Part III of Islam in Action blog’s exclusive Q&A with the CEO of University Islamic Bank

Over the past week, we have been following an exchange between the CEO of University Islamic Bank in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Stephen Ranzini, and Christopher Logan of Islam in Action blog. For those of you who missed the first two parts of this exchange, you can catch up here:

https://shariahfinancewatch.org/category/university-islamic-bank/

In Part 3 of this series, Mr. Ranzini makes some strong statements.

First of all, with regard to the AIG lawsuit in which the US Treasury is being sued for promoting a religious doctrine in violation of the 1st Amendment of the United States Constitution, Ranzini cynically dismisses the suit based on the fact that one of the attorneys who is working on the case, David Yerushalmi, happens to be Jewish. Overlooking the obvious troubling implications, I think it vitally significant to point out that the St. Thomas More Law Center is trying this case.

Mr. Ranzini claims to be a Catholic. Surely he is familiar with St. Thomas More? In case he isn’t, perhaps he would be interested in taking a look at this link:

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14689c.htm

Ranzini then compares Shariah to the YMCA. Again, he ignores the true nature of Shariah, a barbaric doctrine whose imposition is the main goal of Al Qaeda, Taliban and other Jihadist groups. Moreover, unlike the chair of his Shariah advisory board, the Deobandi Muslim Sheikh DeLorenzo, Ranzini disregards the main purpose of Shariah-Compliant Finance: the promotion of Islam and Shariah. SFW covered that in its comments on Part 1 of this series.

Then, Mr. Ranzini makes a statement that can be doubly described as self-serving and ignorant at the same time.

“One only needs to go to England to see the consequences of marginalizing Muslim citizens. Some of them then do stupid things like build bombs.”

There is no country in the West that has gone to greater lengths to accommodate Muslims than the United Kingdom. In fact, the United Kingdom has even gone so far as to accommodate Shariah itself. Today, Shariah is being incorporated into British common law. More germane to this discussion, Prime Minister Gordon Brown has declared London the capital of Islamic finance in the West. 

Despite all this, as Mr. Ranzini says, Muslims in Britain are doing “stupid things” like building “bombs.” In fact, despite Britain’s embrace of Shariah, British troops fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan are faced with fighting their fellow countrymen who have turned to Jihad:

http://www.express.co.uk/printer/view/86485/

Mr. Ranzini goes on to say that “If we are seen overseas as a tolerant society fewer of our citizen soldiers will die. “

Again, this demonstrates a profound confusion. Tolerance is a two-way street and any objective comparison of Western culture and society with those of nations ruled by Shariah proves beyond the shadow of a doubt that Shariah is anything but tolerant.

In fact, if Islamist nations such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan, Sudan and others were tolerant to begin with, perhaps groups like Al Qaeda, the Taliban and Hezbollah would not even exist in the first place. All of these nations have one thing in common: Shariah. In other words, if Islamist nations were tolerant, fewer of our citizens, soldiers and civilians, would not have died. In short, if nations like Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan and Sudan were not ruled by Shariah, more Americans would be alive today. And if Al Qaeda, the Taliban and Hezbollah were not striving to have the world ruled by Shariah, more Americans would be alive today.

For Mr. Ranzini to dismiss Jihad as “stupid things like build bombs” indicates a profound ignorance. Ayman al-Zawahiri is a lot of things. Stupid is not one of them. The world would be a lot better off if he was stupid. Hassan Nasrallah is a lot of things. Again, stupid is not one of them. Mufti Mohammed Taqi Usmani is a lot of things. He’s not stupid though. Sheikh Yusuf al Qaradawi isn’t stupid either. Sayyid Qutb was a lot of things, but he wasn’t stupid.

All of these men have/had something in common. Evil. That’s the word best used to describe the Jihadists. Jihad is based on a great deal of thought, not stupidity.

In fact, Jihad is based on Shariah, the very same thing on which Mr. Ranzini bases his bank’s business.

Read this latest exchange at Islam in Action:

http://islaminaction08.blogspot.com/2009/03/exclusive-q-with-president-of-michigan_14.html