The Dow Jones Islamic Index, a product which has already caused embarrassment for Dow Jones when it was fully disclosed that the hateful Jihadist Mufti Taqi Usmani sat atop its Shariah advisory board last year, is now set to expand by 11 countries to 68 total nations.
Nothing is more illustrative of the march of Shariah than the fact that an index originating in America would employ and avowed enemy of America as an adviser and the fact that the index now covers 68 nations worldwide. That’s 11 more nations than are in the Organization of the Islamic Conference.
Added to the list of nations with companies included in the index are Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Tunisia, Argentina, Colombia, Croatia, Mauritius, Nigeria, Peru, Serbia and the Ukraine.
It frankly surprises us that some of these nations were not already on the list: Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, and Tunisia are nations with overwhelming Muslim majorities.
But it is troubling to see that Shariah is making inroads in nations like Argentina, Colombia and Peru, which have no historical ties to Islam at all.
Here is an excerpt from the Dow Jones release on this announcement:
”The inclusion of these 11 thriving and competitive developing countries in the Dow Jones Islamic Market Index universe is a reaction to market demand but also reflects the growing importance of these countries for Islamic investors,” said Michael A. Petronella, president, Dow Jones Indexes. ”We are determined to provide our clients with the most comprehensive benchmarks of companies that comply with Islamic investing principles. Dow Jones Indexes has been the leading provider of Shari’ah compliant indexes for a decade, and will continue to provide market participants with sophisticated, accurate and broad Islamic benchmarks.”
Launched in 1999, the Dow Jones Islamic Market Indexes seek to measure the global universe of investable equities that pass screens for Shari’ah compliance. The Dow Jones Islamic Market Indexes combine Islamic investment principles with Dow Jones Indexes’ objective, transparent and rules-based methodology.
The index family includes more than 100 regional, country and industry indexes derived from the flagship Dow Jones Islamic Market World Index. In 2006, the index family was expanded to include the Dow Jones Islamic Market Sustainability Index, which combines Islamic investing principles with sustainability criteria; and Dow Jones Citigroup Sukuk Index, the first index to track Islamic bonds. Islamic indexes for the ASEAN and GCC regions, Hong Kong-listed Chinese stocks and Malaysian blue-chips were launched last year.
No wonder the Muslim world leaders refer to Shariah-Compliant Finance as “missionary work.”
http://www.arabianbusiness.com/563053-dow-jones-expands-islamic-market-measure
