Free Republic

Turkey’s Ziraat Bankasi General Manager Hüseyin Aydin has told reporters that the state-run lender plans to launch its off-shoot, Ziraat Katilim Bankasi, an Islamic participation bank, on May, 29, which is the anniversary of the Ottoman conquest of Istanbul. “The 300 million dollar-equivalent Turkish Lira capital has been provided by the Treasury,” Aydin said March 5 while speaking to reporters in Istanbul on the sidelines of a joint meeting of the Union of Arab Banks (UAB) and the Banks Association of Turkey (TBB), which he personally chairs. The participation bank will open 20 branches this year and will operate as...

A spokeswoman for the Treasury Department insists “No American taxpayer funds will be used to support [a] Kabul Bank.” Let’s hope this is one promise from these people we can count on because there will be serious consequences if Obama reverses himself. The banks in Afghanistan must be controlled by the United States or our allies so they do not fall under the influence of the Taliban who will use sharia law to run them instead of accepted banking principles. Under sharia the terrorist Taliban will pull out 2.5% of every dollar handled by Afghanistan’s banks. What sharia banks would...

Note: The following text is a quote: March 29, 2009 Beware of what you wish for: you might get it From this afternoon's Hate Mail Bag: Robert Spencer: Did you ever stop to think that if we had Sharia Law in this nation stupid and evil (bush/cheney for the uninitiated) might not have been able to create the economic horror that resulted from their inept incompetence? You may have a point, sir! Of course they wouldn't have. They would never have been in power. They would have been dhimmis, bowing and scraping before their Muslim superiors. Posted by Robert at...

All over Europe Islamic banks are establishing branches, Western banks are offering Sharia-compliant financial services, and European governments are trying to outcompete each other in welcoming them. Proponents of banking along the lines of Sharia (Islamic law) claim that the Islamic banking system is “more ethical” than the West’s capitalist system. This is not true. Unfortunately, however, in our age of crashing financial markets, many Westerners – not just the traditional anti-capitalist European left – seem very eager to buy that argument. Early this month, even the Vatican newspaper Osservatore Romano voiced its approval of Sharia banking. “The ethical principles...