But recently a fresh article came out in The Vancouver Sun detailing the Saudis’ treachery…

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Jonathan+Manthorpe+Saudi+Arabia+funding+fuels+jihadist+terror/8445197/story.html

http://creepingsharia.wordpress.com/2013/06/13/muslim-mark-zuckerberg-conned-cali-investor-out-of-1m/

Lebanese Shiite communities in Europe provide good recruiting pools for the Party of God and often donate money to Hezbollah-sponsored charities that raise funds for social causes in Lebanon. Businessmen affiliated with Hezbollah also set up façade companies in countries with lax legislation and weak and corrupt governments and then transfer their funds to respectable European accounts. The latter are more important to the Lebanese group. Technically abiding by the European laws and keeping a low profile, they make most of the money the group needs to finance not only its military program but also the schools, hospitals, and community activities meant to secure the group’s popular base inside Lebanon.

According to Lebanese University professor Hares Suleiman, Hezbollah started building its business empire in 2001-2002, following the example of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, which had set up networks of companies in the Gulf. “Hezbollah started contacting businessmen and building partnerships, increasing its capital and investing in hotels, the car trade, clothes manufacturing, and wholesale,” he said. “At the same time, Hezbollah members and supporters—who were not businessmen to start with—opened new businesses, investments, and institutions in Lebanon and abroad, in places such as Africa and the Gulf. After the 2006 July War, the phenomenon increased,” he pointed out.

Read more at Tablet magazine…

http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/133651/hezbollah-european-union

 

Retribution against Hezbollah for helping the Syrian government fight rebels intensified, as the United States blacklisted four fund-raising operatives and warned of further steps to choke the group’s financing.

The action against the operatives, who the Treasury Department said were based in West Africa, bans them from any dealings with Americans and freezes any assets they may have under American jurisdiction. While the financial impact on Hezbollah was unclear, the department said the move reflected “the alarming reach of Hezbollah activities and its determination to create a worldwide funding and recruitment network to support its violence and criminal enterprises around the world.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/12/world/middleeast/us-hits-hezbollah-with-new-sanctions.html?_r=5&

 

 

A Saudi Arabian billionaire prince has sued Forbes magazine in London, accusing the publication of underestimating his wealth in its highly scrutinized annual list of the world’s richest people.

Prince Alwaleed bin Talal claims the magazine was “deliberately biased” when ranking him at a lowly 26th place in its 2013 tally of the super wealthy, according to court documents cited by the United Kingdom’s Guardian newspaper.

The magazine pegged his net worth at $20 billion. The prince claims it is closer to $30 billion.

http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-saudi-prince-forbes-20130607,0,2292701.story

 

According to Reuters, Shariah-compliant finance could gain as much as a 40% marketshare in Tunisia.

A poll in Tunisia indicates that 54% of respondents would switch their money to Shariah-compliant institutions.

Note that if this report linked below reads like an advertorial, there is a reason. It’s from Reuters. Reuters’ parent, Thomson Reuters provides a variety of information services to the Shariah Finance industry…

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/16/islamic-finance-tunisia-idUSL5N0ES02S20130616

Ransoms are a popular means by which Jihadists raise money around the world.

http://www.mindanaoexaminer.com/news.php?news_id=20130616023823

It seems that the Jihadist Syrian rebels have been getting money from another source: jizya.

Jizya is the tax imposed on non-Muslims in an Islamic state. In this case, the Jihadists have been extorting money from Christians in Syria and neighboring Jordan. And these are our allies?

Read more at Money Jihad blog…

http://moneyjihad.wordpress.com/2013/06/16/syrian-fighters-funded-in-part-by-jizya/

This isn’t come rare, obscure practice. It is mainstream practice and it is part of Shariah.

There is a connection to Shariah-Compliant Finance here since there is a mandatory zakat component with Shariah-compliance.

The latest confirmation we discovered comes from Bangladesh, specifically the Ahsania Mission Zakat Fund.

On its “Zakat in Islam” page on its web site, the Ahsania Fund identifies and explains the 8 acceptable destinations for zakat. Here is number 7:

Fisabillillah - One who fights for the cause of Allah.

