guess when muslims kill all the gays in uptown, that will ok, because it's sharia.
"Sharia creep by any other name is still Sharia creep."
I believe that's sharia "crap", Wellington :)
"'Minneapolis/St. Paul' is a hotbed of weak minded liberals"
Should read that way. They don't speak for the whole state even if they do make up a large portion of its population.
Actually, I get further with my fellow lefties (Be nice. I'm an Owenite, not a Marxist.) when I use the phrase "creeping sharia" in place of "stealth jihad". Once I explain it, they easily agree to be on the lookout for CS. SJ just makes them stick their fingers in their ears.
And if you don't pay on time they chop your hand off.
I suppose they would call it "Progressive Sharia".
The gullible kuffar thinks it means acceptance of modern banking and hence "Progress".
The adherents of the "religion of peace" know it's "Progress towards Sharia".
What is the deal with Muslims and commercial insurance? I understand there is a fatwa out specifying that it is haram to be associated in any way with commercial insurers. This would seem to open a rather large can of worms concerning ObamaCare, auto insurance, etc. Is the alternative "sharia-friendly insurance" and is that likely to be allowed under ObamaCare?
Weak minded liberals? Hmmm. Something redundant about that.
Quote:
Sharia compliant financial instruments are a recent fiction. Do not value the 'deal' more than you value your future.
See Hugh's comment discussing Timur Koran's indispensable study titled "Islam and Mammon"
as well as Hugh's reference to Mary Jackson's
posting on "Islamic bonds"
Insurance? They don't need no stinking insurance. They have Medicaid, which is a fancy-schmancy way of saying jizya.
And auto insurance? Trust me, you don't want to be hit by a Somali :
Folks,
What we have here: “Minneapolis adopts Sharia-friendly loan program”is the reason that on current trajectories, despite all our best efforts; Judeo-Christian culture will succumb to Mohammedanism.
The Mohammedan has groked that all financial instruments are nothing more than illusions…. Illusions, which I might add, over the millennia have worked spectacularly well, when all the drones have been prepared to follow their dictates.
BUT, as is often the case when ideology meets biology; biology wins!
What really matters at the end of the day is bodies on the ground, their connection to the soil and how many can be mobilized to defend that space.
What was happening a generation ago in UK/Europe; is now happening in the USA. In the UK we call it ‘demographic induced suicide’. Or as it is more precisely known down my way, in the vernacular, ‘death by corner shop’.
The annoying pebble in the shoe of this whole boondoggle, is that Americans, despite their God given right to free speech, be armed and defend their constitution\land; have at the end of the day, forfeited those rights for the insidious poison of…..
“we can all get along and live together, in the American dream, despite where someone has come from, if the dollars keep flowing, all the rest is unimportant”…...
In an air of multicultural egalitarianism ‘capitalist style’ (it is another discussion as to how this came about).
America, read the West; has decided that freedom of religion/ignoring someone else’s religion applies not only to the many generations of Judeo-Christians (insert own denomination here) which make up the West: But also to those philosophies & creeds, which over history, were diametrically opposed to the Judeo-Christian doctrines in the first place:
These were at the end of the day the metal upon which Judeo-Christian philosophies were forged.
Reading this, the international socialists and constitution fetishists of the US will scoff at the idea that a pernicious medieval ideology like Islam will be able to tear down their houses of international brotherhood, or rip apart the temple of egalitarianism. But I can tell you this, it has already begun!!
\:Nostradamus mode off.
Blogger, BareNakedIslam posted a thread recently which demonstrates varying news items reporting about: Somali Cultural Enrichment in Minneapolis.
Watch the various videos to see why the Somali neighborhood is identified as Little Mogadishu.
Somalis...good luck Minneapolis.
We only have a few of them here in New Zealand.
Most of them are on social welfare.
Only ever had one hijack of an airplane in New Zealand...yes, by a Somali.
Hijacking seems to be in their blood.
lilredbird wrote:
What is the deal with Muslims and commercial insurance? I understand there is a fatwa out specifying that it is haram to be associated in any way with commercial insurers.
...................
The idea is that taking out insurance means you don't sufficiently trust in the bounty of Allah to provide.
Given the appalling state of most of Dar-al-Harb—Somalia especially—you can see that they take this to heart, and barely work or plan for the future in any responsible manner at all.
Of course, pirating and kidnapping Kafirs and collecting Jizya are different matters...
I remember that.
It turned up here at jihadwatch.
Here's when it first happened.
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2008/02/somali-woman-stabs-two-pilots-on-new-zealand-flight-claims-bombs-on-plane.html
"Somali woman stabs two pilots on New Zealand flight, claims bombs on plane"
(in other words: Somali Muslimah stabs two pilots on NZ flight, claims bombs on plane').
And here's the follow-up story.
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/34319/hijack-accused-039i-should-have-killed-pilot039
I remember that.
It turned up here at jihadwatch.
Here's when it first happened.
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2008/02/somali-woman-stabs-two-pilots-on-new-zealand-flight-claims-bombs-on-plane.html
"Somali woman stabs two pilots on New Zealand flight, claims bombs on plane"
(in other words: Somali Muslimah stabs two pilots on NZ flight, claims bombs on plane').
And here's the follow-up story.
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/34319/hijack-accused-039i-should-have-killed-pilot039
Jihad is not restricted to acts of terror. It can be waged quietly, as in financially, through Sharia banking for example. The American people do not want Sharia banking, Sharia law or Sharia anything in the United States. Sharia is diametrically opposed to the beliefs of a free people. Sharia is an abomination in this country. How is it even possible for our government to allow Sharia banking here? Note that U. S. banks (Citi, Chase, BofA, & others) that offer sharia compliant banking are the very same banks that Congress bailed out with our tax dollars and against the will of We the People. These banks continue to destroy American families with home foreclosures, overdraft fees, and outrageous interest rates on credit cards and student loans. Wake up people. These banks are aiding the enemy.
Apologies for the double posting.
VOMIT...sorry, this just truly nauseates me.
Jenna--this is why I have stopped using Citi! Now I am USAA all the way.
baseballmaven - thank you for this info! This issue is so under the radar, that most people have no clue their friendly neighborhood banks are helping sharia jihad. We need to spread the word.
I want to know how these financial institutions are getting around the Bank Secrecy Act on this one. These are high risk relationships. They obviously don't know their customers very well, do they.
Here's an idea.
Shoutout to Jewish Israeli readers of this blog.
Do you have banks and building societies, based in Israel, owned and run by Israeli Jews, that *do not do* any hanky-panky with 'sharia finance', and that you can wholeheartedly recommend as a good deal?
If so, you can always discreetly let their names be known, so that non-Muslims (whether Jews or Gentiles) in other countries, can 1. invest in Israel (and thus help shore up defences against Jihad) and 2. be sure that their money is NOT being tainted by association with Sharia?'
Sort of like defying 'halal creep' by deliberately choosing to buy kosher (of course, one can avoid the meat products, if one is unhappy about slaughter methods), or, more broadly, choosing to 'buy Israeli'.
Looks like a whole *new* variety of Ethical Investment ought to kick off among the Islamosavvy, in response to the insidious creep of 'sharia-compliant' finance. Here's to the promotion of *Sharia-Free* Banking.
Question: how would financial institutions and businesses that were 'sharia-free', that is, that had consciously made the decision NOT to comply with sharia in any way, shape or form, choose to identify themselves? What cute little logo should they attach to their products?
Dumbledoresarmy: this is a great idea. Years ago, Hebrew National had this saying on their TV hot dog ads: "We answer to a higher authority"- I liked that so much, I still buy only Hebrew Natl. hot dogs. Researching online: IDB bank & Bank Leumi both operate in US, surely they cannot do any sharia compliant banking,I'll find out. Also there's USAA, recommended by baseballmaven above (3/26)- it's for US Vets, but I think you can bank there even if you are a non-vet. How about "kosher banking"? How about a logo that combines a Christian cross with a Star of David - Judeo-Christian banking for the preservation of western civilization.