Posted on 01/23/2006 11:41:28 AM PST by JZelle
A financial firm plans to open an office in Fairfax County in early March to sell mutual funds to the Washington area's Muslims, joining banks and investment houses that find the growing U.S. Islamic population can no longer be ignored. Saturna Capital Corp. plans to sell its Amana mutual funds to the Washington area's approximately 200,000 Muslims who want to avoid violating Islamic law with their investments.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Muslim banking is interesting. They believe charging interest is wrong. Instead, they share the risk of the entrepreneur by providing a loan and instead of interest, they take profit sharing in the business they help fund.
Unresolved under Internal Revenue Service rules is whether Muslim taxpayers can claim an interest deduction on their homes or businesses when they are not paying interest.
Huh? Just how do get one but not the other?
• In Ann Arbor, Mich., a bank that has offered special services for Muslims for two years recently formed a subsidiary specifically for them.
And just how does a bank get to do this? Does an infidel have the same access? Can banks now have "special services" only for Christians?
Do Christians have special banking needs?
And just how does a bank get to do this?
Umm, because this is America and people can still open a business that caters to the specific needs of its customers. This is still America, land of the free, despite many FReepers "No Muslims Allowed" philosophy.
Funny I thought Muslims did not allow interest.
I've heard about all the hoops they jump through to pretend that the financial arrangement they use to get money from a bank to buy a house isn't a mortgage with interest. I suppose that if it is complicated enough, Allah's accountants won't be able to figure it out and it isn't a sin. < /sarcasm>
The Feds might have something to say about that:
§ 338.3 Nondiscriminatory advertising.
(a) Any bank which directly or through third parties engages in any form of advertising of any loan for the purpose of purchasing, constructing, improving, repairing, or maintaining a dwelling or any loan secured by a dwelling shall prominently indicate in such advertisement, in a manner appropriate to the advertising medium and format utilized, that the bank makes such loans without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, handicap, or familial status.
And ETC. for all whole host of other nondiscrimination laws...
They often get around it through wordplay; they'll pay interest but call it a "fee" or "rent", etc. That's how it works for some banks in Britain, anyway, which was the first Western country to really institute "Islamic" banking.
Nobody's saying Christians won't be served. But the bank is probably in a 100% Muslim district, so the tellers, etc., will try and be as "Islamic" as possible. It's no different than banks that are proud to speak Spanish.
I.E. its still interest, just using a different name and playing games.
Any serious muslim cleric would see this for what it is.
Just because you call something by another name, and spin it like a wheel, does not make it so.
Actually, it is open to everyone. So if you want a Muslim-style mortgage (ie, bank being the owner, you paying rent-to-own monthly payments) I'm sure they'll give you one.
Bank still makes profit, so whatever they wanna call it, it's "interest" in some form or other. There's a return on capital involved one way or the other.
Unless I don't understand this and only time bank gets paid (ie, makes profit) is when the house is sold for higher value.
Lovely. So instead of a loan, you get equity financing ? And everything that entails, such as, sharing in control of the business, etc ? What if don't want a partner ? Guess I'm out of luck.
Or "damages." You have to pay the debt RIGHT NOW, and if you don't you have to pay "damages" to the creditor. Lots of ways around this.
No truer words were ever spoken...
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