Here is a link to that page for confirmation:

http://www.zakatdonation.org/Zakat-in-Islam.php

That doesn’t end our analysis though.

The Ahsania Fund doesn’t just collect money in Bangladesh. It lists contacts and addresses for zakat donations in the USA, UK, Australia and Canada:

http://www.zakatdonation.org/Bank-Account.php

Now, we have no definite indication that the Ahsania Fund collects and distributes money for jihad, but we do know this:

1. The Ahsania Mission Zakat Fund collects zakat money on 4 continents.

2. On its web site the Ahsania Mission Zakat Fund lists the 8 categories of people to whom zakat may be distributed.

3. Number 7 is “One who fights in the cause of Allah”

Sukuk are the financial weapon of choice for Islamic supremecists aiming to infiltrate Shariah globally through the financial system.

It is hardly surprising that Binladen Group would issue a sukuk…in fact this is the firm’s fifth Shariah-compliant bond.

http://www.cpifinancial.net/news/post/21135/saudi-binladin-plans-local-currency-sukuk-sale

http://www.zawya.com/story/Saudi_Binladin_Group_Completes_Successful_Issuance_of_New_Sukuk-ZAWYA20130609135949/

“It’s about making Britain the preferred choice for the Muslim world to invest in and do business in,” senior Foreign Office minister Baroness Warsi claimed in a speech to the Oxford Center for Islamic Studies.

“It is not a silver bullet but it is a golden opportunity.” Her speech came ahead of the ninth World Islamic Economic Forum this October in London, the first in a non-Muslim country.

Warsi disclosed that the Government is considering a major overseas promotion for UK financial institutions and is looking at establishing a regulator and accreditation for educational courses.

According to OnIslam:

The United Kingdom is one of the leading countries in the European Union to have Islamic banks. It is also developing its takaful market for Islamic insurance.

The UK also has a strong foothold in developing products such as commodity murabaha – Islam’s version of interbank short-term lending and syndicated loans.

Moreover, London has established the first secondary market in sukuk outside the Islamic world to help Islamic investors who seek to buy property and assets in the UK in a way that fits in with their religion, which bans earning interest, speculating or risk-taking.

London is also advanced in Islamic retail services, with institutions offering a range of Islamic banking products, such as mortgages and car loans.

Baroness Warsi claims that Shariah finance has been used to fund London’s landmarks, such as the Shard, the Olympic Village and redevelopments at Chelsea Barracks and Harrods. From our standpoint it seems more like aiding an abetting Islamic imperialism in a country that has already been set on the road to ruin by the terrible effects of Islamization.

It should also be pointed out that Muslims living in the West have a problem with integrating into their host societies and cultures. Setting up Shariah finance in Western countries perpetuates the “separate but equal” division that is appearing in the UK and all over Western Europe.

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/baroness-warsi-london-can-be-islams-global-financial-centre-8647028.html

“With the recent events in the region, in Syria in particular, some associations are using zakat as a cover to raise funds for the fighters. Some associations and small mosques even called for ‘money jihad’ or ‘jihad al-zakat’ to send money to those fighters.”

In other words, the Imam of one of the largest mosques in Cairo, which is probably the largest city in the Islamic Middle East, admits that zakat payments to charities and mosques is going toward violent jihad.

http://al-shorfa.com/en_GB/articles/meii/features/2013/06/06/feature-02

But it seems that IRS misconduct didn’t stop there. The IRS accommodated CAIR, despite evidence that the organization is a foreign agent, while going after Dave Gaubatz, who, along with his son, Chris, went undercover to expose the ugly truth about CAIR.

Read more at RightSideNews…

http://www.rightsidenews.com/2013060632661/life-and-science/culture-wars/irs-favored-hamas-linked-cair-while-targeting-iraq-war-veteran-who-exposed-them.html

The US Treasury Department has identified a Libyan electronics and explosives specialist as a top bomb maker for Al Qaeda in Pakistan and imposed sanctions on him.

Qaradawi introduced Westerners to the term in 2006 in an interview with the BBC when he explained that zakat donations to Muslim charities were in fact “jihad with money.”

There are others in the Jihadist world who feel the same way.

