Big U.S. banks racing to become Sharia compliant and what this means for you

The following article is reposted with permission from Technocracy News and Trends

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil  – 1 Tim. 6:10 

By PATRICK WOOD

Either global bankers are seducing Islamic dictators, or vice versa.

Even if they are seducing each other, the result will be the same: Islamic/Sharia banking is coming to the United States and other Western nations, thanks to global banks such as Citigroup, HSBC, Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs.

With Great Britain pledging to become the Islamic banking center of the world, the stampede by global banks to enter the world of Islamic banking is well underway.

Western banking met Islam many decades ago, but only began to sleep with her a few years ago. Since then, it is has become a wanton and open affair.

The implications for the West, and especially for the U.S., are staggering. Because all Islamic banking products must be created and offered according to strict Sharia law, global banks are doing for Islam what it could never do on its own: Give legitimacy to Sharia and infiltrate it into the fabric of Western society.

What is Islamic banking?

Simply put, Islamic banking and finance creates, sells and services products that are in strict accordance with Sharia. In the Islamic culture, it is referred to as “Sharia finance” and covers the practices of banking, investment, bonds, loans, brokerage, etc.

To ensure Sharia compliance, banks must hire Sharia scholars to review and approve each product and practice as “halal,” the Muslim equivalent of kosher in Judaism. Because there is a shortage of such scholars, there is competition between banks to find the best expert to sit on their boards. This provides the highest legitimacy to each ruling because it is made at the director rather management level.

It should be noted that most of these scholars are from the school of Wahhabi/Salafi Sharia in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere, holding views diametrically opposed to the basic values of the U.S. Constitution and Western civilization.

See related story: Islamic World Warms to Coming Cashless Society

Sharia finance has many differences from orthodox banking: Notably, it cannot charge interest (usury) and it calls for alms giving (zakat). It also calls for avoidance of excessive risk and may not be associated in any way with gambling, drinking alcohol, eating pork, etc.

Zakat demands 2.5 percent of revenue be donated to Islamic charity. If Western banks follow this rule, their contributions will be staggering. It is certain that a portion of this money will end up in the hands of radical Muslims who are sworn to destroy the U.S. and replace its governing principles — from those ensconced in the U.S. Constitution to those found in Sharia.

Sharia finance is a recent phenomenon. There were very few Islamic banks prior to 1980. However, with the Khomeini revolution in Iran in 1979, Sharia was summarily imposed throughout Iran and Sharia finance took off.

The dark side of Sharia

Sharia is the legal and judicial system of Islam that is imposed on many Islamic countries in the Middle East. It is the specific embodiment of the totalitarian ideology practiced by the Taliban, Iranian Mullahs and Saudi Wahhabis.

Sharia is perpetuated by claiming to have its roots in the Quran, but in fact it is mostly the product of rulings and dictates made by Islamic scholars and caliphs over several centuries.

For non-Muslims, Sharia is best known for its medieval, harsh brutality. Many rulings handed down by Sharia courts have shocked the Western world. For instance:

• The December 2007 “teddy bear” case in Sudan, where a British teacher was sentenced to 40 lashes and a year in jail for allowing her students to name their teddy bear “Mohammad.” Islamic mobs demonstrated in the streets and called for her execution.
• The November 2007 case where a 19-year-old gang-rape victim in Saudi Arabia received a sentence of 200 lashes for riding in the car with her rapists.
• In 2006, a 34-year-old mother was forcibly raped and ultimately tried and convicted of adultery, and was ordered to be stoned to death.

Sharia demands total and unquestioned submission. Its subjects are told that Sharia is given by Allah and that whatever befalls them (good or bad) is Allah’s will. To question a judgment under Sharia (right or wrong) is to question Islam itself and will only bring harsher punishment. If a person receives harsh punishment for something they didn’t do, the rationale is that Allah could and would have prevented it if that had been his will. This fatalistic and deterministic approach allows Sharia rulers to get away with virtually anything that enters their head.

To the average Western mind, Sharia is no more than a medieval, barbaric code that somehow survived to the 21st century. It flies in the face of Western law, philosophy, liberty and freedom. Furthermore, it is the vehicle used to call for the complete destruction of the West and in particular the United States, which then will be replaced by Sharia dictatorships.

How the banking rocket took off

At the behest of global trade moguls, numerous Free Trade Zones (FTZ) were created throughout the Islamic world that were full of windfall conditions.

For instance, the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), is a 110-acre free trade zone that was founded in 2004 in Dubai, UAE. According to the DIFC website, participants will enjoy “zero tax rate on income and profits, 100 percent foreign ownership, no restrictions on foreign exchange or capital/profit repatriation, operational support and business continuity facilities.”

Morgan Stanley’s application was one of the first approved by the Dubai Financial Services Authority to operate within the DIFC.

