Shariah is gaining a foothold in the Indian Ocean island nation of Mauritius through the Shariah Finance Trojan Horse.
Mauritius is a beautiful, popular tourist resort destination and the prospect of Shariah gaining a foothold there cannot be something which will be positive in the long-term for the hospitality industry. Already, shariah-compliant investment funds have to avoid the industries upon which Mauritius is dependent for its economy.
What impact will the influence of Islamic petro-wealth have on the nation’s hospitality industry? While the hospitality industry in Dubai has prospered, the expansion of Shariah has in fact started to have some impact on tourists’ activity there. The same is certainly possible in Mauritius.
The island nation is pursuing Shariah-Compliant Finance to attract more money to its offshore banking business and specifically to get more instruments to market that provide short-term liquidity–especially sukuk, or Islamic bonds.
This could be a bad bet, since the sukuk market has performed dismally and their default rate has been rather high.
Not surprisingly, one of the chief facilitators of the movement of Shariah into Mauritius has been one of the real Western villains in this whole industry: HSBC. SFW readers may recall that HSBC employs the hateful Jihadist Mufti Taqi Usmani on its Shariah Advisory Board.
http://af.reuters.com/article/investingNews/idAFJOE56L0KZ20090722
