In this Fox News.com article, Mr. Nicholas Kaiser, fund manager at Amana Mutual Funds, creates a straw man and purposely distracts from the issues. He says that his funds screen SHAREHOLDERS, meaning they try to make sure that investors aren’t terrorists. This is ridiculous. Once again, no mention of the true nature of Shariah, no mention of zakat or purification. No disclosure about Shariah scholars. The promoters of Shariah-Compliant Finance are telling the media: “Pay no attention to the men behind the curtain, our shareholders aren’t terrorists.”
Incidentally, the way that financial institutions screen their shareholders is to cross-check against the OFAC list (Office of Foreign Assets Control). This is something they are REQUIRED to do by law anyway. All financial institutions must do this
Shariah-compliant banking, sometimes called Islamic banking, is growing in popularity in the Western and Islamic worlds. But critics say American interest in the system at a time of economic crisis is opening the door to increased Islamic influence in the American banking system. Worse yet, some fear the banks may be helping to finance international terrorism.
In Shariah-compliant banking, lenders may not charge interest and investors cannot make money from forbidden industries like gambling, alcohol, pork and pornography. Selling debt, devising derivatives and short selling are also prohibited, and investments must be closely tied to actual assets.
In the U.S., the Dow Jones Islamic Index tracks Shariah-compliant companies and funds, and funds have sprung up like the Amana Mutual Funds Trust and the Azzad Asset Management.
American investment funds, like those offered by TD Ameritrade and Charles Schwab, can invest in Shariah-compliant companies, and those companies can offer investments in American companies. Top holdings in the Azzad Ethical Midcap Fund, for example, include Western Digital Corp., Southwest Electric Co. and Apple Computer, Inc.
But allowing Shariah-compliant finance in the U.S. is green-lighting a seditious system that supports jihad, said Frank Gaffney, founder and president of the Center for Security Policy in Washington, D.C.
