Cross-posted from The Wall Street Journal By KATY BURNE A group of 16 banks resolved a quandary that has dogged the $1 trillion Islamic financing market for nearly three decades:
The Islamic finance industry has often battled with the question: How Islamic is Islamic banking? The question’s pertinence was raised by Sheikh Muhammad Taqi Usmani who said that 85% of Sukuk, or Islamic bonds, were un-Islamic.
While we are all worried about the recession, and many people are facing tough times with downturned businesses and lay-offs, we are still taught to say alhamdulillah ‘ala kulli hal.
For Muslims, this is an intriguing conclusion. Banks, the source of so much riba, would be really quite useless if the tax rules for dividends and interest were either uniform (i.e. tax deductibility on both) or if there were no tax (like in an Islamic state). So, if perfect market symmetry existed, say in Dubai (where there is no tax), theoretically debt would add no value. Had we had no debt, wouldn’t we have been so much better financially in the world these days??
Lessons from the financial crisis we are seeing.
Phillips argues that this “financialization- a sign of late-stage debilitation, marked by excessive debt, great disparity between rich and poor, and unfolding economic decline, constituting the third major peril hanging over the future of the US†[in addition to oil and Christian fundamentalism]
In view of the current skyrocketing oil prices and its effect on world markets, one might wonder what exactly is going on in the world?! Oil prices have reached historical and hysterical records. There seems to be no sign of control or breakthrough over these prices any time soon. What exactly is going on in the global markets, and the oil industry in particular, is far from being a mystery.
This is a good reminder about paying off debts. He touches upon doing hajj vs. paying off debts, and also includes examples from the Seerah about when the Prophet (saw) himself went into debt, and what the circumstances were.
Talk available in video and mp3.
As house foreclosures are on the rise, the gov-T is working on a bill to let the government back loans for at-risk borrowers. This has been born out of the
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