Jihadi Charities Expand in Indonesia
posted by Christopher W. Holton East Asia Forum has an important article posted on the proliferation of charities supporting Jihadist groups in Indonesia. This has been a problem for well over a decade now as Indonesian security and intelligence services battle terrorists both kinetically and in the financial realm. Here are the highlights of the […]
Saudi Arabia Criticized for Funding Salafist Islam in Southeast Asia
posted by Christopher W Holton It has been a well-established fact that Saudi Arabia has spent tens of billions of dollars over the past 30-40 years or so proselytizing its brand of Sunni Islam, known as Wahhabism, but properly categorized as Salafism. It is also a well-established fact that Salafi Islam has given rise to […]
by Christopher W. Holton Indonesia’s finance ministry sold 3.03 trillion rupiah ($227.97 million) of Islamic bonds at an auction, below the indicative target of 5 trillion rupiah, its financing and risk management office reports. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/international-business/indonesia-sells-3-03-trillion-rupiah-of-islamic-bonds-below-target/articleshow/59124027.cms
by Christopher W. Holton Last week, 26 AIPAC nations got together in Indonesia to hold a summit on terrorism financing. The report from the summit identified four major sources for terrorism funding. Keep in mind that all of this deals with Islamic terrorism, i.e. Jihad, as no other forms of terrorism are known to exist […]
posted by Christopher W. Holton The Second Counter-Terrorism Financing Summit takes place from August 8 to 11 in Bali. The conferences is jointly organized with Australia and includes the participation of representatives from about 30 countries and international organizations. Discussions are expected to center on how to counter the cross-border movement of terrorism. This includes […]
posted by Christopher W. Holton Here we have more evidence that Shariah-compliant finance stands diametrically opposed to free enterprise and free market economics. Indonesia is the world’s most populous Muslim nation, yet, there has been little support for Shariah Finance there. So, as is a common practice in all nations involved in Shariah-compliant finance, be […]
Financial Trail Indicates Islamic State Presence Spreading to Indonesia
Some of the Indonesian men arrested at the weekend after tip-offs that they were planning a string of militant attacks had received funding from Syria, hardening evidence of their links to Islamic State, police said on Monday. “They received transfers of funds … they have a connection with Syria,” national police spokesman Anton Charliyan told […]
By Christopher W. Holton Yet another sign that all is not well in the world of Shariah Finance. Shariah finance has all but evaporated in Singapore and Malaysia, which has been regarded as the Shariah finance center for Asia, has shown signs of decline. Indonesia is looking to try to benefit, but one wonders what […]
Australian Muslim Implicated By Indonesian Authorities for Funding Jihad
Indonesian authorities have revealed they have linked an Australian man to $500,000 they suspect has been used to support terrorism and send Indonesian nationals to Syria to fight with Islamic State. The Australian man is married to an Indonesian woman who the ABC understands is from Java but is now living in Australia. “That man […]
Australia and Indonesia will host a summit of 15 Asian-Pacific nations in November to discuss combatting the flow of terrorism funding, in the first gathering of its kind. Australia and Indonesia’s financial intelligence units, AUSTRAC and the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK), will co-host the event, to be held in Sydney. Indonesian terrorism experts have warned […]
Islamic cleric Afief Abdul Madjid has been sentenced to four years’ jail for funding a terrorist paramilitary training camp in Aceh, Indonesia. The jail sentence was half the eight-year sentence that the state prosecution had sought. The court found 63-year-old Afief guilty of giving 25 million rupiah ($2,500) to a man named Ubaid that went […]
More and more we are finding evidence that Bitcoin is being used to facilitate the spread of Shariah via Shariah-compliant Finance. Indonesians are increasingly embracing the digital currency known as bitcoin as a payment solution for online transactions and to send and receive money… Blossom is a two-month-old startup based in Silicon Valley that focuses on funding […]
Every once in a while, the UN gets something right. It’s usually very late, but sometimes they actually do something right. Last September the US sanctioned the Hilal Ahmar Society Indonesia as a wing of Al Qaeda. Now, seven months later, the UN has followed suit. It’s standard practice for Jihadist organizations to have “humanitarian,” public […]
Indonesia’s Islamic insurance industry is expanding three times as fast as Malaysia’s, prompting American International Group Inc. and Sun Life Financial Inc. to seek a broader presence in the nation. AIG is considering offering Shariah-compliant reinsurance, known as retakaful http://www.e-insurance.ws/indonesia-shariah-insurance-growth-attracts-aig-islamic-finance/
The Indonesian Financial Services Authority (OJK) has launched a nationwide campaign to encourage the development of Indonesia’s still shallow Shariah-compliant capital market with new initiatives and regulations. A roadmap, new and revised regulations as well as incentives and campaigns to raise awareness are in the pipeline for the Shariah capital market. The regulator declared the year 2015 […]
