The article linked below has two important aspects that those who want to prevent Shariah infiltration should be concerned about.
Deloitte sees growth in Shariah-Compliant Finance because of growing interest from non-Islamic markets.
The article specifically names Japan and South Korea, where there are few if any Muslims. This is a very important point because it makes it clear that the promoters of Shariah-Compliant Finance seek to attract money from non-Muslims to their products. And they are willing to do this by concealing, to a great extent, the Islamic origins of their investment philosophy.
At the Harvard Islamic Finance conference at Harvard Law School held in April 2008, I personally sat and listened as a man suggested removing all references to Islam and Shariah from the marketing materials so as to accomplish just that goal.
That deceitful philosophy is the reason why it is so galling to see a firm like Deloitte claim that non-Islamic markets will be attracted to Shariah-Compliant Finance because of its “transparency,” which is the other aspect of the article that you should pay attention to.
There is nothing transparent about Shariah-Compliant Finance. In fact, it is one of the most opaque financial products and systems in existence. In fact, Center for Security Policy General Counsel, David Yerushalmi, a leading legal scholar who has studied Shariah-Compliant Finance more extensively than any other Westerner, wrote an authoritative thesis on this subject called “Shariah’s Black Box.” You can download this publication from the Center for Security Policy web site:
http://www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org/p17571.xml
One of the chief areas that Shariah scholars like to conceal carefully is the whole system of zakat and purification, which results in funds being sent to Islamic charities that they themselves select. Given that numerous Islamic charities openly fund Jihad and dozens have been shut down for supporting terrorism, it is no wonder that the Shariah scholars are reluctant to speak of this important aspect of Shariah-Compliant Finance.
One wonders if Deloitte bothered to ask…
http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/2/25/business/20090225073136&sec=business
