By Tarek Fatah, Author and Columnist, Canada

It is with astonishment that I read the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) announcement last week where it proposed the opening of “Islamic window” in conventional banks for “gradual” introduction of Sharia-compliant Islamic banking in the country. The announcement said the introduction of Islamic banking was to ensure financial inclusion of those sections of the society [read radical Muslims] that remain excluded due to religious reasons. That is appalling. On one hand India is being pushed into the 21st century by the wise actions of digitising the economy and discouraging the cash economy, and on the other hand Muslim Indians are being surrendered to medievalists. Whether its naiveté or appeasement, , the RBI announcement revealed that Islamists within India now have access to the highest levels of the Reserve Bank and have managed to secure their place in manipulating the most vulnerable amongst India’s Muslims.

Islamic banking traces its roots to the 1920s, but did not start until the late 1970s, and owes much of its foundation to the Islamist doctrine of two people: Indian-born Abul Ala Maududi of the Jamaat-e-Islami and Hassan al-Banna of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. While these two pillars of the Pan-Islamist movement propagated jihad and war against the West, they also recognized the role international financial institutions could play in carrying out their political objectives. Since 1928, when it was created, the Muslim Brotherhood has placed a high emphasis on the creation of a so-called Islamic economic system. Banna and his successor Syed Qutb even laid down principles of Islamic finance.

Millard Burr and Robert Collins in their book ‘Alms for Jihad’ claim that the Muslim Brotherhood watched, waited, and learned the management of money that was essential to finance a worldwide organization devoted to spreading their Islamist ideology. But the theory was only put into practice once the dictator General Zia-ul-Haq established Sharia law in Pakistan, forcing the country’s public-sector banks to run their operations based on Islamic principles and without the role of interest. Two senior Muslim banking experts-turned-authors have written scathing critiques of Sharia banking: Muhammad Saleem has labelled the practice as nothing more than deception, while Timur Kuran has suggested that the entire exercise was “a convenient pretext for advancing broad Islamic objectives and for lining the pockets of religious officials.”

Why would Indian banks contribute to this masquerade is a question for ordinary Indians, especially Muslims to ask.

In his book Islamic Banking — A $300 Billion Deception, Saleem says, “Islamic banks do not practice what they preach: they all charge interest, but disguised in Islamic garb. Thus they engage in deceptive and dishonest banking practices.” He writes: “Proponents of Islamic banking say that Islam bans all interest. But an understanding of pre-Islamic and Islamic history and keeping in mind the context would lead one to conclude that what the Quran bans is usury, not interest. Usury can be defined as interest above the legal or socially acceptable rate. Phrased differently, usury is the exploitative, exorbitant interest rate.” Quranic verses that address the question of the role and the question of loans and debts include:

Al Baqarah (2:275): “God hath permitted trade and forbidden usury. Those who after receiving direction from their Lord, desist, shall be pardoned for the past; their case is for God [to judge]; but those who repeat [the offence] are companions of the Fire: They will abide therein [forever].”

Al Nisa (4:161): “And their taking usury though indeed they were forbidden it and their devouring the property of people falsely, and We have prepared for the unbelievers from among them a painful chastisement.”

Every translation of the Quran into the English language has rendered the Arabic word riba as “usury,” not “interest,” yet Islamists have deliberately portrayed bank interest, the cost of borrowing money, as usury. For Islamists, a cost to renting a car is legitimate, but renting capital should have no cost. To this end, they have created exotic products with names that are foreign to much of the world’s Muslim population. This is where interest can be masked under the niqaab of Mudraba, Musharaka, Murabaha, and Ijara, Arabic names given to various banking products to make them appear Islamic.

In his brilliant book ‘Islam and Mammon: The Economic Predicaments of Islamism’, Timur Kuran says the effort to introduce Sharia banking “has promoted the spread of anti-modern currents of thought all across the Islamic world. It has also fostered an environment conducive to Islamist militancy.” Islam’s essence is its quest for equality and social justice. Muhammad Saleem says that any banking system that purports to be “Islamic” should answer this question: By supposedly staying away from interest and sharing risks with their clients, were they able to help make the economic system more just, fair and equitable, and honest? Unfortunately, Shariah banking has not alleviated poverty or generated economic development but it has been a boon to the mullah class and the yuppie shariah bankers who operate a corrupt nexus in which the mullahs are paid hefty retainers to approve of deals that are clearly not sharia compliant.

Deceit and dishonesty are being practiced against ordinary Muslims in the name of Islam even while they are made to feel that their interaction with mainstream banks is un-Islamic and sinful. Muslims have overwhelmingly rejected banks that operate in a supposedly interest-free environment, but we are a billion strong worldwide, and even if a small minority falls prey to the Islamist propaganda much damage is done to ordinary Muslims by charlatan profiteers. Once more we see an example of Islam attempting to bring justice to the poor while Islamists make it difficult for the poor to access funds they don’t have. Indians will be well-served if the RBI and the Government of India read Muslim critics of Islamic banking before depriving its Muslims citizens of yet more rights and giving charlatan Mullahs even more power over Muslims’ lives than they already have through the Muslim Personal Law Board.

Photo Credit : Shutterstock

Like this: Like Loading...