Assalamu alaykum wa rahmatulah

Does anyone know if/how Interpal’s problem has been resolved ie what there current course of action is, etc.?

Apparently Barclays Bank has given the well known Muslim charity, Ummah Welfare Trust, 30 days’ notice until their bank accounts are to be closed.

Apparently they’re claiming some commercial reasoning?

It seems like another case of Islamophobia within the banking sector…. another attack against the Muslim community.

Does anyone know who we can/should write to?

JazakumAllahu khairan

Wassalamu ‘alaykum wa rahmatullah

Inna lillah hee wa inna elay hee rajeyoon!!!!

I asked my father today why IBB can’t become a clearing bank. The summarised version of his answer was:

All cheques in the UK are cleared via the Bank of England. You can only clear cheques through them if they have assigned you ‘clearing bank’ status, and have granted you an official sort code. Select criteria mean that most smaller banks, like IBB, would not be eligible for clearing bank status, forcing them to go via the long-established, big banks, like Lloyds TSB, Natwest, etc, to access the BoE’s cheque clearing facility.

I imagine a month (now less than that) might not be enough time for IBB to change clearing banks, and even if they did, there is no guarantee that the new institution would not do the same thing (unless this was agreed beforehand, perhaps?). I do suspect IBB’s hands are tied in this respect, which means we have to concentrate on Lloyds TSB, and see if there is anything we can do in the legal department, insha’Allah.

I have no particular ideas though… I pray that someone else does.

If you want to hit them hard, contact the cheif executive

Eric Daniels
Cheif Executive Lloyds TSB Bank plc
25 Gresham Street
London
EC2V 7HN

Ask him to reverse the decision and if they don’t listen then move your account and tell everyone else to do the same.

We are NOT going to let them get away with this insha’Allah.

Today I attended a meeting in London with the new ENGAGE group (see here) and we discussed the LTSB/IBB/Interpal situation. Basically, LTSB is one of a small number of “clearing banks”, and they have the right to unilaterally refuse to clear any transaction. They are the banking equivalent of an internet backbone: much as an internet backbone can refuse packets (bits of data) from any source for any reason (often because of spamming), a clearing bank can refuse to clear a transaction for any reason. One of the ENGAGE guys told us that LTSB were doing this because of international pressure, i.e. American pressure, because Interpal are still legal in the UK, and the Bank of England could have put a stop to any charity if there was grounds to suspect them of supporting terrorism, but there is none. Interpal has been investigated twice in the UK, and cleared both times, as is widely known.

I am still at a loss to what I might do in response. I do not know if I could take my business elsewhere, because my capital levels are so small, and I started my Lloyds account as a student as part of their student account deal. At the time, I did not want to go to Barclays because of an incident in which a couple borrowed large amounts of money from them under one manager, which a new manager decided to recall immediately, which led to ruinous legal action for that couple. At the end of the day, usurers are usurers. They are all scumbags.

Hasbona Allah we na3ma il Wakeel!

Lloyds TSB would quickly change their tune if IBB showed any courage in support of their Muslim brothers and sisters in Palestine, instead of threatening their Muslim brothers and acting as the lapdog of the Kafir bankers in such a cowardly way. It’s very clear that IBB probably have an ulterior motive for going along with Lloyds TSB’s request. They probably think Interpal is too much trouble for them. Or they are not making enough money out of Interpal. (That’s right – not making any money from the humanitarian charity that’s helping NEEDY Palestinians!!!)

So while you’re complaining to Lloyds TSB about this (and you should be!) make sure you also complain to the “Islamic” Bank of Britian, and tell them that if they are not prepared to support their own Muslim brothers and sisters in Palestine then we do not consider them to be “sharia compliant” and we will be closing our accounts and telling every other Muslim we know to do the same thing. If you want the Ummah to support you then you need to show support to the Ummah in it’s times of need. If you turn your back on the Ummah (which is what IBB is doing) then the Ummah will turn its back on you.