According to the IDF blog, HAMAS, the Jihadist terrorist organization whose goal is to replace Israel with an Islamic state ruled by Shariah, recently posted an article online that defined “jihad with money” and admitted for all to see that they use charitable donations to wage violent Jihad…

The term ‘Jihad with Money’ has two different meanings, the article’s author suggests.

“The general meaning [of the term] is to give money to charitable causes for the pleasure of God Almighty: to help the poor and needy, construct hospitals, mosques, schools, colleges and universities, [to assist] orphans and students, and help the unemployed.”

That sounds like an respectable concept – until you read on for the ‘special’ meaning.

“The special meaning: to make money for combat, such as the purchase of weapons, gear and clothing, and to develop the means to build factories for weapons and to support the families of the Mujahideen [terror fighters] and their families.”

Read more about HAMAS and its jihad with money at the IDF blog:

http://www.idfblog.com/hamas/2013/05/23/hamas-takes-charity-money-uses-it-to-fund-terror/

]]> http://www.shariahfinancewatch.org/blog/2013/06/07/hamas-on-jihad-with-money/feed/ 0 http://www.shariahfinancewatch.org/blog/2013/05/31/outright-fraud-helps-financial-jihadists-push-shariah-finance-in-turkey/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=outright-fraud-helps-financial-jihadists-push-shariah-finance-in-turkey http://www.shariahfinancewatch.org/blog/2013/05/31/outright-fraud-helps-financial-jihadists-push-shariah-finance-in-turkey/#comments Fri, 31 May 2013 22:16:59 +0000 shariahfinancewatch http://www.shariahfinancewatch.org/blog/?p=12450 Turkey is fast becoming the “poster child” for Islamization and Shariah-Compliant Finance. This is no secret, in fact another post from earlier today pointed this out:

http://www.shariahfinancewatch.org/blog/2013/05/31/shariah-banks-thrive-in-previously-secular-turkey/

We also came across another article about the emergence of sukuk, or Shariah-Compliant Bonds in Turkey. As we have pointed out on numerous occasions, sukuk are increasing the financial instrument of choice for promoting Shariah worldwide. We’ve described how that process works previously, but it is worth reviewing here before we get to the real purpose of this post:

• As we know from historical records and contemporary statements from Islamic leaders, the purpose of Shariah Finance/Islamic economics is to promote Shariah itself.

• Islamic imperialists are now using the credit markets to force Shariah-compliance worldwide, not just among and between Muslims.

• Sukuk impose Shariah-compliance two ways:

1. Islamic issuers increasingly issue Sukuk rather than conventional debt instruments. Therefore, creditors who want to invest in the credit markets are compelled to invest their money in a Shariah-compliant way.

2. On the flipside, Islamic investors who invest in the credit markets are increasingly insisting on Shariah-compliance, thus compelling issuers/borrowers to issue Sukuk instead of conventional credit instruments, such as debentures. This is happening in the sovereign debt markets, as well as the corporate debt markets. The power wielded by oil-rich Islamic nations, institutional and individual investors makes this form of Islamic imperialism to impose Shariah-compliance globally potentially very powerful.

Against that background, something that was said in the article on Turkish sukuk linked below caught our eye. Here is a quote from the article:

“Islamic finance is just like halal food, there may be two reasons to choose it,” said Mustafa Cetin, head of financial institutions at the Turkish arm of Bahrain-based Islamic lender Al-Baraka.
“Either you prefer interest-free products or you find the cost of borrowing, the taste, attractive.”

This outrageously misleading statement implies that Islamic financial institutions give away money for free. That is pure bunk. Financial jihadists have long lied to consumers by advertising their products as “interest-free,” with the intention of making unsophisticated borrowers believe that they are getting a loan for “free.” Mustafa Cetin’s statement above is no different. Islamic financial institutions may not charge interest but they most definitely have fees and charges associated with loans and borrowing. They just don’t call it “interest.” In fact, Shariah-compliant lending instruments frequently are more expensive to the borrower than are conventional loans . But we doubt you’ll ever hear or see Mustafa Cetin of Al-Baraka in Turkey admit any of that.

http://arabnews.com/news/453453

Today Turkey is ruled by an Islamist regime, the Gulenist movement is taking over its security services and, predictably, Shariah banks are popping up everywhere…

Once a negligible sliver of the banking industry, Islamic financial institutions which keep within Islamic Sharia law, are now gaining support in Turkey, a secular republic since its founding in 1923.

