I am not an admirer of the efforts by wealthy Muslims to get all
advantages of Western Financial Law and at the same time retain lip
service to Islamic principles. I have recently described it in this
group as "an exercise in applied hypocrisy".
Lately I have discovered that there a movement afoot to prevent
financial institutions from offering products they call "shariah-
compliant". It only takes a moment to discover that this movement is
fueled by the crudest kind of Islamophobia.
Unfortunately Islamophobia sells well these days.
I cannot see how Sahriah-compliant finance is a danger to anyone -
apart from the extra costs imposed upon Muslims because they have to
spend appreciable energy arranging their transactions to not look
contrary to the Shariah. The use of disguised interest instead of the
real thing is now so familiar and unsurprising that, so far as I know,
there is nothing that can be done if the Shariah is ignored that
cannot be done with sufficient contortions and called Shariah-
compliant.
This kind of Shariah-compliance costs a little - but not an excessive
amount. But there are two possible objections (neither of which seem
to see any danger in Shariah-compliance). There are people like me who
think nothing is gained and much is lost by not calling a spade a
spade. And there are devout Muslims who feel, in my opinion correctly,
that this so-called Shariah-compliance is a fraud.
As I see it, there will guidelines in existence (there may already be)
showing how to do any transactions in "Shariah-compliant" fa****on and
indicating the extra cost. Any Muslim will then be able to easily
evaluate how much he or she is willing to pay in extra cost for how
much apparent compliance.
Silly, perhaps, but in no way dangerous. Trying to prevent financial
institutions from offering shariah-compliance is not justified.
But then most of the Islamophobes have already passed beyond the
limits of sober reason.
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