Posted on 10/20/2009 3:36:19 AM PDT by markomalley
Mercedes-Benz is hoping to increase its presence in the lucrative Middle-Eastern market by establishing a pair of financial firms that are fully compliant with the specific regulations of Islamic law, or Sharia.
Islamic law prohibits its followers from charging or collecting interest fees when money is lent or accepted, or investing in businesses, goods or services that are contrary to its religious principles.
To get around this, Mercedes-Benz has launched Mercedes-Benz Finance Middle East and Mercedes-Benz Leasing Middle East. The new companies are headquartered in Dubai and offer loans and leasing to private and business customers for new and pre-owned passenger cars and commercial vehicles, including the all-important Sharia-compliant Islamic finance product.
There are several methods of investing that comply with Islamic law. For example, instead of offering a loan with interest to buy a car, the financial firm could purchase the car outright at an inflated price that includes the interest portion and then sell it to a customer who can then make fixed payments on a regular basis.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
You can get sharia home loans in the US.
I would imagine that if this is being done in the USA, it would not be possible for a borrower to deduct home mortgage interest from their taxes because there is no interest to deduct.
What a farce! They don’t call it interest, but they make the buyer pay it.
It won’t be long before the whining death cultists demand that the IRS treat their non-interest payments as deductible interest.
“Islamic law prohibits its followers from charging or collecting interest fees when money is lent or accepted”
...this is complete BS! The borrower pays everything up front. When I 1st got into real estate in 2002, I had a muslim homebuyer who insisted on using his own muslim lender because of this interest bologna. His closing costs were astronomical! It was funny to see his face when he saw his GFE. Also, a fellow Realtors dog was in the office and licked this ying yangs hand!! He flipped and ran to the bathroom for a scrubbing!! Came out with his hands looking like bloody stumps from washing so hard!! “Awwww! Filthy animal licked me!! Awwwwww!”
“Mercedes-Benz Offering Sharia Loans in Middle East”
Europeans are very adaptable.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.