If ever there was evidence of the sinister nature of Shariah-Compliant Finance, it can be found in Iran.
Iran is the world’s foremost terrorist-sponsoring nation, a country which sponsors Hezbollah, HAMAS and Al Qaeda.
Iran also supports the Taliban with weaponry in their fight against NATO forces in Afghanistan. And it is common knowledge that Iran is the principle supplier and training ground for insurgents in Iraq.
On top of all this, Iran is working feverishly on nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.
Oh, and there is one other thing about Iran which you should know: Iran dominates Shariah-Compliant Finance.
According to The Banker magazine in the UK, Iranian banks now hold $235 billion of shariah-compliant assets, which makes up 37.5% of total shariah-compliant assets worldwide.
In fact, six of the ten largest Shariah-Compliant financial institutions worldwide are Iranian, including the top ranked institution, Bank Melli.
These same Shariah-Compliant institutions are under sanctions from Western nations for their role in financing terrorism and Iran’s weapons programs.
The Banker appears to be a shameless cheerleader for Iran. In the article linked below, the publication acknowledges that the domestic violence and protests over the sham election in Iran do not “bode well” for the future of Iran’s economy. However, no where is it even inferred that Iran’s support for terrorism around the world and its rogue nuclear enrichment program could be bad for the country’s economy. To ignore this 800-pound gorilla in the room is equivalent to journalistic malpractice.
The Banker article mentions several Iranian banks by name and it is worth mentioning again that all of the banks mentioned in The Banker article are terrorist entities:
• Bank Melli
• Bank Saderat
• Bank Mellat
• Bank Tejarat
• Bank Sepah
• Bank Keshavarzi
• Bank of Industry and Mine
All of these banks, which The Banker so gleefully writes about in their article, are listed by the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control in its fact sheet on sanctions against Iran:
http://www.treas.gov/offices/enforcement/ofac/programs/iran/iran.pdf
It is quite significant that the one factor that The Banker claims is helping these terrorist banks to stay profitable and growing is the rise of Islamic finance:
Iran’s banks were somewhat insulated from the global financial turmoil affecting the developed world. Although profits across the sector remained relatively static in The Banker’s Top 1000 listings this year, a boom in Islamic financing has added much-needed ballast to banks’ bottom lines.
Here we have a definitive statement about Shariah-Compliant Finance helping banks which are under sanctions for their involvement in terrorism.
This is smoking gun evidence of the true nature of Shariah-Compliant Finance.
http://www.thebanker.com/news/fullstory.php/aid/6785/Islamic_banking_keeps_Iran_recession-proof.html
