At SFW one of our chief activities in the past couple of months has been to dispel the notion that Shariah-Compliant Finance (sometimes referred to as “Islamic Finance”) has been immune to the impact of the world financial crisis. Just yesterday we reported on two articles on the impact of the world financial crisis on the Islamic finance industry:

https://shariahfinancewatch.org/2009/03/10/qatar-to-prop-up-its-banking-system/

https://shariahfinancewatch.org/2009/03/10/islamic-markets-tumble-dubai-floats-conventional-bond/

The fact of the matter is that Islamic indexes have fallen sharply over the past 6 months in a fashion very similar to conventional indexes. The FTSE All World Index of 2800 companies and its Islamic Index were both down 40%+ over a 6-month period.

Despite this, Muslim authorities and Muslim leaders continue to falsely proclaim that Islamic finance is a hedge against the financial crisis.

No statement has been as blatant a lie as the one the Jakarta Post attributed today to Indonesia’s President Susilo Bambang Yu-dhoyono who stated:

“Islamic banking should take a front seat because it has not been affected by the crisis.”

How can one describe such a statement? 

All of these terms come to mind:

“Nonsense.”

“Delusional.”

“Misrepresentation.”

Perhaps the president had his comments “taken out of context” by the reporter at The Jakarta Post. That is what politicians in the West always like to say when they are caught lying or just saying something really stupid.

President Yu-dhoyono made this statement at the “World Islamic Economic Forum” in Jakarta, Indonesia. It was at this same forum about a week ago that the leaders of the Islamic nations represented jointly referred to “Islamic finance” as “missionary work,” a topic that Shariah-Compliant Finance promoters in the West always shy away from.

At any rate, President Yu-dhoyono’s statement about Islamic banking being unaffected by the world financial crisis is completely and totally wrong. 

If promoters of Shariah-Compliant Finance in the Islamic world are willing to repeatedly lie about the performance of Shariah-Compliant products, what else are they lying about?

If promoters of Shariah-Compliant Finance in the West make it a practice to conceal the missionary aspect of Shariah Finance, what else might they be concealing?

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/03/10/what-can-sharia-banking-offer.html

 

Comments are closed.

Looking for something?

Use the form below to search the site:


Still not finding what you're looking for? Drop a comment on a post or contact us so we can take care of it!