TheWestminsterInstitute

ShariaFinanceandtheU.S.Constitution
ByKatharineC.Gorka Withlittlefanfare,thetermShariafinancehasslippedintotheAmericanlexicon as if it were just one more unremarkable feature of Americas everevolving ethnic landscape.Totheextentthatitisremarkeduponatall,acommonargumentisthatSharia finance is like kosher food: each is mandated by its respective religion, and neither threatens the basic freedoms of other Americans. Both arguments are wrong. Whereas JewishdietarylawswerelaidoutintheOldTestamentmore than two thousand years ago and pose no threat to the constitutionalorder,Shariacompliantfinanceisaconstruct InstitutionsofferingSharia of 20thcentury radical Muslim scholars. Sharia finance is MortgagesintheUnitedStates: partofabroadideologythataimstostrengthenandimpose UniversityBank,Michigan political Islamic rule around the world, even in the United DevonBank,Chicago States. It is therefore a very direct threat to American freedoms. HSBC,NewYork
SamadGroupIslamicHome Finance,KetteringOhio SHAPEFinancialCorp.,Falls Church,Virginia, GuidanceResidential,Reston, Virginia Lariba:AmericanFinanceHouse, Pasadena,California MinnesotaHousingAgency(the firststateagencytoofferthe product)

Shariafinancereferstoanyinstrumentorinstitution thatiscompliantwithIslamicLaw.Theprinciplestrictures forbid interest, and any business involving pork, gambling, alcoholorpornography.Currently,themostcommonform of Sharia finance in the United States is Sharia home finance, or mortgagealternative products. Sharia mortgages were introduced in the United States in the 1980s. They grew slowly through the 1990s but then received a major boost when Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae startedtobackthemin2002.Asaresultofthisbacking,the numberofShariamortgagesincreasedsignificantly.Today, Shariamortgagesareavailablein25states,withproviders hopingtoexpandfurther.

TheideathatMuslimsrequireauniquesetoffinancialinstrumentsoriginatedinthe 20thcentury.ItwasrootedintheradicalteachingsofAbulAlaMawdudi,founderofthe militantJamaatiIslamimovementinPakistanandanideologicalforefatherofmodernday Islamistmovements.MawdudiarguedthatIslamiceconomicswouldbeavehicletohelp establishIslamicruleandthatitwouldthensupplantallothereconomicsystems:

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as soon as the nation of Islam seizes state power, it will outlaw all formsofbusinesstransactedon thebasisofusuryorinterestitwillcurball formsofbusinessandfinancialdealingswhichcontraveneIslamicLaw. AbulAlaMawdudi This idea was further developed by other major Islamists of the 20th centuryincluding Hassan alBanna, founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, and Sayyid Qutb, the Egyptian IslamistwhosewritingsinspiredAlQaedaandwhoisconsideredtheideologicalforefather ofmoderndayterroristmovements.EachofthempromotedIslamasanallencompassing, totalitarian system in which religion, law, politics, economics and personal life would be inseparablyinterwoven.Allaspectsoflifewouldbecontrolledbyreligiouslaw,orSharia. ThefatherlandisthatplacewheretheIslamicfaith,theIslamicwayof life, and the Sharia of God is dominant; only this meaning of fatherland is worthyofthehumanbeing. SayyidQutbMilestones WhodecideswhetheraninstitutionorinstrumentisShariacompliant?TheSharia boards or councils of these institutions, which are composed of Muslim clerics who are both religious authorities and economic experts and the ultimate arbiters for Islamic financialinstitutions.Intheirrulingsonfinancialissues,theirdrivinggoalistherenewal and expansion of Islam, which also necessarily requires the defeat of the nonMuslim countries.JusticeMuhammadTaqiUsmani,chairmanoftheShariaSupervisoryBoardfor GuidanceResidential,basedinReston,Virginia,operatingin19states,haswritten,Fora nonMuslim state to have more pomp and glory than a Muslim state itself is an obstacle. Therefore,toshatterthisgrandeurisamongthegreaterobjectivesofjihad.

