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Tarek Fatah, about whom I have written here, writes in the Globe and Mail about the encroachment of Sharia in Canada:
It seems only yesterday that Premier Dalton McGuinty declared: "There will be no sharia law in Ontario." Many of us, who witnessed the medieval nature of manmade sharia laws in our countries of birth, heaved a sigh of relief back in September of 2005. We thought this was the end of the attempt by Islamists to sneak sharia into a Western jurisdiction. We were wrong.The campaign to introduce sharia is back. Last time, the campaign took a populist approach, invoking multiculturalism. This time, the pro-sharia lobby is dangling the carrot of new niche markets and has the backing of Canada's major banks. Such icons of the corporate world as Citibank NA, HSBC Holdings PLC, and Barclays PLC have endorsed sharia banking and have started offering Islamic financing products to a vulnerable Muslim population.
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.
The origin of Islamic banking has its roots in the 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.
Indeed.
Posted by Robert at January 25, 2008 6:20 AM
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"Stephanie Rubec, spokesperson for the CMHC, said the Crown corporation had launched a tender worth $100,000 to study Islamic mortgages for Muslim Canadians."
....hmmm....Muslim Canadians (if you are to call them Canadians) and other imported nationals as well as all Canadians are subject to existing recognized banking organizations and regulations....no outside banking organizations and no outside banking regulations allowed....ALL Canadians must adhere to the same rules and regulations, no exceptions....ALL Canadians must follow proper judicial procedure for any and all complaints of banking injustices (usuery, improper forclosure, improper collection techniques, etc) must go through the proper Canadian courts....no foreign law (i.e. Sharia law) or foreign rules apply (after all, you are in Canada and Canada is a sovereign nation with rights and protections due its citizens by the Canadian government)....Foreigners who cannot adapt to Canadas rules and regulations should not come to Canada.....
....ok...send me the check...
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at January 25, 2008 7:10 AM
Thanks, Robert.
This is seemingly mundane but it's the camel's nose a little further into the tent, if you'll forgive the unfornutate metaphor.
You and Hugh are the most intellectually honest, thorough, incisive, lucid word warriors on the web.
Respects ...
Posted by: undaunted at January 25, 2008 9:22 AM
Every English-language translation of the Koran has translated the Arabic word riba as usury, not interest.
This is presumably a cognate of the Hebrew word ribis, which is indeed traditionally translated as interest, so it seems plausible to me.
Posted by: Fuzzy Face at January 25, 2008 9:29 AM
This demand by Muslims flies in the face of the Islamophobia and Racism rants by CAIR-Canada and Sheema Khan who mislead Justice O'Connor during the Arar inquiry by what she didn't reveal rather than the 3% of a Allegation that was factual Statement but not realyy evidence .
First off , Canada only has about 400'000 Citizens that are Muslims according to the Census , of those we know 50% are females and don't work under Sharia law as we saw with Maher Arar's wife chained to the Kitchen and bed for Allah's cause to make more Muslims , then we have the career Students at UofT or York who are just Propaganda wings of Hamas and Hezballah or Jihad in General .
So while CAIR Canada asserts massive Unemployment and poverty among the Oppressed Muslim in a Nation that is mainly Christian Crusader and Occupiers that stole the land from the Indians that were here befor Adam and Eve arrived , the Banks and now trying to cater to the Sharia Law minority of Citizens that are supposed to be unemployed and under siege in canada .
Got it .
at January 25, 2008 10:22 AM
Even if one was to call them muslim Canadians only half of the statement is true. There is a pile of fatwa that a muslim only has allegiance to the umma, muhamad and allah. It takes a princess that can lick a frog while tirelessly repeating that this IS the charming prince, to grant a muslim any citizenship. The very concept of citizenship is actually unislamic or even anti-islamic. Surely a harlot or a bank will do a lot to get someones money, but the Government of Canada has the guts to talk about "adaptability" of potential immigrants to the life in Canada, while at the same time importing in huge numbers people to which Canada has to adapt forever, and which are changing the country so much, that the government is effectively cheating the multitude of immigrants who hoped that their new home IS NOT a sharia-ridden hellhole. If all the countries are the same dhimmitude-enforced muslim paradise, why would anyone want to immigrate? And why to Canada? For the great climate?
Posted by: Excommie at January 25, 2008 10:42 AM
Another interesting source on this topic is Muhammad Yunnis.