Check out the spin at work here to explain a sukuk auction in Indonesia that fell short of goals… The bids were robust during a biweekly sukuk auction on Tuesday but the Finance Ministry decided not to absorb too many funds as investors demanded high yields, which could eventually increase the government’s borrowing costs. http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/09/10/sukuk-auction-misses-target-investors-expect-high-yields.html […]
From Indonesia… Aceh Custom Council (MAA) is launching a forest management handbook based on sharia and customary law compiled by Acehs traditional and public figures to support sustainable forest management in Sumatra. “The book describes how Islamic and custom laws established the environment, including sustainable forest management,” the chairman of MAA, H Badruzzaman, said here on Monday. […]
Dubai Islamic Bank to Pursue Islamic Imperialism Through Finance
Dubai Islamic Bank plans to expand its operations into Indonesia, Kenya and other African countries. The expansion into Indonesia is not particularly noteworthy, since Indonesia is the world’s most populous Muslim nation. But the plans for Kenya are a different issue entirely. Kenya has a relatively small Muslim population (about 15% at last count) but […]
Indonesia Shariah Bond Offering Falls Short of Target
Indonesia’s finance ministry raised 1.273 trillion rupiah ($111.8 million) in a sale of its shariah bonds (sukuk) this week, below an indicative target of 1.5 trillion rupiah. Sukuk offerings have often fallen short of targets due to concerns about an historically high default rate and lack of liquidity. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/11/indonesia-economy-debt-idUSL3N0M81P220140311
The central bank of Indonesia is searching for a bank to sign up as primary dealer for short-term sukuk, or Shariah-compliant bonds, issued by the International Islamic Liquidity Management Corp (IILM), a body it helped establish in 2010 to attempt to address the chronic lack of liquidity in shariah compliant money market instruments. Bank Indonesia is one of […]
Indonesia’s finance ministry raised 1 trillion rupiah ($85.86 million) at a sukuk auction on Tuesday, below an indicative target of 1.5 trillion rupiah, the ministry’s debt office said. Southeast Asia’s biggest economy only sold six-month sharia T-bills. There were no winning bids for the six-, 13- and 29-year project-based sukuk. http://in.reuters.com/article/2014/02/25/indonesia-economy-debt-idINJ9N0IR01Z20140225
At SFW we have said for a long time that Shariah-Compliant Finance and Shariah Banking are contrary to the principles of free enterprise. In fact, they are prime examples of centralized control of the economy. The latest proof comes from Indonesia, the most populous Muslim nation on earth, where the central government is leading the […]
Ratings Firm Confirms Negative Outlook for Malaysian/Indian Telecom Sukuk
RAM Ratings Services Bhd has reaffirmed its negative outlook for Binariang GSM Sdn Bhd’s senior sukuk and junior sukuk ratings. Sukuk are also referred to as “Islamic bonds” and “Shariah Bonds.” Binariang GSM Sdn Bhd is an investment holding company with interests in telecommunications company Maxis Bhd and Aircel Ltd – India’s seventh largest mobile operator – and PT Axis Telekom Malaysia, the fifth […]
A large mosque complex is planned for rural Maryland and the supporters are soliciting funds from overseas to complete it. The Dar-us-Salaam Islamic community in College Park, Maryland is planning what would be the largest Islamic project in America, according to Creeping Shariah Blog. Residents in Maryland are opposing the project on zoning grounds–just as they […]
Iranian TV: Shariah banking grows strong in Indonesia
It is no secret that Shariah banking is a growth industry in Islamic-dominated countries like Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation. And it is also no secret that the Shariah Finance and Banking industries have been hamstrung by a lack of qualified personnel–everything from a shortage of Shariah scholars to a shortage of rank […]
“Ethical Investing” from Countries Overrun With Corruption?
Transparency.org has publishes a Corruption Perceptions Index that rates the level of corruption in the world’s nations. The most recent year for which there is data is 2011. The results are instructive for observers of Shariah Compliant Finance. Shariah-Compliant Finance is often touted by the financial jihadists as “ethical” investment. There are a variety of […]
Note that the authorities reveal that charities and non-profit organizations are commonly used to fund terrorism, as we have covered extensively here on Shariah Finance Watch Recently, the National Police’s Densus 88 counterterrorism unit arrested five suspects in the case of the Surakarta church bombing. Among them was an Information Technology (IT) expert, Rizki Gunawan, […]
Malaysia is doubtless a center of Shariah Compliant Finance, certainly the leader in Asia and the Pacific Rim. One of Malaysia’s largest Shariah banks is Maybank Islamic. Maybank Islamic is making moves to become a global force for Shariah. They are setting up shop in neighboring Singapore and Indonesia, but also have their sights set […]
A zakat controversy is brewing in Indonesia. For those who do not know, zakat is a form of tithing in Islam and is one of the five pillars of Islam. Westerners have concerns about zakat–especially as to how zakat interacts with Islamic charities and Shariah-compliant finance–because Shariah states that a portion of the zakat can […]
VTB Group, Russia’s second largest bank, is bailing on the US dollar. VTB is planning on conducting debt sales in China but, of greatest interest for our purposes, they are also looking at selling Islamic bonds, or sukuk, in Indonesia. What makes this doubly significant is that the Russian government controls VTB. “…in April last year […]
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