Qatar boosting Shariah banking–by outlawing competition from Western, non-Islamic banks (Lesson to be learned here)
SFW readers may recall that back in February, Qatar shuttered the Shariah-compliant divisions of international banks operating in the tiny Gulf kingdom. What this meant was that only institutions that are completely Shariah-compliant can operate in Qatar. Banks that only have Shariah-compliant divisions are forbidden. We blogged about this move twice before:
https://shariahfinancewatch.org/2011/06/07/qatar-islamic-bank-benefits-from-protectionist-policies/
We have no sympathy for Western financial institutions, such as HSBC, who decided it was a good idea in the first place to do business with financial jihadists. If you lie down with dogs, you just might get fleas.
Nevertheless, this move by Qatar illustrates an important point and is a lesson for Western observers who believe that Shariah finance is somehow tied to free markets.
Shariah-Compliant Finance is an inherently centralized economic and financial system that is the very opposite of free enterprise. This should come as no surprise, since Shariah itself is a barbaric, totalitarian system to begin with.
With a signature on a piece of paper, with no hearings or public debate, the emir of Qatar ordered Western banks to pack their gear and get out.
Now the financial jihadists in Qatar are twisting this as having produced some sort of boom for Shariah finance…
The first sale of an Islamic finance portfolio since Qatar’s decision to ban conventional lenders from conducting sharia-compliant banking operations is a harbinger of what’s to come as the Islamic finance sector begins to benefit from the ruling.
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