This month the Turkish government – controlled by the conservative Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) – issued banking licenses to two new Islamic banks.

The licensing is a move to expand so-called “participation banks” that use Sharia-compliant financial methods…

The new banks will join four Islamic banks that comprised more than 5% of the Turkish banking sector. That is leaps and bounds from where the Islamic banks’ piece of the Turkish banking sector was when it emerged in the 1980s, struggling for attention. “It always had a small share,” Atilla Yesilada, an Istanbul-based consultant with Global Source Partners, an economic and political consultancy firm.

Turkish clients initially viewed the banks with skepticism as being linked to the Arab world. The government was also far from supportive of the banks, according to Yesilada.

Changes in Turkey’s economy and politics since 2002 when AKP took power, however, have helped the sector to grow.

And the emergence of Shariah banking in Turkey is accompanied by the usual false propaganda to attempt to get non-Muslims to bank in a Shariah-compliant way:

The banks may also prove attractive to others as well. “For non-Muslims who partake in Islamic banking it fits in with ethical ways of conducting businesses…let alone those who fear running out of business or at worst losing their business and remain indebted by having to still pay the interest incurred,” Yusha’u said.

This statement implies that Shariah banks lend money for free, which is, of course nonsense…but what Shariah banks DO is promote Shariah.

http://themedialine.org/news/news_detail.asp?NewsID=37795

Sukuk issuances increased to $137 billion in 2012 as compared to $92.4bn in the previous year, said International Islamic Financial Market (IIFM) in a new report on sukuks.

Ijlal Ahmed Alvi, Chief Executive Officer of IIFM, said: “The last two years were record years of Sukuk issuances which reached $92.4bn and $137bn in 2011 and 2012, respectively. This year has also started on a positive note and as per the report over $11bn worth of Sukuk was issued in January 2013 and the growth trend is expected to continue in coming years”.

http://www.emirates247.com/business/economy-finance/sukuk-issuances-reached-137bn-in-2012-2013-05-28-1.508250

 

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/29/saudi-isdb-sukuk-idUSL5N0EA28620130529

In one 10-page letter, al-Qaida leadership scolded an ambitious terrorist, the one-eyed Algerian bandit known as Moktar Belmoktar, for failing to attend meetings, for ignoring orders, for missing their phone calls, and for failing to turn in required monthly expense reports…

Among al-Qaida’s complaints with Belmoktar: he didn’t charge enough ransom for one hostage, he failed to carry out any “spectacular operations,” and he posted messages on Internet forums badmouthing the terrorist organization.

But Belmoktar had his complaints too – he said that he was tired of carrying out endless kidnappings-for-ransom, “which the mujahedeen got bored with.”

http://blog.al.com/wire/2013/05/al-qaida_fires_troublesome_ter.html

 

Arnaud De Borchgrave seems to buy into the whole “self-radicalization” myth in which Jihadis sitting in their boxer shorts surfing the internet suddenly decide that they hate the West and need to commit atrocities.

Like our own political leaders, he also focuses too much on Al Qaeda alone, as if they are the only enemy whose funding sources need to be tracked down and eliminated. Jihad is a doctrinal aspect of Shariah and the global Islamic insurgency goes well beyond Al Qaeda, both in depth and breadth.

We also suspect that the Newsmax article exaggerates the impact of the US Treasury’s efforts at drying up terrorism financing. The figures that Treasury has claimed in the past amount to small amounts of money and there has been a total denial at the US Treasury Department about the role of zakat–and Shariah Finance–in financing jihad.

http://www.newsmax.com/deborchgrave/al-qaida-money-trail-zarate/2013/05/29/id/507021

Goldman Sachs Group Inc., which is already providing Arcapita $350 million in bankruptcy exit financing, is now seeking to give the Bahrain investment firm a $175 million bankruptcy loan that would pay off existing lender Fortress Investment Group LLC.

In a Monday filing with U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan, Arcapita said the Goldman loan would pay off the $105 million still owed to Fortress and later convert into the $350 million exit loan that Goldman is already providing.

