| FrontPageMag.com | By Robert Spencer | By Hugh Fitzgerald | Books | Jihad Watch | Robert Spencer | Islam 101 | Qur'an Blog |  |
|
|
||||||||||
|
|
Three little words -- coined by Yusuf al-Qaradawi himself -- that summarize the short- and long-term hazards posed by the advance of Sharia-compliant finance. "Jihad with money," by Melanie Phillips for the Spectator:
Alex Alexiev on National Review Online sets out the reasons why sharia finance — described by Sheikh Yusuf al Qaradawi as ‘jihad with money’ — is a serious threat to the west:
The legitimization of sharia in the West and its gradual imposition in Muslim communities and beyond is a key objective of sharia finance, and there is no doubt it has already made huge strides. …
Notably, for those Muslims who cannot engage in physical jihad using force of arms, sharia requires that they support jihad financially. This is what sharia finance is all about.
Far from being a legitimate investment vehicle, sharia finance facilitates religiously sanctioned support for terrorist organizations — as well as providing radical Islamists with highly paid sinecures as sharia-finance board advisors in the sanctum sanctorum of capitalism, all the while that they are pursuing a subversive campaign to destroy it.
Predictably, none of this is even remotely disclosed by any of the dozens of Western banks promoting sharia finance today, which obviously exposes them to huge non-disclosure risks ranging from fraudulent misrepresentation, to material support for terrorism.
And not disclosed either by Gordon Brown, whose stated ambition is to make London the global centre of Islamic banking (reported to be yet another brilliant wheeze from Ed Balls). Of all the manifestations of the Islamisation of the west (see this piece by Dan Rabkin on the acceleration of Londonistan) sharia finance is perhaps the most deadly, because it effectively sells the west to Islam, and the most difficult to stop — because for the financiers and politicians in the west who are thus selling it, all they can see are the trillions of dollar and pound signs being dangled enticingly before their eyes.
Posted by Marisol at April 8, 2008 12:07 AM
Print this entry
| Email this entry
| Digg this
| del.icio.us
Anyone with a basic understanding of inflation knows that paper money stored in mattresses lose value over time. Thus simply to preserve the value of of his wealth a Muslim has to collect interest. Their moon god simply didn't have the brains to forsee that modern governments were going to use fiat money and the multiplier effect to deflate all kinds of paper holdings. Now then to keep up the fiction that they are not collecting interest, they look for enterprises to invest. But here a version of Gresham's Law kicks in, its usually those with dicey prospects who sucker in a coinvestor. The businessman with a sound project can usually fund his expansion by borrowing from a regular bank. So the sharia guys end up (if they are true to their principles) funding the oilier prospects. The whole thing is an elaborate con. Doubtless this is an additional feature that attracts the London and New York based "rocket scientists" who gave us Northern Rock and derivatives that no one knows how to unwind without breaking the bank. It ties in with their venality and great talent for obfuscation.
Posted by: ivan![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/nav-commenters.gif)
at April 8, 2008 3:19 AM
Zakat has 8 purposes according to Reliance of the Traveller and Fiqh az Zakat.
Apart from the well known support to the needy (which is covered by the modern state anyway, making that zakat obsolete)
there is
- money for those who collect zakat
- money to motivate outsiders to be in favor of Islam (in english: bribe)
- money for the equipment and expenditures of people fighting Jihad.
---
In addition, you might consider the 5 pillars of Islam.
Apart from the rituals (prayer, ramadan etc) there is only Zakat.
In effecdt, Islam boils down to zakat, and zakat boils down to financing of Jihad.
It's all official.
Posted by: FreeSpeech at April 8, 2008 4:12 AM
FreeSpeech, you gave away the answer to my homework assignment I assigned on Melanie Phillips blog.
Go to the head of the class. ;)
Posted by: Shy Guy at April 8, 2008 5:34 AM
Gordon Brown has a track record in this sort of thing take a look at this speech http://www.husainiyouth.org/content.php?article.26 complete with quotes from the prophet in March 2005.
