Goldman Sachs Lies Down With Dogs and Gets Fleas
Last September, Goldman Sachs announced that it was going to issue a $2 billion sukuk. The investment banking giant dutifully employed a Shariah advisory firm, Dar Al-Istithmar Limited, and went about the business of putting together the financing arrangement. There was just one problem. Goldman Sachs made one mistake: they trusted the financial jihadis. To make [...]
Linked below is an article by a financial jihadi posing the question “Is Islamic finance a failure?” As you might expect, the answer turns out to be “no,” which, given the author’s background should come as no surprise. This is a common tactic of the financial jihadis; build a straw man and then proceed to [...]
Transparent Baloney from the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt
Two days ago, we reported that the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt had declared the Egyptian stock market to be Shariah-compliant. Today we are greeted with the news that the Muslim Brotherhood backs free markets. HA! “We have sought to reassure people that a free market in Egypt is the only way forward,” said Mahmoud Ghozlan, [...]
Many changes have come and are still set to come to Libya in the wake of the overthrow of Col. Moamar Qaddafi. A few we have seen already: • Al Qaeda flags flying over courthouses. • Promises of Shariah being imposed from new regime officials. • The emergence of Islamist political parties and the Muslim [...]
Shariah Banking Surfaces in Kashmir
Kashmir has been the epicenter of Jihadist violence for years now. For those who do not know, Kashmir includes disputed territory between India and Pakistan and has been the site of armed conflict between the two countries on multiple occasions. Kashmir is one of the rallying causes for Muslims and some key Jihadist terrorist organizations [...]
Regular readers of SFW know of the concerns over zakat, a form of tithing in Islam that is at least partially authorized–and in some cases mandated–to go to those waging jihad for allah. Our latest essay on this subject can be found here: http://www.shariahfinancewatch.org/blog/2011/10/17/correcting-the-new-misinformation-on-islamic-charities-funding-jihadist-terrorism/ Obviously, this only tells half the story. The other side of [...]
Maybe the only thing worse than getting in bed with the financial jihadists is to get in bed with the financial jihadists, only to find out they don’t want you. That may be the situation Goldman Sachs finds itself in with regard to its Islamic bond (sukuk) program. It seems Goldman got the blessing from [...]
KPMG holds training on Shariah finance in Oman
KPMG, a leading international firm offering audit, tax, and advisory services recently organised a training at Crowne Plaza Hotel, Muscat, Oman on Shariah-compliant finance products and their accounting treatment. The objective of the training was to educate participants about the characteristics of various Sharia compliant financial products and how to deal with their accounting issues. [...]
Egyptian Islamist Parties Declare Stock Exchange Shariah-Compliant
The imposition of Shariah in Egypt as part of the so-called “Arab Spring,” has entered the financial realm, with the Islamist parties declaring the Egyptian Stock Exchange to be “Shariah-Compliant…” Egypt’s political powers expressed their support for the Egyptian Stock Exchange at a press conference Monday, as the Islamist parties, which dominate parliament, pointed out [...]
As we have documented here on SFW for years, the financial Jihadists and their useful idiots in the Western world have proclaimed for years that Shariah-Compliance bestows some mysterious cloak of protection and stability. This assertion has grown to mythical proportions over the years, to the point where it is now almost taken for granted [...]
Deutsche Bank: Shariah-Compliant Finance may double in assets by 2016
The global debt crisis may help Islamic finance nearly double to $1.8 trillion in assets by 2016 as stagnant corporate lending pushes institutions to seek alternative financing to traditional methods, according to a report by Deutsche Bank. http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/15/islamic-growth-deutschebank-idUSL5E7MF1Q920111115
The governors of central banks and monetary authorities of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) member countries met in Kuala Lumpur this month to discuss “Central Banking and Financial Sector Development.” Central to the discussion was the potential role of Shariah-compliant finance in contributing to economic growth and financial stability. Many myths have been propagated about [...]
Shariah Finance Certification Tied to Jihadist-led Organization
A UAE-based firm named Ethica has become the industry leader “for accredited training and certification in Islamic finance.” Experts say that what probably sets Ethica apart is that their 4-month Certified Islamic Finance Executive™(CIFE™) certification is the only 100% AAOIFI-compliant, 100% online Islamic finance program in the market today. AAOIFI stands for the Accounting and [...]
Indonesian Sukuk Sales Slowest in 3 Years
It is usually very difficult to find objective news reporting on Shariah Finance. This is especially true of the Sukuk (Islamic Bond) market. The financial jihadists are hypersensitive about this sector and go to great lengths to ensure that the state-controlled media in their countries, as well as Western media outlets who have been bought [...]
Craziness for Profit: Shariah Scholar/Advisor Mufti Taqi Usmani Blames Commodities Markets for Financial Crisis
At SFW we have covered Mufti Taqi Usmani extensively over the years. He has long been considered one of the most prominent and influential Shariah scholars in the world of Shariah Compliant Finance. According to many observers, critics and market participants alike, Usmani is the Shariah finance [...]
