Thursday, March 20, 2008

islamic mortgages

SunRise Equities is the latest shariah-compliant financial services firm to pop up on the radar. Located in Chicago and incorporated in 2001, SunRise caters to the faithful by providing competent and innovative shariah compliant investment products and services.

A Chicago Tribune article said since the 9/11 attacks middle eastern money came under greater scrutiny, worrying investors in those regions that their money was no longer safe in Western banks. That said, many of them chose to invest locally, adding to the demand for Islamic banking.

Now at this point I have to say, prior to the attacks muslim investors were fine with receiving and paying interest. What happened? Tighter scrutiny, a closer look as to where the funds were actually coming from and going to? Was this institution born out of a need for secrecy? I believe so, especially when the sharia law overview is so open to interpretation;

Overview
Sunrise is committed to promoting the concept of Shariah/Islamic Financing in the USA.
Why Interest is forbidden in Islam

  • It is thought to be exploitative for both, the borrower and the lender
  • Money is not considered to be a “commodity” in itself but a measure of value, hence it cannot be traded, “Buying money” in the form of deposits at a given price “interest” and selling the same at a higher interest rate in the form of loans is not allowed

That's it folks, no links to a greater explanation or anything, this is it free to make the rules fit the situation as seen fit by the board of trustees. And confuse the FICA, Homeland Security, the FBI and CIA. Nice....

3 comments:

SkyePuppy said...

So how does this bank stay in "business"? They don't pay money on deposits, so how many people are going to want to put their savings there? And they don't charge interest on loans, so how do they get any operating capital? There's gotta be something else that's not included in their Overview.
(pause while I go look at their website)
OK. Their loans are "cost plus profit." So they really do charge interest; they just don't call it that, and by calling it "profit" they're Sharia-compliant.

They're allowed to profit off each other just as long as they don't "exploit" each other by calling it interest. Lovely.

janice said...

Yes, that's what I got from it as well. Clever no....

Dinah Lord said...

Sharia finance is the biggest scam to come down the pike since the Muslim Brotherhood - which interestingly enough, is where the whole concept got its start.

This paper provides the best breakdown on the whole scam. It's worth printing out and reading, IMO.

It's a classic case of figures never lie, liars figure.