With Arcapita obliged to pay off the Fortress loan by June 14, the company said it needs the Goldman loan approved at a hearing on June 10, the day before the company plans to ask a judge to confirm its plan to sell off its assets in order to pay back creditors.

“If the Debtors are unable [to] repay the outstanding Fortress Facility obligations on [June 14], Fortress could declare a default and seek to enforce remedies against the collateral securing the Debtors’ obligations,” Arcapita said.

Goldman, earlier this month, beat out Fortress in a war over who would provide the exit financing for Arcapita.

Fortress’s $150 million financing pact, arranged in December for Arcapita, was believed to be the first U.S. bankruptcy loan fully compliant with Islamic Sharia law. In its Monday filing, Arcapita said Goldman has agreed to provide an extra $25 million, bringing the loan up to $175 million.

Like all the loans Arcapita has secured during its bankruptcy, the Goldman financing is a Sharia-compliant “murabaha,” a common Islamic financing structure where a lender sells commodities to a borrower, who then sells the commodities to a third party.

Under these “cost-plus financing” murabahas, Arcapita buys commodities from Goldman at a marked-up price to ensure the seller profits on the deal.

Arcapita then sells those commodities, providing the bank with an immediate cash infusion. To comply with murabaha financing, Arcapita pays Goldman for the commodities on deferred terms.

The company said the Goldman loan matures July 31, giving it more time to put its plan into motion. Arcapita also said it solicited other offers and received none that were better than the Goldman one.

Last month, Judge Sean H. Lane said creditors can vote on Arcapita’s proposal to wind itself down and sell off its assets, a plan that has support among many of the creditors the Bahraini investment bank plans to pay back.

The judge plans to consider whether to confirm that proposal at a June 11 hearing.

Arcapita filed for Chapter 11 in March 2012 with plans to reorganize as a leaner company. It manages real estate, infrastructure, private equity and venture capital investments that are compliant with Sharia law.

Late last year, after Arcapita received the Fortress financing that it thought could help reorganization, the company ended up going to its backup plan: a liquidation of its assets. It has already sold off some of its business, including five U.K. assisted living facilities, to generate cash.

http://www.nasdaq.com/article/arcapita-seeks-new-bankruptcy-loan-from-goldman-20130528-00737

 

It is not known who paid the ransom or how it was paid.

The Canadian government has said it does not pay ransoms, but has never stated clearly that no other country paid for the diplomats’ release on its behalf after 130 days in captivity.

A document obtained by the Associated Press, recovered in Mali, is a lengthy chronicle of a bitter split between a major terror group, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), and one of its prominent leaders, Mokhtar Belmokhtar, who led the capture of Mr. Fowler and Mr. Guay. In the letter, AQIM leaders lament Mr. Belmokhtar’s “unilateral behaviour” and say the diplomats were let go “for the most meagre price” of “700,000 Euros,” or about $1.1-million Canadian at the time.

Mr. Fowler and Mr. Guay were captured in December, 2008, while on a United Nations mission to Niger. They were held in Mali and eventually released in April, 2009. Details of the release have trickled out since.

U.S. State Department cables obtained by WikiLeaks cited the “two Canadian officials who were recently released in return for a ransom payment,” a fee that “only increased the strength of al-Qaeda” in the region. Another WikiLeaks cable showed American envoys noticed “an enormous influx of cash” in the region after the Canadians’ release.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/document-suggests-11-million-paid-to-free-canadian-envoys-from-al-qaeda-group/article12217222/

Once again, as has so often been the case for years and years, the funding for Jihad comes from Islamic charities. We’ve seen this with Al Qaeda, Hezbollah and Al Sahabaab to name a few and now this widespread practice of charities funding violent jihad appears to have been at work in the Caucusus.

Read more at Money Jihad blog…

http://moneyjihad.wordpress.com/2013/05/26/russia-says-50-groups-in-u-s-raise-funds-for-north-caucasus-extremists/

Shari’ah compliant mortgage financing has been available in the United States for over a decade.  Research into how these mortgages are structured reveals the details behind this Islamic finance program and how it differs from the standard FNMA mortgage loan documents.

