Free Republic

The issue of zakat is one that is central to the concerns about Shariah-compliant finance, but concerns about zakat should extend far beyond Shariah finance alone. Zakat is a real threat because it is doctrinal in Islam and no figure, organization or body in Islam has the authority to change it. But why is it a threat? Because it is a main funding source for jihad. We have detailed this extensively on SFW for years, but periodically we feel it necessary to reinforce and update our educational outreach on zakat. What prompted this latest report was an article we came...

RGE Monitor has come up with an excellent analysis of the Shariah-Compliant Finance industry and has pretty much debunked all the misleading and flowery reports about Shariah-Compliance providing a safe haven against the current economic decline and financial downturn. It also reinforces another important aspect of Shariah-Compliant Finance that we’ve been writing about on SFW for months: Iran’s central and leading role in the spread of Shariah-Compliant Finance, as depicted in this pie chart: Iran has more Shariah-Compliant assets than Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and Kuwait combined. Unfortunately, while the RGE article points out the current and recent troubles with Shariah-Compliant...

DUBAI -- Persian Gulf investors plan to open a new $10 billion Islamic bank by year end in Bahrain, the chairman of the Union of Arab Banks said Sunday. The institution would be called "Istikhlaf Bank" and its shares would be listed on the Bahrain Stock Exchange and Nasdaq Dubai via an initial public offering, Adnan Ahmed Yousif said. "We call it the godfather of Islamic banks," Mr. Yousif told reporters on the sidelines of a banking conference. The proposed bank "will be established with a $10 billion capital and right now we are at a stage of forming the...

There are three parallel forces that may serve to take the control of the economy out of the hands of the American People: * The movement of the United States from a capitalist to a fascist economic system, Where socialism sought totalitarian control of a society’s economic processes through direct state operation of the means of production, fascism sought that control indirectly, through domination of nominally private owners. Where socialism nationalized property explicitly, fascism did so implicitly, by requiring owners to use their property in the “national interest”—that is, as the autocratic authority conceived it. * President Obama's desire to...

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...

Worried that Britain is going bankrupt? Cheer up – we’re about to be bought up by the Islamic world. A report by International Financial Services London reveals that Britain’s Islamic banking sector is now bigger than that of Pakistan. The study says that the UK has by far the largest number of banks for Muslims of any western country. The UK now has five fully ‘sharia-compliant’ banks – providing products which prohibit interest payments and investment in alcohol or gambling firms in accordance with Islamic sharia law – while another 17 leading institutions including Barclays, RBS and Lloyds Banking Group...

Islamofascism: In bailing out AIG, Uncle Sam may have taken on more than he bargained for, including a constitutional fight over the promotion of religion.Earlier this month, as the New York-based insurance giant benefited from $153 billion in tax-supported bailout funds, it launched a business unit offering Shariah-compliant insurance products in the U.S. For the first time, homeowners' insurance policies "compliant with key Islamic finance tenets" will be marketed to Muslims in America. "We are pleased to offer socially responsible solutions to this segment of the domestic market," the near-bankrupt AIG announced in a press release, explaining that the Islamic...

A record one in 10 American homeowners with a mortgage were either at least a month behind on their payments or in foreclosure at the end of September as the source of housing market pressure shifted to the crumbling U.S. economy. The Mortgage Bankers Association said Friday the percentage of loans at least a month overdue or in foreclosure was up from 9.2 percent in the April-June quarter, and up from 7.3 percent a year earlier. Distress in the home loan market started about two years ago as increasing numbers of adjustable-rate loans reset to higher interest rates. But the...

With each passing day, the forecast for Wall Street bonuses only grows worse. In less than two weeks, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs will tell their bankers and traders how much they will receive in annual bonuses for one of the worst years ever for the securities industry. Bonuses represent the bulk of a Wall Streeter's compensation and in a good year could reach anywhere from $500,000 to several million dollars for a top producer.

Risk Specialists Companies, Inc. (RSC), a subsidiary of AIG Commercial Insurance, is introducing what it says is a first in the U.S.: a homeowners insurance product that is compliant with key Islamic finance tenets and based on the concept of mutual insurance. Advertisement The Takaful Homeowners Policy is underwritten through RSC member company A.I. Risk Specialists Insurance, Inc., in conjunction with Lexington Insurance Co. and in association with AIG Takaful Enaya. Headquartered in Bahrain, AIG Takaful Enaya was established in 2006 to provide Takaful products, including accident and health, auto, energy, property and casualty products. The Takaful home policy is...

Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Robert Spencer [whose “Jihad Watch” is featured weekly in HUMAN EVENTS] has been a one-man warning system against radical Islam. A scholar who has spent most of his professional life studying Islam, his string of books dissects the world's largest religion as a bastion of intolerance and hate, justified by the teachings of spiritual leader Mohammed and various holy men. As one of his previous titles, the "Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam," suggests, Spencer does not buckle in fear of the type of backlash that can materialize as a death-threatening fatwa against a critical...

Democrats in the U.S. House have been conducting hearings on proposals to confiscate workers’ personal retirement accounts — including 401(k)s and IRAs — and convert them to accounts managed by the Social Security Administration. Triggered by the financial crisis the past two months, the hearings reportedly were meant to stem losses incurred by many workers and retirees whose 401(k) and IRA balances have been shrinking rapidly. The testimony of Teresa Ghilarducci, professor of economic policy analysis at the New School for Social Research in New York, in hearings Oct. 7 drew the most attention and criticism. Testifying for the House...

The United States government should not worry about deficits over the next two years while spending money to jumpstart the ailing economy, President-elect Barack Obama said in a television interview that aired on Sunday. Obama, a Democrat who takes over from President George W. Bush, a Republican, on January 20, said consensus had emerged between economists in both major U.S. political parties that expensive measures were necessary to avoid a deep recession. "The consensus is this, that we have to do whatever it takes to get this economy moving again, that we have to -- we're going to have to...

The potential collapse of the auto industry would be "a disaster" amid today's economic crisis, President-elect Barack Obama told CBS' "60 Minutes" in a wide-ranging interview airing Sunday. "It's my belief that we need to provide assistance to the auto industry," Obama tells veteran correspondent Steve Kroft, according to excerpts released by CBS. "But I think that it can't be a blank check." The Senate is expected to vote this week on emergency loans to the auto industry, though the measure faces strong opposition from many Republicans. The bill would authorize loans to the auto industry from the Treasury Department's...

Six members of President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team for government operations worked in the Clinton administration, and one of them runs a consulting firm that has listed Freddie Mac as a client. The group will review the nuts and bolts of federal agencies, from managing government property to hiring government workers to handling national archives and official records. Linh Nguyen, who’ll oversee the office of personnel management review for the Government Operations Transition Team, founded Morningside Consulting in 2006. His company has since done work for Freddie Mac, as well as Wells Fargo, American Express, Chase Bank, Citibank and a...

Deerfield Beach Florida – In 2004 and 2005 I suggested to people to sell their homes immediately and to rent. I told them the prices of homes were not true, they were not real. I implored them and even wrote a few articles about the coming land bust. Bob’s note:Links to the referenced stories Omens of the coming Real Estate Bubble? December 2005 - Predictions of real estate bursting after the new bankruptcy laws came true. Sell your home now, or risk the coming real estate crash May 2005 - Get out, get out now. Talk of great depression like...

Russia and the EU agreed today to pile pressure on President Bush to accept far-reaching changes to the global financial system at the G-20 summit in Washington. Dmitri Medvedev, the Russian President, said that Russia's ideas were almost identical to those put forward by Nicolas Sarkozy, the French President, on behalf of the EU. Both men have talked of the need for fundamental changes to post-war institutions such as the International Monetary Fund to take better account of the developing economic powers of the world, while President Bush has appeared reluctant to make major alterations. In a sign that they...

Democrats may have been the big victors on Election Day. But the Republicans still in charge in the White House and representing a possibly immovable minority in the Senate may keep the U.S. auto industry from getting the help it needs before Barack Obama is inaugurated as President in January. To convince wary Republicans to go along with a rescue package, a House bill being crafted would give the government stock warrants, an equity stake in the automakers. It also has a provision that would put taxpayers at or near the head of the line for debt repayment when the...

This might be a good time for investors to pick up a copy of the Koran. Stocks and other investments that adhere to sharia, or Islamic law -- though hardly unscathed -- have fared better than the broader market. That's thanks largely to rules that forbid investing in collateralized debt obligations and other toxic assets that have caused the carnage in conventional financial circles. A big part of the appeal of Islamic finance is its simplicity. Speculation is taboo under sharia, and there's a ban on assessing interest because the Prophet Mohammed said debts must be repaid in the amount...

The public already has cast a landslide vote on the nation's automotive industry. They hate it. And why shouldn't they? The Big Three automakers have generated a level of consumer satisfaction not seen in America since the English started taxing tea in Boston. The Republican Party also has been peddling a highly disagreeable product. And if they have a desire to regain relevancy, it is incumbent on them to use whatever meager power they still possess to stop the Democrats from passing a bailout of the Big Three. We should be calling this a bailout of incompetence, corporate cronyism and...