Catastrophe - Dick Morris [121]
In 2006, “a thirty-four-year-old mother who was forcibly raped was ultimately tried and convicted of adultery, and was ordered to be stoned to death.”
The publication of cartoons in Denmark that were “deemed disrespectful of Mohammad” sparked protests, leading to demonstrations and “the killing of many people.”475
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But the real goal of those pushing for Shariah-compliant funds at major financial institutions is to build them into the investments of the huge sovereign wealth funds amassed by Islamic countries. If these powerhouses, which control up to $5 trillion in assets (even after the recent worldwide financial crisis) can submit their portfolios to Shariah-compliance experts, the power of these clerics could become huge.
Originally, Shariah-complaint financing was eschewed by the sovereign wealth funds. Perhaps more surprising, it was actually unpopular among Muslims, many of whom simply didn’t trust the Shariah funds to give them good returns on their capital or even to keep their money safe. As Alexiev notes, “there is, of course, a small captive audience of devout believers that would practice it even if they were losing money, but the vast majority [of the world’s Muslim investors] looks askance at Shariah Compliant Financing.”476
He cites the example of Pakistan, where only 3.5 percent of all assets are managed in compliance with Shariah, despite an official edict—issued in 1980—promoting the concept. Alexiev notes that similar conditions prevail in most Muslim countries.477 So to encourage Muslims to invest in Shariah-compliant funds, it became essential for Western financial institutions to embrace the concept. “Western involvement is key because most Muslims, rich or poor, do not trust their own banks and need the West to legitimate Islamic finance.”478
These Muslim investors found eager and willing partners in the Western banks, which, Alexiev says, “jumped into [Shariah-compliant financing] for one reason only and that is the lure of many tens of billions in transaction fees from an industry that currently has nearly a $1 trillion under management.”479
Still, some ask if Shariah-compliant financing can really be all that bad. Shouldn’t Muslims be allowed to invest in companies they believe in?
Of course—if they had a choice. And there’s the rub. Devout Muslims living in the West are allowed to use regular banks in the absence of Shariah-compliant alternatives, under the Shariah doctrine of “extreme necessity.” But, as Alexiev points out, “once [Shariah-compliant finance] institutions do exist, you are religiously obligated to patronize them exclusively. Thus, by allowing the spread of Shariah compliant financing in the West, we are, wittingly or not, pushing the Muslims in the hands of the Islamists.”480
The current flirtation with Shariah-compliant financing of the world’s major banks and investment houses is bad enough. But if Shariah-compliant financing ever marries the sovereign wealth funds from Muslim countries, they could constitute a massive financial power, capable of transforming Western civilization. Or destroying it.481
The Center for Security Policy warns that “it is very likely that Islamic banking and Sovereign Wealth Funds [from Islamic countries] are rapidly becoming one and the same phenomenon. This would mean that at some point in the near future, if not already, Sovereign Wealth Funds will become an instrument for promoting and legitimating Shariah in the West.”482
Even after the market crashes of 2008 and 2009, Sovereign Wealth Funds have massive amounts of cash to invest. Although not all of these funds are Islamic—some are Russian and Chinese and from Western nations—many of them are.483
Once these funds become fully linked with Islamic sovereign wealth funds, their financial clout may well multiply dramatically. But sovereign wealth funds can’t just come to American banks and ask them to invest in Islamic causes or not to invest in any “tainted” industry. They can, however, use the premise of a Shariah-compliant financial vehicle to maintain that they are simply