Malta, Center of Islamic Banking?

[Jurgenarius]

I was reading a local News paper Yesterday and Guess what i had found?
Beneath you will find link of a cut from this newspaper which i had scaned.

http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/9403/islamicbankoh0.jpg


Here an article on Islamic Banking.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_banking

[shadow cup]

I personally object to the use of "Islamic" or "Catholic" or whatever religious denomination in an area that ought to be untainted by religious denominations.

Must one be a muslim to benefit from this so-called Islamic banking? If its good for the goose then its good for the gander.

Furthermore can it not be called something that is not religiously-loded and just 'so happen to be' permissable by Islam?

Are my concerns unfounded?

[etoile noir]

well SC, the whole concept of islamic banking is based on the fact / assumption (??) that it is against islamic practice to charge high interest rates on outstanding balances and loans.

so yes, it would be highly irregular - besides being prejudiced - for muslims to partice islamic banking in malta whilst the maltese continue to borrow money at the interest rates established by the central bank.

and jurgen, the image you scanned was in fact already posted when leo brincat first came up with his bravura. its in one of the local papers threads. but thanks for posting anyhow. sometimes when we post articles in their respective threads, they get buried and are not discussed.

[etoile noir]

here is the original post - see post 646
http://www.vivamalta.org/forum/showthread.php?t=2327&page=6

[Marco Polo]

here you go. i prefer the online saver account myself :)

http://www.lloydstsb.com/current_accounts/islamic_account.asp

and this is a mortgage

http://www.lloydstsb.com/mortgages/islamic_home_finance.asp

[Gladiator]

More on Leo Brincat's idea of Islamic Banking. hheheheh Read why, and how it will work out. Sounds more like Karl Marx and Lenin and Stalin put together as Jew banking is evil for taking INTEREST!

One question if I may ask this canard, if there is no interest taking in Islamic banking and all the other reasons why Islam prohbits the use of usury, Why are the majority of Muslims world wide, poor, with the exception of a few thousand princes in Saudi Arabia?
One other thing, I wonder if Leo Brincat is a closet Muslim?


http://www.maltastar.com/pages/msfullart.asp?an=15907
Islamic Bankinghttp://www.maltastar.com/images/system/1px.gifImam Mohammed El SadiMon, 22 October 2007 http://www.maltastar.com/images/system/1px.gifhttp://www.maltastar.com/UserFiles/20060508Imam.jpgRecently, I had the occasion to speak at a seminar entitled “Islamic Banking in Malta”, organised by the Malta Institute of Management and the Malta Union of Bank Employees. Since this is a subject which is generating interest allover the world, not less so in Malta, I have decided to reproduce the talk which I delivered at the seminar:

“Islam teaches that wealth belongs to God. He is the true possessor of everything. God said: “Give them something out of the wealth of Allah which He has given you” (Holy Qur’an 24:33). And He said: “Whatever grace you possess comes from God” (Holy Qur’an 16:53).

Man is entrusted with the wealth of God and he is commissioned to dispose and deal with it according to the commands of God which are revealed in the Holy Qur’an and the sayings of Prophet Muhammad, peace be unto him. This means that a man should earn and spend his money according to the teachings of God. He should earn his money and spend it in a lawful way.

Besides, Islam teaches that man is responsible for his wealth. God will question man on Judgment Day: how did he earn his money and how did he spend it? Thus, he who obtains his money through unlawful means is liable to receive God’s punishment.

Theft, cheating, gambling, bribes, the alcohol industry, pork, drugs, prostitution, pornography and exploitation are all forbidden by Islam. The Muslim should avoid all these unlawful things and anything else prohibited by Islam. Islam, through its economic system aims at establishing social justice and the welfare of the society. Islam tries to divide wealth and makes it available to as much people as possible, through the system of zakat, charity giving and Islamic inheritance laws.

Islam teaches that wealth should be at the service of the common good of the people. Thus, it forbids any deed which harms the common interest of society, like monopoly and hoarding of monies by the rich while the poor people are starving.

Islam prohibits usury and considers it an unlawful deed and a grievous sin punishable by God. For the true Muslim, the usury issue is very serious. It is a matter of heaven or hellfire. The Holy Qur’an condemns usury in a very strong and extreme way to emphasise its dangerous consequences:

“Those who eat usury will not stand except like the standing of a person beaten by Satan, leading him to insanity. That is because they say: “trading is only like usury”. Whereas Allah has permitted trading and forbidden usury.

So, whosoever receives an admonition from his Lord and stops eating usury shall not be punished for the past, his case is for Allah to judge, but whoever returns to usury, such are the dwellers of the hellfire, they will abide therein.

Oh you who believe, fear Allah and give up what remains due to you from usury if you are really believers. And if you do not do it, then take notice of war from Allah and his Messenger, but if you repent, you shall have your capital sums. Deal not unjustly (by asking more than your capital sums), and you shall not be dealt with unjustly (by receiving less than your capital sums). And if the debtor is in a hard time, then grant him time till it is easy for him to repay. But if you remit it by way of charity, that is better for you if you did but know. (Holy Qur’an 275-280)

Taking and giving interest is forbidden in any rate and any quantity. In Islam, it is prohibited to take interest from Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

The Muslim is forbidden to be involved in any way in any transaction involving usury. Those Muslims who commit usury and want to repent to God, they should get rid of the interest, by giving it back to its owners or give it to the needy people.

