[olezip]

"Sharia," which comes from the Koran and means "the right path," prohibits the payment of interest -- the primary way lenders earn. Many of Seattle's 30,000 practicing Muslims, therefore, are hard-pressed to find Sharia-compliant financing options when buying homes, making large purchases or starting a business.

I wonder whether the "decision makers" have taken a look at how that is handled in Muslim countries, like Saudi Arabia?

People have to buy with cash, some cash is provided by the kingdom. The no interest part of Sharia law results in a lot of money being banked elsewhere where interest is paid in other countries.

It is plain folly and foolishness for banks to begin to loan money at no interest to any group of people. The demand would go to infinity!

The logic behind no interest is that you are doing nothing to earn your money that is sitting in a savings account, whereas if you buy property you can charge rent because you are denied the use of your own property. Thus, many renters are out there!

The concept of no interest is derived from the Old Testament where Jews could not charge fellow Jews interest for loans according to the laws of Moses. The Muslim religion came later, and copied that law for themselves.

[Osage Orange]

Good post.