The UK’s Wide-Eyed Welcome to Islamic Banking

The Conservative Woman ^ | 8/7/19 | Tim Dieppe

[marshmallow]

Three years ago we warned about the UK’s foolish embrace of Islamic banking – in particular, David Cameron’s welcome. The Times’s investigation on Monday into Al Rayan Bank, clients of which include ‘terror’ groups and Abu Hamza’s former mosque, into Qatar’s export of political Islam to the West and the concerning ‘values’ of the bank’s management, shows just how naive Cameron was. Did he ever bother to find out what Islamic finance was and what it meant? We repeat Tim Dieppe’s explanation here. It was first published on November 11, 2016.

In 2013, then Prime Minister David Cameron said: ‘I want London to stand alongside Dubai and Kuala Lumpur as one of the great capitals of Islamic finance anywhere in the world.’

His wish is fast coming true. Western financial institutions in the UK have welcomed Islamic finance with open arms. Today, more banks are compliant with Islamic finance in the UK than in any other Western country. The UK also tops the world league table as the largest provider of Islamic finance courses, with offerings at around seventy educational institutions.

In 2014, Britain made history by becoming the first non-Muslim country to issue a sovereign Islamic bond.

So what exactly is ‘Islamic finance’? It is based on the idea that the Qur’an prohibits all forms of interest. But this is actually a modern, radical interpretation of the Qur’an. The truth is that Muslims have borrowed and lent money with interest throughout history, and most still do so today. What the Qur’an historically prohibits is usury, or extortionate interest, and that is how the Qur’an has been interpreted in mainstream Islamic thought, and how it is still understood by most Muslims today.

The ‘modern’ concept of Islamic finance so keenly embraced by Mr Cameron was in fact.....

[Dilbert San Diego]

I’ve heard that Islamic mortgages work around interest by charging rent to the borrower. Instead of a monthly mortgage payment consisting of principal and interest, the payment consists of principal and rent to the mortgage holder. So the mortgage holder would own the piece of your property which is covered by the mortgage balance.

I’ve heard the calculations workout very close to what you would pay if you were paying principal and interest over the years.

This article also points out, how Islam is considered a way of life. Islam is not just a matter of going to the mosque. Islam is also a social system, a financial system, a dietary system, a governing system in countries which are majority Muslim, and a criminal justice system in those countries.

[Retrofitted]

Gee, whatever could go wrong with using such an enlightened system of banking and finance as this? Yes, that was sarcasm.

Anybody else remember that great Islamic banking institution, the Bank of Credit and Commerce International?