Islam prohibits usury because it considers it as a kind of exploitation. It leads to the accumulation of wealth by a few people who through their financial power can exploit and control the rest of the people and can even control the whole country and use it to serve their own interests.

Usury leads to economic crisis and harms the common good of society. When the usurers raise the rates of the interest, the merchants and industrialists will in turn increase the prices of their goods, decrease the prices of the raw materials usually imported from poor countries, to cover the increasing interest. Also, indebted governments will increase the taxes to be able to settle the increasing interests. When interests increase, industrialists will not be able to take loans from banks and will close their businesses. Of course, only the common citizens will suffer as a result of the usury system.

Usury was and still is a means of colonisation. The rich countries lend money to the poor ones with a high accumulating interest. When they fail to settle their debts, the rich countries have the excuses to interfere in the poor countries affairs and dominate them politically and economically.

Thank God, today there is an alternative to the usury banking system. There are Islamic banks with huge amounts of capital in many countries and they are increasing constantly. Even the conventional banks and the non-Islamic financial institutions are entering the field and opening Islamic windows for the operations of Islamic banking. They compete to attract as many Muslim customers as they can.

Banks which opt to provide Islamic banking services are following Islamic law. They avoid the usury system and they do not give or take interest. They share the profits and lose with the depositors and the borrowing industrialists. These banks only invest the monies of their clients in lawful industries, lawful commercial transactions and lawful company shares. They provide free interest loans. For example, if a client wants to buy a house and he cannot afford to pay the whole value, the bank will buy it and then sell it to the client at a fixed reasonable profit. The client can then settle the laons in installments according to the agreement with the bank. In this case, the client will avoid the payment of interest and the occasional increase in interest rates which in some cases amounts to double the true price of the house.

Most of these banks are guided by the shari’ah Boards to ensure that they act according to the Islamic law and to find Islamic solutions for the new financial issues.

Maltese and foreign banks in Malta who will offer Islamic banking services will not only attract Maltese Muslim clients and foreign Muslims who reside here but also Muslim clients from neighbouring Muslim countries. With more Arab investment in Malta like Smart City, there will be more feasibility for introducing Islamic banking.

The Muslim community in Malta is eager to enjoy the services of Islamic banking as soon as possible, to enable it benefit from this system in accordance with the Islamic faith”.

[etoile noir]

One question if I may ask this canard, if there is no interest taking in Islamic banking and all the other reasons why Islam prohbits the use of usury, Why are the majority of Muslims world wide, poor, with the exception of a few thousand princes in Saudi Arabia?

another question i'd like to ask is why this man is not asking the local moslem community to subisdise their poor brethren in tent city. if they want to show how to look after their own, there are plenty of moslems living in tent city and at the open centre in marsa.

start doling out the casy el sadi. what are you waiting for? and as you're at it, you could also house them in the huge area of land you have around the mosque in paola instead of letting them roam marsa.


Maltese and foreign banks in Malta who will offer Islamic banking services will not only attract Maltese Muslim clients and foreign Muslims who reside here but also Muslim clients from neighbouring Muslim countries. With more Arab investment in Malta like Smart City, there will be more feasibility for introducing Islamic banking.

there you go ..... discrimination.
you want muslim banking for muslim clients? fine take all your muslim buddies back to muslimland and open as many banks as you want there. either that or offer sharia banking to everyone - including infidels such as myself.


the audacity of these people never ceases to amaze me :mad:

[Eurodip]

Yeah, tell that to Leo Brin-bloody-cat.

[Gladiator]

The funnny thing is that without a reward, a return or profit there will be no investments of any sort. No need for research, production etc.. That is why my question, that Islam is anti tech, anti science, anti art and uncreative. Muslim countries have fallen into the dark ages and nothing creative comes out of those countries except suicide bombers!:eek:

[shadow cup]

The funnny thing is that without a reward, a return or profit there will be no investments of any sort. No need for research, production etc.. That is why my question, that Islam is anti tech, anti science, anti art and uncreative. Muslim countries have fallen into the dark ages and nothing creative comes out of those countries except suicide bombers!:eek:

And yet this was not always the case. There was a time when the Arabs were leaders in commerce and were rather active in mathematical, geographic and other scientific development... until around the ten hundreds...

Why? Islam got a more... literalist interpretation around that time.

This does not mean that the Arab is not capable as a race, but rather means that it is restricted by its own dogmas to make it that which it has become.

[Gladiator]

And yet this was not always the case. There was a time when the Arabs were leaders in commerce and were rather active in mathematical, geographic and other scientific development... until around the ten hundreds...

Why? Islam got a more... literalist interpretation around that time.

This does not mean that the Arab is not capable as a race, but rather means that it is restricted by its own dogmas to make it that which it has become.

and you think that Maltese -Islamic banking will bring them into the 21st. Century?:rolleyes: