The convoluted, Rube Goldberg-worthy process described below, which affords preferential treatment to those who invoke Sharia, lends itself to any number of foreseeable abuses. Here is one. "Islamic law used to dodge stamp duty," from the Daily Express, March 21 (thanks to Twostellas):
Sharia law is being used by house buyers posing as Muslims to dodge stamp duty, it was revealed yesterday.
A scheme, brought in by Labour in 2005, allows followers of Islam to buy property without paying the tax.
Paying interest is banned under Sharia law, so Muslims are allowed to buy a house and then sell it on to an offshore financial company.
They then lease the house from the company instead of taking out a mortgage, which would include interest payments. Stamp duty, which is applicable to all properties worth £125,000 and over, does not have to be paid on properties which are immediately sold on.
But the loophole, which costs the Treasury £40million a year, is now being used by some who pretend to be Muslim.
Sultan Choudhury, from the UK Islamic Finance Secretariat, said: “It was certainly not envisaged that some tax advisers would manipulate the legislation on behalf of their clients to avoid paying stamp duty at all.”
Can anyone imagine the outrage if this happened in the US? Where all people are created equal....
My question would be..why aren't more Brits rising up and demanding this law be repealed?
Sultan Choudhury, from the UK Islamic Finance Secretariat, said: “It was certainly not envisaged that some tax advisers would manipulate the legislation on behalf of their clients to avoid paying stamp duty at all.”
No it probably wasn't, but when you give privileges to one group so they can circumvent the law, you shouldn't be surprised that others want the same privileges.
This exercise just shows how wrong it is to discriminate in favour Muslims, why should Muslims get tax breaks not available to non-Muslims? In other words, why should non-Muslims have to pretend to be Muslim to get the same tax breaks? This is how sharia finance helps da'awa and the Islamic goal of a global caliphate.
Sharia finance is discriminatory. End sharia finance now!
OT:
People please check out this absurd piece of "Christian/Muslim common ground" on the Oregonian.
It's brief, please take a look. Warning: You may hurl.
http://www.oregonlive.com/living/index.ssf/2011/03/of_gods_and_men_affirms_cathol.html
Sharia law in effect in Britain.
A friend of mine originally from north India and now working in the States told me a story that reflects here. He and his dad went into a public restroom, and he noticed that the Moslems washed their hands in a different way where they cupped both hands and revolved from palm-to-palm instead of just scrubbing their palms and fingers.
*** 33:21 ***
When he asked his father why they did this, the old man replied, "They do it to be differnt. They do it to stand apart from everybody else to show how special it is to be a Moslem."
While I am against Sharia law—or "street law" as it might better apt be called—and its creeping encroachment upon the free west, I must say I approve of the special treatment backfiring against the dhimmi Brits, if only to rub it in these latter dhimmis faces. They're truly daft and knee-deep in dumbassitude to think that people wouldn't pretend to be Muslim to get benefits and special priveleges reserved only for those who claim or pretend to be Muslim.
Unlike something which is immutable, such as the colour of one's skin, Islam is an ideology, and with a little research, anyone could pretend to be Muslim, or say on paper that they're Muslim. And of course in dhimmi Britainland, if the program administrators question whether or not the claimant is a bona fide Muslim, the administrators themselves will be hauled off in chains by the Multi-Culti P.C. Thought Police for "inciting religious hatred" and "causing offence to Islam" by daring to question whether or not someone was really Muslim or just claiming to be so.
This special treatment for Muslims to avoid stamp duty and avoid usury (interest) is in principle, no different than Google corporation paying homosexuals more money because few states have legalized homosexual marriage. Not only does it discriminate against single people and celibates, but it opens up opportunities for fraud, where anyone could claim or pretend to be homosexual in order to get paid more money.
This is what happens when dhimmis and leftists start giving minorities more rights and special priveleges than the majority populace. It goes against individual rights, and the true notion of equality, where no one group is elevated above any other group.
OT.
Don't let Abrul Rauf get away with taqiyya.
He's speaking at Haaarvard. Please write a comment to set the record straight.
http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2011/3/21/rauf-sermon-church-more/
“It was certainly not envisaged that some tax advisers would manipulate the legislation on behalf of their clients to avoid paying stamp duty at all.”
Not envisioned by whome? Who, in the history of taxes, really thought that a tax loophole would not be exploited? Nobody- that's who.
This muslims get to pay less business than other people because they HAVE to have shariah financing is borderline criminal and definatly an intentional imposition of dhimminitude on non muslims. I have never heard of the followers of a religion HAVING to pay less for things everyone else pays for.
And considering that the wests banking system is one of the reasons it has excelled so quickly as a civilization (and brought the rest of the world along with it I might add), should we be adopting the financial system of a failed and impoverished civilization? A civilization whose literacy rate is gargantuine compared to the rest of the world? A civilization that considers corruption more institutionally acceptable than western societies do?
I strongly suspect the growth of the sharia financial system will be strongly proportional to the western money funnelled to it (oil revenue and other exports count).
Plus that leasing nonesense financially the exact same thing as interest. When you get a sharia loan you might pay zero interest but that is only a technicality. You pay a lease on the loan and other fees as well. It's the exact same thing as interest. It's just a system to circumvent pronouncements made during the dark ages.
There are several videos on youtube by Joy Brighton explaining sharia finance that I highly reccomend.
Search - Joy Brighton sharia finance - on youtube.
Why aren't we up in arms? Because we didn't bl**** know. Another sneaky Labour trick to woo muslim votes. My only worry is that only the Express are reporting this. If it is true then it is religious discrimination and hence illegal.
I don't think the UK has an actual constitutional law protecting people from religious discrimination. I think it only has a law against racial discrimination, which is why UK muslims always sue over racial discrimination.
Anyway, this is bizarre. Muslims are already restricted from practising other things their religion allows or commands (i.e. killing apostates, marrying children, taking slaves, forced conversions, collecting jizyah from non-muslims, etc.) because that's just not how we do things here. And taking on mortgages is part of the way things work here too, so sorry if it contravenes their religious rules. If they want to have Islamic laws that either give them a financial advantage over non-muslims or debilitate western governments, they can go to tottering states like Egypt and Libya and fight for an Islamic democracy there that will crumble as it's being built.
The idea behind all these advantages is to make Infidels jealous, so that they convert to Islam. Just like it'd have been had the UK been an Islamic Sultanate.
At what point will Brits begin to start CONVERTING to Islam in order to qualify for such perks?
Muslims don't have to pay tax? THAT'S PROFILING AND RACIST!
"He's speaking at Haaarvard. Please write a comment to set the record straight."
The Crimson? If you dare write an un-PC comment about Islam they'll just delete it.
All of my informed and educated comments were just deleted from the Oregonian article I posted about (see above).
I spent all this time providing info and quotes and the truth about Islam and guess what? Removed. I don't know whether to cry or beat my head against the wall.
What's the use? They just delete you, and they keep the stupid and ignorant comments on. There's only one poster on there with some un-PC comments. I did write the Editor about their Orwellian Censorship.
So basically I just wasted a lot of my time this morning.
Hey, would this work if a non-mahoundian pretended to be a black-cube worshipper at US airports, just so they could pat themselves down, rather than be touched with germ-laden gloves or go through those full-body scanners?
Just imagine... Non-mahoundian females could hide under a black sheet, males could put on flour-sack robes over their clothing as they approached the security checkpoints and, once the self-pat-down got done, the outfits could be taken off, folded and packed away until the next time they were needed... I'd find that humiliating, but much less than the strict security checks which, though put in place because of mahoundians, are never used for checking them.
Hey, would this work if a non-mahoundian pretended to be a black-cube worshipper at US airports, just so they could pat themselves down, rather than be touched with germ-laden gloves or go through those full-body scanners?
Just imagine... Non-mahoundian females could hide under a black sheet, males could put on flour-sack robes over their clothing as they approached the security checkpoints and, once the self-pat-down got done, the outfits could be taken off, folded and packed away until the next time they were needed... I'd find that humiliating, but much less than the strict security checks which, though put in place because of mahoundians, are never used for checking them.
Here's a little something the PC MoonBats at the Oregonian removed:
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini:
"Those who know nothing about Islam pretend that Islam counsels against war. Those people are witless. Islam says: 'Kill all the
unbelievers.' Islam says: 'Kill them, put them to the sword and scatter them.' Islam says: 'Whatever good there is exists thanks to the sword.'
The sword is the key to Paradise, which can be opened only for the
Holy Warriors! Does all this mean that Islam is a
religion that
prevents men from waging war? I spit upon those foolish souls who
make such a claim."
I said "of course Khomeini was despicable but at least he told the truth about militaristic Islam."
All of the above - removed. Poof. Incredible, isn't it?
At what point will Brits begin to start CONVERTING to Islam in order to qualify for such perks?
Good question, Corney. The history of Islamic conquest has been impelled more by financial incentive than the sword. To wit: the trading rules now in force in Myanmar. Your point is when does tip-in happen, when do the Infidels in a country give up and convert in the interest of economic survival?
*** 33:21 ***
But financial dhimmitude involves violence by its very nature, albeit by the indirect threat of violence.
Don't forget what Chairman Mao said, "All justice comes from the barrel of a gun."
And that's the reason Britain still not recover from her crisis, any nations implementing sharia law will collapse economically and culturally sooner or later, it is historically proven!.
Personally, I have come to the conclusion that the Brits have very little ability to envisage anything at all.
They have managed to produce a double standard rule in every corner of Britian. How bigoted is that?
They wildly profile muslims by way of perks and scream that profiling is wrong? Do they think about their actions?
Is it not much the same thing in Obamacare? This is where muslims get special treatment, like not having to pay for it? The WH does not mind profiling when it is perks.
Maybe if enough people abuse this law like this, it will be revoked ? In that case, do go on! A little civil disobedience, but different.
Yes, it's typical of the previous government to bring in this kind of legislation and keep it quiet. I'm sure many people must've known and kept quiet about it from fear of being branded a racist.
Yes, if this kind of special treatment continues, people will nominally convert to Islam, after all, here in the UK religion is meaningless, just as marriage just a piece of paper, etc etc, why not convert whether you believe it or not. It's very alarming given the growth of sharia finance here - money is power, after all.
Dhimmi Brits eh?
As I've said before, at least our head of state doesn't have 'Hussein' as a middle name.
Off Topic Off Topic
"and find strength in our very fragility."
That which is beautiful is always fragile.
? Myanmar is predominantly Bhuddist.
I can't see British MPs rushing to plug this tax loophole. Given their proven venality, they're probably using it themselves.
Does UK have any laws barring tax evasion? That would be the only way to get back from those who posed as Muslims. Although - how does the state prove it was a fake? The person could have been a Muslim on the day he closed. It's hard not to cheer the people who set about avoiding a tax that was being waived for Muslims.
My only answer to Muslims who say interest is against their faith: so either rent or else save your money and pay cash. People have bought homes before without a mortgage. You can, too.
Maybe someone in the UK can explain: how is the stamp duty a form of interest and not a tax? It reminded me of the Stamp Act - a form of taxation. Does sharia prohibit paying of taxes as well?
So people have to be bribed to submit to Islam?
The Scientologists haven't tried that one.
Do they HAVE to convert? Why can't they just SAY they're Muslims? What does the state do to prove otherwise? Will you have to be a practicing Muslim with a statement from your local imam? Will it be under oath?
Tax law needs either voluntary compliance or a means of enforcement. Some people won't comply, so how will the government enforce it? How do they tell someone posing as a Muslim from the real thing?
I think we should all start being "muslim for a day."
I know next time I have to fly I'm going to do so in full niqab and as soon as I get through security I'll throw the slave rag in the dustbin.
Next time I get pulled over for speeding I'll slap a hijab on and start screaming "profiling!"
Maybe today I'll throw on a hijab and go to the local fast food joint (which one shall it be?) and make some complaint. Maybe I will see "allah" on their packaging. Or it's not halal so therefore discriminatory.
First I need to find an accomplice to be there filming it all for posterity.
Courages W.,
Most of my comments have been accepted by the Crimson editorial staff. Not all of them, but most of them.
There are some college papers where it is a waste of time, but I've successfully written hundreds and hundreds of comments to dozens of college newspaper sites without a problem. And some of my comments are about as un-PC as they could be.
Courages W.,
Check out the comment section to the following Haarvard article. In it you'll find comments highly honest (critical) of Islam. Not only is it possible to offer an honest (highly critical) perspective on Islam at OUR college's newspaper sites, but I feel it is important we do. I think many kids are yearning to read something other than the endless cesspool of leftist, Muslim apologist taqiyya.
That said I am still waiting for Harvard to publish two comments I submitted earlier this morning.
Sorry...here is the link:
http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2011/3/21/hearings-king-community-Freud/
Marisol,
The UK is making a big mistake by doing this, not only is the state effectively endorsing Sharia, and the Islamic faith it is encouraging dishonesty on top of it.
The leaseback arrangement is to avoid paying interest. The avoidance of stamp duty (a property ownership transfer tax) is a beneficial side effect.
It's not just individual Muslims, Tesco has been doing the same thing through its subsidiaries in the tax haven of Luxembourg and the Zug canton of Switzerland (Guardian June 14th 2008).
There is a potential sting in the tail. A UK home owner does not have to pay capital gains tax on their principal residence when they sell. The offshore corporation would be liable to corporation tax on the capital gain on disposal of property. At present that would depend on the tax regime in the state of registration of the offshore corporation, however the Treasury is moving, so far unsuccessfully, to make UK corporation tax applicable. Mind you, the way that UK property prices have fallen recently, it's a weak sting.
So what's new? Muslim minority in South Africa has enjoyed similar preferential treatment for years. This makes me want to throw up!
Nowhere in the Muslim world do they pander to anyone's neesd except their own. UK suck! I cannot understand why the ordinary people don't stand up to these brainless and naive liberals, making these laws possible! Guess they are too brainwashed and scared to be labelled to say or do anything.
Donning a flour-sack shirt, a coffee filter hat or hefty bag to get better financial terms sounds all well and good on the surface. But how soon till a mutawa will not let us put away the costumes?
Dhimmi Brits eh?
As I've said before, at least our head of state doesn't have 'Hussein' as a middle name.
I'm well aware of our Post-American President, having read some chapters of Pamella Gellar's fine book. A good read by the way, and it does talk about Sharia as well, as well as a lot of other things worth knowing.
Sultan Choudhury, from the UK Islamic Finance Secretariat, said: “It was certainly not envisaged that some tax advisers would manipulate the legislation on behalf of their clients to avoid paying stamp duty at all.”
.........................
That's like saying no one could have envisioned on-line credit card scams. Absurd. There is a certain streak of unpleasant but entirely foreseeable human nature here.
Most people are too principled to pull such a scam—or even to think of it—but if it's out there, some will.
Do Muslims themselves wind up paying the Stamp Tax in a roundabout way? It doesn't sound like it, since the article notes that costs the Treasury £40million a year.
This also rewards those who immediately sell to "an offshore financial company", which would seem like a *very bad idea* for Britain all by itself.
This also goes to show what smoke and mirrors "Shari'ah finance" is, since the "offshore financial company" just leases the house for a rate and period of time that essentially mimics interest earnings anyway. Of course, if this was all that was involved in Shari'ah finance, I wouldn't much care.
So Sultan Choudhury is entirely fine with this dodge, as long as it is only Muslims who are taking advantage of it.
As for the Infidel buyers pulling this scam, they might wind up with rather more than they bargained for by proclaiming themselves Muslim.
The real estate agent might not care, but if the Ummah gets wind of it, they might well be considered apostates when they fail to show up at the mosque afterwards.
And that might have rather more serious consequences than being involved in a real estate scam...
i remember a while ago, prisoners converting for the better meals (brits love a curry) and time off work on a Friday afternoon. which i found quite comforting knowing that the number of new muslims leaving UK prisons were inflated, but still they would have undergone some brainwashing.
OT.
Courages W.,
Here are some comments I added to Univ. of Oregon's site a week or two ago.
Don't mean to pester you so much as to encourage you, and others, to do more to spread the truth about Islam. (Also I am not assuming you do not do a lot already.)
http://www.dailyemerald.com/opinion/letter-israel-ties-crucial-in-middle-east-unrest-1.2106489
The trouble is that even as the nominal conversion rate rises, Muslim organisations will claim that Muslims are in a majority, and they will then go for the kill.
Courreges W wrote:
OT:
People please check out this absurd piece of "Christian/Muslim common ground" on the Oregonian.
.............................
Thanks for posting this, Courreges. That they are citing the film "Of Gods and Men" as affirming "Catholics and Muslims in search for common ground" could not be more grotesque.
The film follows the by now all-too-common story of a group of Christians bringing aid to Muslims, and in turn having their lives threatened by those Muslims' savage coreligionists.
The great moral issue is whether the monks should leave Algeria, or else stay because their help is needed by the village Muslims. After all, it's not as though their fellow Muslims are offering them any help.
There doesn't appear to be any "moral issue" for the Muslims who are threatening them—but then, why would there be?
SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER
The monks are finally kidnapped and murdered. What else could foster "interfaith understanding" better than that? sarc/off
Of course, small-scale Shariah finance is only the tip of the iceberg,
as 'Shariah Finance Watch' site indicates:
http://www.shariahfinancewatch.org/blog/
The chance to lower one's taxes was a large reason so many kaffirs converted to Islam over the centuries. Now that Britain is imposing an effective jizya on infidel home buyers, history is repeating itself, with perhaps the same level of insincerity.
Maybe it's time for a British version of the Tea Party, though I think the EDL is it.
[QUOTE]"Here are some comments I added to Univ. of Oregon's site a week or two ago.
Don't mean to pester you so much as to encourage you, and others, to do more to spread the truth about Islam. (Also I am not assuming you do not do a lot already.)
http://www.dailyemerald.com/opinion/letter-israel-ties-crucial-in-middle-east-unrest-1.2106489"[/QUOTE]
I'm with you, Arafat. Its an uphill battle but I don't think we can do enough to set-the-record-straight at any/all "news" publication sites.
We all need to be writing up a storm:
¤ in the comments-sections
¤ in emails to the editors and authors
¤ in letters to the pundits and reporters of the major networks, calling them out on faulty reporting AND commending them on good coverage (such as recent appearences of Robert et al)
¤ in letters to members of congress and other political and public officials
¤ etc
Will much of our effort fall on deaf ears? Of course, but little by little we will make progress. Throwing-in-the-towel is not an option.
The worst part of Sharia Mohamedian law is that it introduces unfair practices in small businesses where Mohamedians pay a little or no tax and the normal folks need to borrow to run their small business at a greater cost. I can imagine the Mohamedian driving normal small businesses out. Todays small Mohamedians will be tomorrow's WAL MART owners. Only the idiotic Governments support this kind of scheme will in the long run screw-up everything that we built. Well, Obama and his cronies are very active on that front.
Lets vote the Dems out asap....
Those who do claim to be a fake muslim apparently do not realize the ramifications of doing so. Followers of sharia do not take to kindly to those who give up the cult....
Wow. I had not thought of it that way yet. So insidious.
Interest charged on a loan is not an arbitrary, but a natural thing; it is not the result of a particular social organization or a particualar economic system, but of laws of the universe which underlie any society. Interest springs from the power of increase which the reproductive powers of nature give to the productive activity of human beings. It is, therefore, just. It is just regardless of whatever a religion might have to say about it. Islam is against everything naturally human (except the inclination of some towards depraved egoism) and thus it's not surprising Islam says economic interest is disallowed. But in reality, in the world of normal humans, whoever receives a loan and uses the money, receives the increase it is capable of giving (is receiving the interest from it). If the lender had kept the capital for himself then he would have been able to receive the results of the natural power it has. In Islam people don't do productive things as a high priority. The high priority is always jihad of some sort. Transferring money back and forth is for purposes of giving allegiance and loyalty (or submission) to a dominating warlord. Money is booty being distributed.
Tom,
Thanks for the info.
It's so grotesque. I've just been disgusted all day. By both that idiotic article and the PC morons at the Oregonian in general.
I am becoming embarrassed to be a UK citizen!
Converting for the financial benefits has long term consequences, just look at India. Many Hindus converted to islam to escape the harsh taxes and other rules set for Hindus by their muslim rulers. For centuries the muslim rulers made Hindus virtual slaves and as source for their opulent lifestyles as well as their harem of hundred of Girls and women.
Those Hindus who converted to islam because of financial reason instead of any religious reasons found out that they and their children have to maintain the Islamic lifestyles lest they be called apostates and subject to dire punishments.
Being pretend muslim won’t work because of the sharia laws as well as the other muslims. Even if you convert without any sense of adhering to anything Islamic because of the sharia laws the second and third generation the children will be die hard muslims striving for jihad.
Just look at Bangladesh and Porkiestani muslims, most had Hindu ancestors who properly converted out of financial reasons.
dear correges
i can certainly empathize with your frustration to see all the efforts you have put to bring forth a lucid and informative comment go up in cybersmoke just like that! because of a pc imbecile...
nonetheless. do not retreat. take a well deserved break, and as arafat, here, and churchill, then, admonished us to never never never give up.
*i* enjoy reading your comments as i am sure most jw posters do.
cheers!
:)
Good point, desidude.
There is a corollary to it, of course.
Anyone who today is a non-Muslim and can count among their ancestors Hindus (in India), or Jews from the 'Arab' world, or Christians from communities that suffered Muslim domination (e.g. the modern Copts and Assyrians, Armenians, Greeks, Serbs, Spaniards) is descended from generation upon generation of heroes, that remnant who despite everything refused to sell their souls.
I think of Mr Spencer's friend Raymond Ibrahim, for example. He is a Copt. HIs parents are Copts, who managed to escape Muslim Egypt and flee to America where they could live in freedom. But *they* were only Copts because **their** ancestors, all the way back through 1300 years of grinding oppression and misery inflicted on them by Islam, had refused to become Muslims.
The only reason Greeks and Spaniards and Portuguese and Maltese, and non-Muslim Indians, are free today is because *some* of their ancestors - enduring *centuries* of Muslim oppression and incredible cruelty and wickedness - refused to give in and embrace the Religion of the Lie.
Hey, how about us, jihad watch posters, starting a new religion?
And we say that paying any kind of taxes to any kind of government is against our religion.
If this claim is not accepted, we sue for religious and racial discrimination (remember, muslims are also from all races and yet they sue for racial discrimination)
Either way we win.
Tom
This is what I'm not clear on in the UK. In regards sharia finance, tax laws are changed (sharia imposed) I thought to avoid double stamp duty and any other knock on tax effects to have a "level playing field".
You buy a house and then transfer it to the offshore company or the offshore company connected to the bank buys it but has to transfer it to you later. Either way results in 2 transfer duties being payable when it is only 1 for conventional finance. Hence the transfer to the offshore company is not taxed.
They're supposed to look at the substance not the form of the transaction. It is possible that others are taking advantage of this where, for whatever reason, maybe asset or tax structuring, they transfer the house ownership offshore without stamp duty when the substance of the transaction was actually a transfer and not a mortgage?
Anyway, not one to find excuses for sharia!!, I would just like to know whether in the UK:
1. is there a requirement to get this tax advantage that you be Muslim - seems so? That surprises me because the islamic banks still want to sell their products to infidels and attain as much market share as possible (money and successful da'wah is power and all that) - the UK Gov't doing this doesn't surprise me; and
2. Is the initial transfer not taxed? ie, is it right that Muslims are getting an economic advantage and not just a level playing field as claimed?
I don't know the answers to these 2 questions but I would like to know before I go utterly ballistic!!
The global jihad provokes and villainizes (for false guilt) the West, raises oil prices to destroy economies, and then buys up the spoils. It is, after all, an Islamic principle for Muslims to keep the spoils of jihad as Mohammad did. Every house and business bought with jihad money should be confiscated by the government and sold back to those who have lost their homes.