The loan documents used in a Shari’ah compliant mortgage transaction are identical to a conforming conventional (FNMA) loan package, with the addition and amendment of a few disclosures in the closing package that assure the borrower (the Consumer) that the financing he has obtained is a valid Diminishing Musharakah and is Shari’ah compliant.  In a Diminishing Musharakah, a financier (Co-owner) participates with the client (Consumer) in the joint ownership of a property or equipment.  For instance, a homebuyer has twenty percent to put down on the home purchase and he forms an arrangement with the financier (Co-Owner) which lends the remaining eighty percent.  As the Consumer makes payments his ownership percentage increases.

Read more at Watchdogwire.com…

http://watchdogwire.com/florida/2013/05/26/shariah-compliant-mortgage-financing-in-america/

 

Two Saudi princes on Tuesday sought to extricate themselves from a London legal battle with a Jordanian businessman who accuses them of laundering money for Hezbollah, the Shiite Islamic terrorist organization. Their lawyer called the accusation “fanciful”.

Prince Mishal bin Abdulaziz al Saud, a brother of Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah, and his son Prince Abdulaziz bin Mishal, had previously argued they had sovereign immunity from suit but the courts rejected that stance.

They also tried to keep details of the case secret on the grounds that making the allegations public would damage Saudi relations with Britain and the United States, which considers Hezbollah a terrorist organisation, but that failed in the Court of Appeal last week.

The Hezbollah allegation is likely to raise concern in Saudi Arabia, because Hezbollah is backed by foe Iran, and Hezbollah fighters are supporting President Bashar al-Assad in Syria while Saudi Arabia is a major backer of rebel forces.

In a court document filed in December 2011 and seen by Reuters, Almhairat says Prince Abdulaziz instigated a deal in Beirut in March 2010 whereby Fi Call issued a $5 million bank guarantee to a Hezbollah intermediary named as Abdul Razzak.

Almhairat says this was part of a money-laundering arrangement that earned Prince Abdulaziz $5 million, and that when Almhairat questioned the deal he was threatened with death.

“We deal with whoever we want to deal with, whether it’s Hezbollah, the Mafia or even the Jews,” Prince Abdulaziz was quoted as saying in a phone call to Almhairat.

“Do as you are instructed. Otherwise your head will be at my feet without your body,” the prince was alleged to have said.

Prince Mishal, 86, is a former defence minister and now chairs the Allegiance Council that will oversee the succession to the Saudi throne.

“You know that I move huge amounts of money for people like our friends the Mubaraks. We’ve been doing this business for years. We can move money for everyone, including the Iranians, because nobody dares to challenge us,” Prince Mishal was quoted as saying by Almhairat.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-05-21/news/sns-rt-us-britain-saudi-princesbre94k0va-20130521_1_hezbollah-princes-judge-geoffrey-vos

SFW has previously covered this case, in which two Minnesota women, Amina Farah Ali and Hawo Mohamed Hassan, were convicted of funneling money to the Somali terrorist organization Al Shabaab:

http://www.shariahfinancewatch.org/blog/2011/10/07/terrorism-trial-continues-in-minneapolis-for-woman-accused-of-raising-money-for-al-shabaab/

http://www.shariahfinancewatch.org/blog/2011/10/14/minnesota-terrorism-financiers-talked-of-jihad-on-recorded-phone-calls-jihad-is-your-duty-brother/

http://www.shariahfinancewatch.org/blog/2012/04/13/rochester-minnesota-terror-funder-asks-to-be-released-from-prison-while-she-awaits-sentencing/

Finally, this week, these two Jihadi women were sentenced for their crimes and in the sentencing hearing the judge asked the convicted terrorists some questions about their Islamic practices and Shariah.

As if on cue, CAIR has filed a formal complaint against the judge. Note that CAIR has not condemned the two women convicted on terrorism charges, nor have they condemned Al Shabaab, the Al Qaeda-aligned Somali Jihadist terrorist organization the two women were funding…

http://moneyjihad.wordpress.com/2013/05/20/terror-finance-termagant-finally-sentenced/

Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi has approved a law allowing the country to issue Islamic bonds the government hopes will help revive its flagging finances, Reuters has reported. Regulations for using the law would be issued within three months, according to the official gazette. Lawmakers had approved the law in March, but Al-Azhar University objected, saying its top scholars should have been consulted on the law as stated in the new constitution. Al-Azhar said this month it had given its approval for the law on condition that certain articles be amended. It is not clear whether the law had been sent to Al-Azhar for approval again or not.

http://www.ameinfo.com/egypts-sukuk-bill-approved-341265

 

Zakat is a system of tithing in Islam, except that it goes way beyond what Westerners think of as “tithing” or “alms giving.”

