Islamic Banking (4)

Post 34--: 

Sorry for the interruption on this series, but now we're back on track.  I cannot predict at this point how long we will keep going on this subject.  It's a biggie, though most of us may not yet have experienced any of it personally but have only read about it. But it's coming and it may not be long before you will have Islamic banking as your system of choice.  It may not necessarily be a specifically Muslim bank you are looking at. It could be a main stream bank that has incorporated Islamic accounts or even whole departments in its offerings.  Even with Muslim-controlled banks of this nature, you generally do not have to be Muslim to conduct your banking business with them any more than you have to be a secularist to deal with secular capitalist banking. If you want to know my sources or you want more details, I refer you to my volume 8-2, chapter 9.  You can find that on < lulu.com > under e-books.

I apologize for the strange way in which the text overlaps the left margin.  It has something to do with copying it from that book. It will not budge, try as I may.  That brings with it the difficulty that I cannot edit the material across the border while in the editing mode, for I cannot see it.  If you, my reader, have any advice on correcting this, please offer your help. I am not proud, at least not in this respect.  Even this morning my 11-year old granddaughter Asia Tanis had to advice me on a certain procedure. The first time she served as my advisor was eight years ago. She was three at the time!

Blind Condemnation

There are many Westerners, including Christians, who look at

the proliferation of sharia banking in theWest with ColdWar eyes.

They see an ever-advancing Islamic bulldozer that they fear will

eventually take over the banking and business sector along with the

rest of life. Hence, sometimes without doing any careful analysis as

to its merits and demerits, they simply condemn it and implicitly

put their stamp of approval on the secular banking establishment.

16 The attitude of these Christians is as astounding as the

shamelessness of capitalism’s economic captains and as amazing as

the failure of the US Government to monitor these developments

before they unfolded. Blindly prefer that kind of raw secular system

over a system that puts ethics at the front, ethics, moreover, that

show affinity with Christian thought?

Patrick Wood's Miracle
Patrick Wood, founder of an online magazine, The August

Review, published a long harangue that begins with a Biblical quotation.

Then comes a description of sharia and its banking system,

all in a spirit of the crudest hostility. Then the story about

howWestern banking systems are incorporating sharia into their

operations. And then the clincher: “International bankers have

long ago proven themselves to be completely amoral when it comes

to money. They bankrolled the Bolshevik Revolution in 1918 just

as blithely as they bankrolled Hitler in the 1930’s.” And this

“Christian” prefers that raw amoral system to one that has some

ethical balls?! Without any responsible analysis and comparison? It

really is unbelievable. If I did not believe in “miracles” before,

Wood has just forced me.

BanC

Connections with Terrorism?

True, Wood did allege connections between sharia banking,

Wahabi school of Islam and even terrorism. Initially I was instinctively

inclined to doubt that, given his wild kind of presentation

and the merger in process with the Western banking systems.

Surely, I first thought, Western banks would be aware of such connections

and guard against them. Upon second thought, ifWestern

banks supported the Bolsheviks and the Nazis, what would prevent

them from supporting today’s terrorists? If the bottom line is not

ethics or service but money…. Wood totally puzzles me. If he

rejects sharia banking for their connections with terrorism, why

would he support the “amoral”—his own term— Western system

that had similar terrorist connections in the past if not in the present?

Things just don’t add up!