The economic consultancy Oxford Analytica has frequently used its space on Forbes.com to promote Shariah-Compliant Finance. We have pointed this out on SFW in the past:
https://shariahfinancewatch.org/?s=Oxford+Analytica
Oxford Analytica has taken yet another step to promote financial jihad with an article on Forbes.com. This new article is so overrun with troubling and disturbing aspects that we hardly know where to begin, but begin we shall:
• “Efforts to standardize Islamic financial products should enhance the sector’s prospects. The Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) plays an important role in this regard…”
Let’s review what we know about AAOIFI, important facts which Oxford Analytica neglects to mention:
The chairman of AAOIFI’s Shariah Advisory Board is none other than the vicious Jihadist, Mufti Mohammed Taqi Usmani:
http://www.aaoifi.com/sharia-board.html
In September 2001, Usmani was part of a small delegation of clerics known to be sympathetic to the Taliban in Afghanistan and travelled there to ostensibly convince Mullah Omar, the leader of the Taliban, to turn over Osama Bin Laden to the United States. Information leaked later by some of the clerics present at the meeting indicates that the delegation may have, in fact, tried to stiffen the Taliban’s will to resist.
Usmani is a prolific writer in Urdu, Arabic and English, having published dozens of books and countless articles.
Among his books available in English is a vitriolic attack on Christianity called “What is Christianity” and a broadside against the West and modernity called “Islam and Modernism.”
Here is one particularly revealing quote from “Islam and Modernism:”
“Killing is to continue until the unbelievers pay jizyah (subjugation tax) after they are humbled or overpowered.”
Usmani is well-known for his uncompromising views on the mandatory nature of conducting offensive jihad against non-Muslims “in order to establish the supremacy of Islam” worldwide.
Usmani also complained bitterly at the lack of martyrs to combat American forces in Iraq:
“No one is found having any desire of Shahadah (martyrdom). How many mothers are there who want to sacrifice their sons for the cause of Islam? How many sisters are there who want to say goodbye to their brothers departing to wage jihad against non-believers?”
Usmani referred to Americans in Iraq as “stinking atheists” and “the worst ever butchers and vultures of the world”who are “clawing off the flesh of bodies of innocent Iraqi Muslims.”
According to what Usmani has said and written, aggressive jihad against unbelievers is an Islamic obligation and, as such, does not need any justification.
“For a non-Muslim state to have more pomp and glory than a Muslim state itself is an obstacle, therefore to shatter this grandeur is among the greater objectives of jihad.”
For Taqi Usmani, offensive jihad can be postponed for a time only in cases when the Muslims in question are not strong enough to battle or otherwise challenge the infidels. And so, he advises the Muslims to live peacefully in countries like Britain, for instance, but only until they gain enough power to carry out jihad.
Under Pakistani dictator General Zia al-Haq (1977-1988), himself a zealous advocate of Shariah, Usmani played a key role in the introduction of the Shariah-based punishment code known as the Huddud Ordinance, as well as blasphemy laws and other Shariah injunctions, to the huge detriment of Pakistani justice and civil liberties.
This man, Mufti Taqi Usmani, as head of AAOIFI’s Shariah advisory board, will now be the chief watchdog of the Shariah-Compliant Finance industry–and Oxford Analytica is celebrating that fact as if it was a great thing.
Does anyone at Oxford Analytica do any research at all, or do they write advertorials?
• “AAOIFI’s Sharia Standards 2010 contains 41 standards…including…stipulations pertaining to…zakat (alms giving)…”
Zakat is something that the financial jihadists in the West don’t like to talk much about. Shariah scholars, like Taqi Usmani, select charities to receive zakat, which is troubling because of Usmani’s background and because of what Shariah law says about zakat.
Under Shariah law there are several approved destinations for zakat.