While some in the Shariah Finance industry deny that there is any connection between Shariah-Compliant Finance and zakat or that there is anything to worry about in zakat, there is ample evidence that the Shariah Finance industry does promote and facilitate zakat and that there are troubling aspects of zakat in support of violent Jihad.

The latest evidence that the Shariah Finance industry promotes zakat comes to us from the Islamic Bank of Britain, which is putting on an event promoting zakat:

http://www.midlandsbusinessnews.co.uk/2013/05/islamic-bank-of-britain-birmingham-branch-to-host-zakat-information-evening/

As for evidence of the troubling aspects of zakat in support of Jihad, we call your attention to one of our earlier posts on the subject…

http://www.shariahfinancewatch.org/blog/2012/08/28/how-zakat-funds-jihad/

An Uzbekistan national pleaded not guilty and said little during his first court appearance Friday on U.S. charges that he gave support, cash and other resources to help a recognized terrorist group in his home country plan a terrorist attack there.

Fazliddin Kurbanov, 30, was arrested Thursday. Prosecutors have said little about the details of their investigation. He was charged after an extensive investigation into his activities late last year and this year.

The Idaho indictment charges Kurbanov with one count of conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and one count of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists and possession of an unregistered explosive device.

http://www.chinapost.com.tw/international/americas/2013/05/19/378977/Man-in.htm

Read more from Reuters…

http://news.yahoo.com/york-says-breaks-cigarette-smuggling-ring-linked-militants-003952926.html

The new Finance Minister, Fayyad Abdel Moneim, a relative unknown with a PhD in economics from Al Azhar University, is Egypt’s 5th finance minister since the revolution. He is seen as similar to the outgoing El Morsi Hegazi (who held the job for less than five months) in that he is an academic with no official affiliation to the Muslim Brotherhood but with expertise in Islamic finance and Sharia compliant banking.

http://english.alarabiya.net/en/business/economy/2013/05/09/Egypt-cabinet-reshuffle-could-delay-IMF-loan-warn-economists-.html

The Muslim Brotherhood wants to float Islamic bonds, not only for fiscal reasons, but also because they see it as a means of furthering the Islamization of the country.

Not surprisingly, secular liberals in Egypt are opposed to the idea of issuing sukuk and facilitating that Islamization of the nation’s fiscal and economic policy.

But there is also opposition from a surprising quarter: the Salafists also oppose issuing sovereign sukuk because they say that they fear excessive foreign influence in Egypt’s affairs.

We’re not at all certain that this objection is genuine. After all, the wealthy Salafists in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other Gulf states are natural allies of the Salafists in Egypt and they would no doubt be the main investors in Egyptian sukuk.

We suspect that the rivalry between the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafists in Egypt has more to do with the Salafists’ professed opposition to issuing sukuk…

http://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/invest-or-gamble-egypt-sells-islamic-bonds/2013/05/09/

All too often the UN puts offending nations in charge of problems that the international community is supposed to be trying to solve.

The latest example involves the United Nations conference on combating terror finance being held in Sudan, one of the world’s leading sponsors of Jihadist terrorism.

Sudan holds the distinction of being the only nation that has hosted Hezbollah, HAMAS and Al Qaeda–at the same time.

Read more from Jonathan Schanzer at the Weekly Standard…

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/un-combating-terror-finance-convene-sudan-state-sponsor-terror_719277.html

Here is how that works:

• As we know from historical records and contemporary statements from Islamic leaders, the purpose of Shariah Finance/Islamic economics is to promote Shariah itself.

• Islamic imperialists are now using the credit markets to force Shariah-compliance worldwide, not just among and between Muslims.

• Sukuk impose Shariah-compliance two ways:

1. Islamic issuers increasingly issue Sukuk rather than conventional debt instruments. Therefore, creditors who want to invest in the credit markets are compelled to invest their money in a Shariah-compliant way.