The Washington Times has published an op ed that points out that the US and the West have done a lousy job of enforcing sanctions already in place against Iran. Among the sanctions already imposed are restrictions against doing business with Bank Melli and Bank Sepah, two of the largest Shariah-compliant financial institutions in the [...]
Affin Investment Bank in Malaysia has distributed just over $800,000 in zakat funds to the “armed forces.” One of the acceptable destinations for zakat funds according to Shariah is to those fighting in the way of Allah. Usually this is meant to apply to irregular combatants not on the army roster, but in this case, [...]
Oman central bank rules out Shariah advisory board
The good news is that Oman is not establishing a centralized Shariah advisory board inside its central bank. Such a board could quickly become very powerful–too powerful. The bad news, of course, is that Shariah Compliant Finance has made its way to Oman, an historically modern country not held back by Shariah. http://www.ameinfo.com/277083.html
Australia is about to get their first Shariah-compliant equity fund and the fund distributor is already busy touting the fund to capture money from non-Muslims by fraudulently claiming that his fund is “socially responsible.” We’ve covered much of this before on SFW, but it never hurts to refresh ourselves to debunk the notion that Shariah-Compliant [...]
Typical Propaganda on Islamic Bonds from Saudi State-Controlled Media
The article linked below has to be taken with a large grain of salt since it comes from the Saudi Gazette. There is nothing even resembling a free, independent press in Saudi Arabia and the Saudi royals have a huge vested interest in promoting Shariah-Compliant Finance both in the kingdom and globally. Not surprisingly, this [...]
Huge financial scam weakens Iran’s Ahmadinejad
According to the authoritative British periodical The Banker, Iran dominates the world of Shariah-Compliant Finance. The two largest Shariah-Compliant financial institutions in the world are Iranian state-controlled banks. Moreover, according to The Banker, Iran is the only nation on earth that claims that 100% of the financial assets in its banks and other institutions [...]
Shariah Finance Sets Sights on Turkey
One of the few overwhelmingly Islamic nations that has so far not embraced Shariah-Compliant Finance is Turkey. Despite efforts by Islamist elements in the country, only 5% of banking assets in Turkey were Shariah-compliant at the end of 2010. So it seems curious in a way that the Islamic media would proclaim that Shariah finance [...]
Promoters of Shariah Compliant Finance have often exaggerated and even fabricated the benefits of Shariah-Compliant Finance. They have declared it “ethical” despite all of the sukuk defaults, the zakat money finding its way into terrorist hands and the large shariah-compliant financial institutions that have even been sanctioned due to their ties to terrorism. Sometimes, the [...]
The most prominent weapon in the financial jihadists’ arsenal is the sukuk, also known as the Islamic bond. Sukuk have taken off like wildfire in the Islamic world and they are being pushed out hard to the non-Muslim world. South Korea, the Philippines and Thailand are just three nations that have come under intense pressure [...]
Money Jihad blog has posted two important articles over the past week regarding the Shariah-compliant alternative to conventional financing known as murabaha. One thing to remember about murabaha is that, almost invariably, these arrangements cost the borrower more than conventional financing would. Money Jihad compares murabaha to “rent-to-own” deals in the US. We think the comparison is [...]
Mark Polege has posted an excellent article over on BigPeace.com. We urge you to check it out. Here is an excerpt and link… One of the least talked about forms of Jihad is making great advancements into our U.S. financial system, Sharia-Compliant Finance. In short Sharia-compliant finance is “reverse money-laundering” for Islamic extremists or fund-raising for [...]
An Iranian businessman, Amir-Mansour Aria, has been accused of defrauding the world’s second largest Shariah-compliant bank out of $2.6 billion. SFW readers may recall us mentioning the bank, Bank Saderat, from time to time: http://www.shariahfinancewatch.org/blog/2009/08/12/shariah-compliant-finance-helps-terrorist-banks-in-iran/ Bank Saderat is second only to Iran’s Bank Melli on the list of largest Shariah-compliant financial institutions in the world. Iranian [...]
The indispensable people over at The Investigative Project on Terrorism are reporting that the Obama Justice Department have reached a settlement with a Shariah-compliant financial institution being investigated for involvement in terrorism financing and tax evasion. The Islamic Investment Company of the Gulf (IICG) was part of a web of financial institutions with ties to [...]
Some REALLY Bad Ideas on How to Solve America’s Debt Problems
Not surprisingly, the financial jihadists are promoting Shariah as the solution to America’s debt problems. We’ve seen this before. Back in 2008, in the wake of the subprime mortgage debacle and near-financial meltdown, the financial jihadists insisted that Shariah-compliant finance would have avoided the whole mess. Then, in 2009, defaulting on sukuk (Islamic bonds) just [...]
We’ve been watching developments in Nigeria closely as of late. Lamido Sanusi is that country’s central bank governor and, unfortunately, he is also a Shariah scholar of sorts. As we have reported previously, he is pushing hard for Nigeria to embrace Shariah-compliant finance and has pulled all sorts of strings to facilitate it. This has made [...]
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