The Voice of America (VOA) was founded as a radio broadcast service to be beamed around the world to bring news from an American perspective to people in countries which didn’t have access to American news.
VOA played a supportive role during the Cold War by providing a counterweight to communist-controlled news organizations behind the Iron Curtain.
Today, it appears that VOA has taken on a very different role: as cheerleader for Shariah-Compliant Finance.
Linked below is an article written by Sara Schonhardt for VOANews.com about “Islamic Banking” in Indonesia.
This article reads like a marketing brochure or press release, not a news story written by a journalist. In short, it is pure propaganda, every bit as biased as an article written by government news agencies in nations like Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Iran on the subject of “Islamic Banking.”
Nowhere in the article is there any hint of balance. The tone is sympathetic, even blaming “corruption” in Indonesia for the fact that Islamic banking only makes up 2.5% of Indonesia’s banking sector.
At no point does the author attempt to delve into the wider aspects of Shariah law, which have earned it the much-deserved reputation as a barbaric code which stands in direct contravention to human rights and liberties. There is no mention of the fact that, despite claims that Shariah-Compliance provides insulation against financial crisis, sukuk are defaulting at an alarming rate and Qatar’s entire banking sector had to be bailed out by that nation’s oil-rich regime. Evidently, there was no curiosity about the role of hate-mongers such as Sheikh Youssef al-Qaradawi and Mufti Taqi Usmani in the governance of Shariah-Compliant Finance. There was no looking into the lack of transparency and disclosure which pervades Shariah-Compliant Finance.
Finally, there was no explanation for why, if Shariah-Compliant Finance is indeed a form of “ethical” investing, the largest Shariah-Compliant Financial institution in the world is under US, EU and Australian sanctions for activities involving the funding of terrorism and the financing of nuclear proliferation programs.
This is the type of article one might expect to see on the Muslim Brotherhood’s web site. Yet, it was paid for by US taxpayers and it was distributed by Uncle Sam…