2. On the flipside, Islamic investors who invest in the credit markets are increasingly insisting on Shariah-compliance, thus compelling issuers/borrowers to issue Sukuk instead of conventional credit instruments, such as debentures. This is happening in the sovereign debt markets, as well as the corporate debt markets. The power wielded by oil-rich Islamic nations, institutional and individual investors makes this form of Islamic imperialism to impose Shariah-compliance globally potentially very powerful.

Still many Western observers don’t know what Sukuk are. The financial firm Clifford Chance has published an Introduction to Sukuk. Now, we’re sure they didn’t have Shariah Finance Watch in mind when they posted this guide online, so don’t be surprised if you read their guide if it take a rosy view of Shariah Finance and Islamic bonds. Nevertheless, it is a useful document for those of us who seek to understand what the Shariah Finance industry is doing to spread Shariah around the globe:

http://www.cliffordchance.com/publicationviews/publications/2013/04/introduction_to_sukuk.html

In fact, it’s struggling and financial firms are abandoning it.

One reason is that the weapon of choice in Shariah-Compliant Finance, sukuk, also known as Islamic bonds or Shariah bonds, lack liquidity and Shariah-compliant firms lack access to liquid assets as a result of Shariah rules.

Now, the Shariah Finance industry is pushing for rules to be relaxed…something that seems like a very bad idea…

http://www.gulf-times.com/business/191/details/350936/uk-rules-unfit-for-shariah-banks-hinder-sukuk-growth

Outgoing Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was swarmed by a group of citizens protesting the loss of their savings in the Tabriz Nasr Secured Loans Fund. Local websites report that the crowd stopped the president’s vehicle and chanted slogans, demanding government intervention in their situation.

The report indicates that one of the protesters was briefly “entangled” with Ahmadinejad.

The investors, who lost the savings they’d put in the Tabriz Nasr Secured Loans Fund, reportedly have been staging protests in front of the governor’s office for several days.

ISNA reports that Ahmadinejad assured the crowd that he would raise the issue at today’s cabinet meeting with the head of the Central Bank with the aim of finding a satisfactory solution to the loss of people’s savings.

The Ahmadinejad administration has been repeatedly accused of mishandling the economy.

http://www.payvand.com/news/13/apr/1193.html

The market for sukuk is growing rapidly, especially in the sovereign debt sector.

By the end of 2013, it is expected that the sukuk market will have reached $275 billion sukuk issued for the year.

http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentid=20130422162462

Some of that lawfare has been directed against those who point out those who finance Jihad. The most notable example was the libel tourism lawsuit against Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld, author of Funding Evil.

That’s why the report linked below should hearten us all. Some brave westerners are starting to turn the tables on the financial jihadists by filing lawsuits against financial institutions involved in terror financing…

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-3445_162-57580597/suing-to-stop-terror-funding/?tag=socsh

By all accounts, the Tsarnaevs were far from destitute. Yet there is no indication anywhere that they had jobs. They evidently had credit cards, so their transactions can be tracked. They had an apartment, one wife, a child, at least one car and a health club membership. One traveled overseas, the other reportedly liked to smoke pot. Both of their parents were back in Russia.

How were they living? How were they supporting themselves?

Beyond these specific questions focusing on the Tsarnaevs, there is the wider issue of the Chechan jihad overall and luckily there has been some analysis as to the financial aspects of that warfare to establish the religion. It comes to us courtesy of Money Jihad blog:

First, Money Jihad blog introduces us to the “Islamic International Peacekeeping Brigade,” which was identified long ago as the primary conduit for funding the Chechan Jihadis. Where did the money come from? From Saudi Arabia, of course…

http://moneyjihad.wordpress.com/2013/04/19/north-caucasus-jihadists-money-traces-back-to-saudi-arabia-and-osama-bin-laden/

Next, Money Jihad brings back an important report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), which points out the role that the internet has played in fundraising for Caucasus jihad…It will be especially interesting to see if these web sites played any role in activating the Tsarnaev brothers…

http://moneyjihad.wordpress.com/2013/04/22/websites-crucial-to-funding-caucasus-jihad/