Posted by: Fred at April 8, 2008 7:02 AM
Money is the root (of all evil).
Freedom is not for sale.
Posted by: tanstaafl at April 8, 2008 8:28 AM
The love of money is the root of all evil...
Posted by: undaunted at April 8, 2008 9:04 AM
"So you think that money is the root of all evil. Have you ever asked what is the root of all money?" --Ayn Rand
Posted by: darcy at April 8, 2008 9:11 AM
CBS 60 minutes ran a story on 4/6 about foreign investors bailing out US banks. Although Abu Dhabi was mentioned in passing, the focus was on a US-educated investor in China (PRC). The term "sharia finance" was never mentioned but of course it would not apply to China.
at April 8, 2008 9:19 AM
Sorry, tanstaafl, wasn't correcting you there. Looks like I got in the waiting line right after you.
I agree... freedom's not for sale.
Posted by: undaunted at April 8, 2008 9:52 AM
CANCER. MALIGNANT. TERMINAL. And finance is the lymph system of the West to carry that cancer deep to where Islam can buy the movers and shakers, the moneymen who would sell their mothers.
Perhaps one day what we have nurtured within us will burst from our bodies, fully developed, like alien, leaving behind the carcass of our civilization.
Posted by: poetcomic1 at April 8, 2008 3:30 PM
Unfortunate but business people are rarely effective defenders of capitalism. Even more rarely do they understand the relation between capitalism and freedom.
While I have nothing but contempt for communism and its alleged ideals, I have to say the Lenin (I think it was Lenin) was absolutely right when he said that when the time came for the revolutionaries to hang the businessmen, the businessmen themselves will rush to sell rope to the hangman.
Pretty much exactly what's happening here.
Posted by: joeblough at April 8, 2008 5:09 PM
As it happens, communism started to collapse of it's own rotten weight before Lenin's projection came fully true.
We may or may not be so lucky with mohammedanism and its doctrine of jihad.
Posted by: joeblough at April 8, 2008 5:12 PM
Free speech: I read Umdat al-Salik as prohibiting Zakat for the non-Muslim. See h8.14. Are you talking about another passage?
Posted by: former liberal WF at April 8, 2008 9:58 PM
(From Reliance of the Traveller on Zakat)
Those Fighting for Allah h8.17
@H8.17: Those Fighting for Allah
The seventh category is those fighting for Allah,
meaning people engaged in Islamic military operations for whom no slary has been allotted in the army roster (O: but who are volunteers for jihad without renumeration). They are given enough to suffice them for the operation, even if aflluent; of weapons, mounts, clothing, and expenses (O: for the duration of the journey, round trip, and the time they spend there, even if prolonged. Though nothing has been mentioned here of the expense involved in supporting such people's families during this period,it seems
clear that they should also be given it).
Unlawful to give zakat to non-Muslims, etc, h8.24
@H1.1
Zakat is obligatory: (a) for every free Muslim
Non-Muslims are not obliged to pay zakat, nor apostates from Islam (murtadd, def:o8)unless they return to Islam, in which case they must pay for the time they spent out of Islam,though if they die as non-Muslims their property is not subject to zakat(N:because their property is considered to belong to the Muslim common fund (bayt al-mal) from the moment such people leave Islam).
Note:
1. some zakat is always distributed to mujahideen
2. leaving Islam means losing all that you own
at April 9, 2008 11:32 AM
By the way in case you missed it, HSBC is the leading financial institution promoting investment into the gulf and other arab countries and is promoting Islamic financing in the west. If you have an account there, I would think twice.
at April 10, 2008 5:56 PM
Comments are turned off and archived for this entry.
(Note: Comments on articles are unmoderated, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Dhimmi Watch or Robert Spencer. Comments that are off-topic, offensive, slanderous, or otherwise annoying may be summarily deleted. However, the fact that particular comments remain on the site IN NO WAY constitutes an endorsement by Robert Spencer of the views expressed therein.)