His microloan bank and those modeled on it charge interest. He distinguishes between interest and usuary, and points out that it is the latter that is forbidden not the former.
He should be proof enough for the Canadians that the Islamic banking schemes above are extremist, Ikhwan invention and not to be dealt with as anything but.
For what it is worth, all you talking about Muslim immigration, last I heard Canada had indefinitely suspended accepting immigration applications from all Egyptians (including Christians of cource; no Western government makes an immigration distinction on religion that I'm aware). I don't know about how they are treating applications from other Muslim-majority countries.
I don't know the sources. I heard it from someone trying to help a relative immigrate into Canada. Overall that person was glad for it, apart from the difficulty it will cause the relative.
at January 25, 2008 11:10 AM
Islamic banking is a well-documented farce. One of the most lucid studies of this phenomenon is "Islam and Mammon" by Timur Kuran. The book demonstrates that all of the Islamic alternatives to charging interest are either subterfuges or they are cynically exploited by savvy Muslim businessmen to rip off banks.
The dilemma for banks, however, is that there is so much capital in the hands oil-rich governments and individuals in the Middle East that they must offer Islamic banking to compete for the funds. "He who pays the piper calls the tune."
Shame on Muslims who extol Islamic banking while at the same time carefully guard profits from oil and services (including financial services) from being subject to zakat charity.
at January 25, 2008 11:16 AM
"Islamic banking" is this sort of like "Islamic peace making"?
I've heard that an old custom would be to "sell" a slave to the lender and have the borrower pay the lender (in monthly payments) more than what the slave is worth. Thus avoiding that western interest thin.
Posted by: tanstaafl at January 25, 2008 11:28 AM
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." -from the article
Deception indeed, as per their warlord’s (pbuh) codex, the Koran. Isn’t this but another jyzia to line the pockets of those religious institutions and clerics of Islam?
BTW, “interest” is merely an arithmetic way to calculate all the “fees” charged on Sharia compliant loans, which any financial calculator can calculate: Plug in the fees on the total principle and figure them over time, and voila!... you have “interest”. But the gullible West will kowtow to these primitives to line their own bottom lines with fees, err I mean interest, in any way they can get away with, and sell sound banking down river. Who or what governmental agency will oversee the financial compliance of these Sharia loans? Or do they fall under Islamic jurisdiction on religious grounds, so remain out of reach of legal compliance? Yep, it’s the camel’s nose nosing in again, but this time to spit on us.
Ban Sharia in all its forms, it has no business in the West.
at January 25, 2008 12:26 PM
Chris wrote:
"He who pays the piper calls the tune."
I knew the USA was in trouble, when Citibank was bailed out of the sub-prime mortgage crisis by funds from Abu Dhabi.
at January 25, 2008 2:56 PM
Okay, I'm a dummy.
Please explain the difference between sharia compliant and our system.
Is sharia compliant no interest?
How will a person prove he/she is a Muslim?
If they pay no interest, banks are in the business of making money, not charity. SOMEBODY has to pay.
Believe me, of banks start letting Muslims have money without interest, I will be one of the first ones to file a lawsuit.
at January 25, 2008 6:42 PM
By the way, I read in a Florida paper last year that a major wall street firm was already doing sharia compliant deals. Can't remember who.
Posted by: Aunt Bea at January 25, 2008 6:47 PM
Aunt Bea,
I would be applying for an interest free loan!
at January 26, 2008 2:00 AM
"Allah does not love any ungrateful sinner." from Al Baqarah (2:276)
Quoted in the article by Robert above
-------------------------------------------
This is Islam in a nutshell. Now compare that verse from the Quran to these words by Saint Paul in the Christian scripture:
“Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:7–8)
Clearly the God of Saint Paul is Love while the god of Muhammed simply doesn't measure up.
Posted by: Provoslavni at January 26, 2008 6:54 PM
Collusion between international firms and religion
Dhimmi western firms conciliate Islamic overlords by offering Sharia finance. Religious financial products appear in local markets. Interest is built upfront but may be determined in a vacuum. Services of clerics are added to costs. Percentage of total market share increases. Slogans of interest free honest lending cloak higher priced products.
In contrast, secular interest rate financial products are priced in the marketplace. Current conditions are considered, such as supply, demand, inflation, risk, and opportunity cost.
at January 27, 2008 3:00 PM
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