The director-general of the DIFC Authority, Omar Bin Sulaiman, welcomed Morgan Stanley by stating:

“This is a testimony to our status as an international financial center of repute. Morgan Stanley is a highly reputed organisation and to have them here at the DIFC is a vindication of our strategy to create a world-class financial hub for the region. The opportunity available within the region, along with the state-of-the-art infrastructure and the international regulatory framework of the DIFC, provides the ideal platform for institutions such as Morgan Stanley to grow their business.” 

DIFC and similar Free Trade Zones are a banker’s nirvana into which global bankers have rushed headlong to establish regional financial centers.

And the payoff? A chance to enter and then dominate the Islamic banking industry. Such banking has over $1.5 trillion on the table today, and is growing at a steady and explosive rate of over 15 percent annually.

Good old Western know-how

Islamic banking’s youthful existence is underscored by the fact that its largest and most prestigious international conference, World Islamic Banking Conference (WIBC), has met for a mere 14 years. The most recent meeting just concluded in Bahrain and attracted over 1,000 banking delegates from 35 countries.

Two years ago, the 12th annual WIBC (2005) conference kicked off with the Governor’s Table session titled “Regulation & Business: Creating a Framework for Islamic Banking & Finance to Thrive.” Panel member and speaker number-two was David Mullins, CEO of Vega Asset Management in New York.

Who is Mullins? He is in the white-hot core of international banking.

Mullins was vice chairman and governor of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System under Greenspan during George H.W. Bush’s presidency. As governor, he represented the Fed at meetings of the G-10 Governors, the International Monetary Fund, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and the Bank for International Settlements. Prior to that, he was the Assistant Secretary for Domestic Finance at the U.S. Treasury Department.

The next topic at the Governor’s Table was “Industry in Transition: Trends & Innovations for Islamic Financial Institutions in an Increasingly Competitive Global Market,” where several speakers included Dr. Samuel L. Hayes III and Jacob Schiff, professor of Investment Banking Emeritus at Harvard Business School.

According to Hayes:

“The growing acceptance among Muslims of Halal savings and investment products over the past decade has been impressive. Consequently, a number of conventional Western financial institutions have eagerly moved into this market as the array of investment vehicles has broadened.”

The closed-door CEO strategy session centered on the McKinsey Competitiveness Report, developed in conjunction with the World Islamic Banking Conference by the elite New York-based McKinsey & Co.

In fact, McKinsey & Co. was listed as a Strategic Partner of the WIBC, alongside of global accounting firm Ernst & Young and the consummate global investment banker, Goldman Sachs.

Another key speaker was Robert Kaplan, Baker Foundation professor at the Harvard Business School and acclaimed author of many management books like Balanced Scorecard and Strategy Maps. In a pre-conference press release, Kaplan stated:

“I look forward to presenting to Islamic banking leaders the latest ideas on strategy execution that delivers performance breakthroughs. I will present how successful organizations have built strategy maps around a common value proposition, communicated to and motivated the workforce, and installed a new Office of Strategy Management to sustain strategy execution.”

On Dec. 6, 2007, the general manager of the Bank for International Settlements, Malcolm Knight, addressed the Islamic Financial Services Board Forum in Frankfurt, Germany:

“Clearly, there is expanding demand for these products, and a closely associated desire on the part of banks, including non-Islamic banks, to provide Islamic financial services. The broadening appeal of Islamic finance is also evident in the move by large international banks and other private sector financial institutions to provide Islamic financial services.”

Mullins, Hayes, Kaplan, McKinsey, Goldman Sachs, Ernst & Young, Bank for International Settlements? Do you see the pattern?

The West is giving away the know-how, with gusto, to enable Sharia banking and guarantee its success throughout the world. And to what end?

Britain’s former PM Gordon Brown pointedly stated that he intends to make London the Islamic finance capital of the world.

At the June 13, 2006 Islamic Finance Trade Conference in London, Brown revealed:

“Today British banks are pioneering Islamic banking – London now has more banks supplying services under Islamic principles than any other Western financial center.”

[Since that time, London has succeeded in electing a Muslim mayor, Sidiq Khan]

Brown’s statements can only be taken as a challenge by the New York banking establishment to beat him to the finish line. It doesn’t matter who wins this race because the result will be the same: Sharia banking is quickly encircling the globe and forcing a de facto acceptance of Sharia law.

Conclusion

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 1930s. Fortunately for us, neither succeeded in conquering the world.

With Islam, the odds of it succeeding are radically different. To start with, there are already 1.6 billion Muslims in the world, and it is the fastest-growing religion in history. Secondly, the spread of Islam is richly financed by the oil that is extracted from Middle-Eastern countries. Thirdly, Islam has already infiltrated most of the West, especially Europe.

And now, Islam has behind it the combined support and encouragement of the entire global banking community.

The unholy alliance between Islam and global banking may be the final leg on the age-old quest for global domination. Don’t be surprised at the silence of the global elite the next time you hear Islamist mobs chant “Death to America” …their goals are now intertwined.