The most authoritative source for such information is a book which is available on Amazon called “The Reliance of the Traveler, A Classic Manual of Islamic Sacred Law.” That book has a whole section devoted to the rules of zakat, including “THE EIGHT CATEGORIES OF RECIPIENTS.” On page 272, section h8.17, one category is labeled:
THOSE FIGHTING FOR ALLAH
The seventh category is those fighting for Allah, meaning people engaged in Islamic military operations for whom no salary has been allotted in the army roster (O: but who are volunteers for jihad without remuneration). They are given enough to suffice them for the operation, even if affluent; of weapons, mounts, clothing, and expenses (O: for the duration of the journey, round trip, and the time they spend there, even if prolonged. Though nothing has been mentioned here of the expense involved in supporting such people’s families during this period, it seems clear that they should also be given it).
This passage, from this widely-used Shariah text seems to have been written expressly about zakat payments to charities which have funded Al Qaeda, HAMAS, Hezbollah and the Taliban. Note from the passage that such payments are meant specifically for irregular forces who are not part of any army roster, which describes terrorist/guerilla/insurgent groups exactly. Note that they are meant for “Islamic” military operations and not secular groups (i.e. HAMAS and not the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command). Note that such payments are made even if the recipient is affluent…like Osama Bin Laden. And, finally, the families of fighters are to be taken care of, such as payments by Saddam Hussein and Saudi princes to families of Islamikaze bombers in Gaza and the West Bank.
All too often, the destinations of zakat payments are to Jihadists, simply because Shariah mandates it.
THAT is the reason the federal law enforcement and intelligence authorities in the US have scrutinized Islamic charities to such a degree. This is in fact how our enemies are being funded.
• “The AAOIFI’s standards have been made mandatory for Islamic financial institutions in Bahrain, Dubai International Financial Centre, Jordan, Sudan, Syria and Qatar.”
Take a close look at the countries listed. Note the presence of Syria and Sudan. If you look at the governing board of the AAOIFI, you will note that government officials from the central banks of both nations are included.
What is significant about this is the fact that Sudan and Syria are both rogue nations and their governments are not to be trusted. Fully 1/3 of the nations that have made AAOIFI standards mandatory (Sudan and Syria) are listed as terrorist-sponsoring nations by the US State Department.
Sudan has served as sponsor to Hezbollah, HAMAS and Al Qaeda. In fact, Sudan facilitated the training agreement between Hezbollah and Al Qaeda which resulted in the attacks on the US embassies in east Africa in 1998.
Syria is also known as a major sponsor of HAMAS and Hezbollah and served as a base of operations for Hezbollah when it carried out the Islamikaze attack on the US Marine Barracks in Beirut, Lebanon in October 1983.
More recently, of course, Sudan has been widely recognized as the world’s number one sponsor of genocide, slaughtering innocent civilians in Darfur and southern Sudan.
Syria, for its part, has served as the transit point for insurgents moving into Iraq to attack US forces, though the almost total defeat of those insurgents has prompted many people to forget that. While Syria was busy with that activity, they were also building an illegal nuclear facility with the help of North Korea. Fortunately, the Israeli air force took care of that one…
This is the AAOIFI that Oxford Analytica is so excited about.
For those who say that all of this is not relevant to the world of finance, we would simply reply: “You don’t know much about Shariah, do you?”
http://www.forbes.com/2010/03/08/islam-finance-sharia-business-oxford-analytica.html?boxes=Homepagelighttop
Great post! Guess Oxford Analytica wasn’t to concerned about the results of AAOIFI’s work. Nor were they concerned by the fact that Syria and Sudan are subject to economic sanctions. (And something tells me AAOIFI isn’t working to ensure compliance with the sanctions regimes…) The only reason that FATF hasn’t blacklisted Syria & Sudan is probably because FATF’s members haven’t requested an investigation of Sudan & Syria.
The media apply such greater scrutiny for U.S. institutions than they do for foreign ones. Part of it is just laziness/convenience. But part of it has to be a basic assumption by the media that U.S. institutions deserve to be doubted, while third world institutions always deserve the benefit of the doubt.
I think you’re exactly right about that. There is almost no media scrutiny of these foreign institutions, particularly ones from Islamic countries.