SheikhAlQaradawi,ShariaAuthority Andterroristideologue

MuhammadTaqiUsmani ShariaAuthority

LARIBA, a shariafinance provider based in Pasadena, California, operating in 17 states, cites another Sharia authoritySheikh Yusuf AlQaradawi, who has been banned from the United States since 1999 for his extremist views and support for Palestinian suicide bombers. Underscoring the fact that economic decisions are subordinate to

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religiousconsiderations,in2004AlQaradawiissuedafatwaorderingallthosewhowere abletoboycottAmericanandIsraeligoods:
Eachriyal,dirhametc.usedtobuy[theenemys]goodseventuallybecomes bulletstobefiredattheheartsofbrothersandchildreninPalestine.Forthisreason, it is an obligation not to help [the enemies of Islam] by buying their goods. To buy their goods is to support tyranny, oppression and aggression...If we cannot strengthenthebrothers,wehaveadutytomaketheenemyweak.Iftheirweakness cannotbeachievedexceptbyboycott,wemustboycottthem. SheikhYusufAlQaradawi,ShariaAuthority

The intertwining of the religious with the economic and political is in direct contrasttotheWesternworldview,accordingtowhichreligionisastrictlyprivatematter. Thisfactislamentedbysomeonthegroundsthatithasremovedreligiontoofarfromthe public square, but in fact it was originally conceived as a means of protecting religion: Americas founders desired that ones beliefs should be absolutely free of any form of coercionbythestate.Inordertopreservethisfreedom,theyrecognizedthenecessityof keepingthecivildomainfreeofreligion.Economics,law,andpoliticsinAmericawereall designed to operate independently of any religion, even if in their design they were influencedbyreligiousvaluesandbeliefs.Americasfounderslearnedveryearlyonthatto bind the civil with the religious leads inevitably to conflict and oppression. Not so with Islam. The Islamic revival that has been accelerating over the past century is an all encompassing,indeedatotalitarianIslam.Asonescholarexplains, Islamic resurgence isthe endeavor to reestablish Islamic values, Islamic practices, Islamic institutions, Islamic laws, indeed Islam in its entirety,inthelivesofMuslimseverywhere. ChandraMuzaffar 1 Hence, Islamic finance cannot be looked at in isolation. It did not emerge simply as one moreinitiativebybankstofindandexploitanewmarketniche.Itisanintegralpartofa broadereffort toadvance Islam. As Dr. Patrick Sookhdeo has written, Islamic finance is partofthewaveofIslamicresurgenceandspecificallypartoftheIslamistagenda. 2 Islamic finance furthers the Islamist agenda in a number of concrete ways. First, Islamic finance purifies individual Muslims by helping them adheretoamoreorthodox version of Islam. Like the wearing of the veil for women, it strengthens their identity as Muslims and weakens their ties to the nonMuslim community. Islamic finance thereby

Muzaffar,Chandra,IslamicResurgence:AGlobalView,inAbdullah,TaufikandSiddiqui,Sharon(eds.),Islam andSocietyinSouthEastAsia,PasirPanjang(Singapore):InstituteofSoutheastAsianStudies,1986. 2 Sookhdeo,Patrick,UnderstandingShariaFinance:TheMuslimChallengetoWesternEconomics(McLean,VA: IsaacPublishing,2008),p.7. Sharia Finance and the U.S. Constitution Page 3

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servestocreateaparallelsociety,withadistinctethnicandreligiousidentity,ratherthan expandingandenrichingtheexistingsociety.Secondly,Islamicfinanceservesthecauseof IslamicrenewalbecauseitprovidesdirectfinancialassistancetothosefightingforIslam. In order to be deemed Sharia compliant, a financial institution must pay zakat (tithing): theymustcontributeanamountthatistypicallycitedas2.5%,althoughitcanalsobemore. AccordingtotheQuran(9:60),recipientsofzakatincludethepoor,theneedy,thosewho servetheneedy,andtofreetheslaves,butrecipientsalsoincludethosewhofightinthe wayofAllah:peopleengagedinIslamicmilitaryoperationsforwhomnosalaryhasbeen allotted in the army, or volunteers for jihad without remuneration. (Reliance of the Traveler, The Classic Manual of TheyshookAmericas IslamicSacredLaw).Therefore,anyorganizationwhichisSharia throneandstruckattheUS economyintheheart.They compliantisrequiredbyIslamicLawtosupportjihad. Itisnosurprise,then,thatwithinoneyearoftheattacksof 9/11, the U.S. government had blacklisted almost 180 Islamic banks, associations and charities as financiers of terrorism. Moreover,recentstudieshaveshownthatthelargestsinglesource of funds for Islamic terrorism is zakat, which typically goes throughtheIslamicbankingsystem:AlQaedawasabletoreceive between$300millionand$500millionoveradecadethrougha web of charities and companies acting as fronts, with the notable useofIslamicbankinginstitutions. 3

Given that the impact of Sharia finance is clearly so negative, why have the government of the United States and its regulatorybodiesnotdonemoretostopit?Inparttheansweris our own understanding of religion. Because Americans see religionasaprivatematter,theyhavedifficultycomprehendingan economic system that is shaped and driven by religious dictates. Atthesametime,thedesiretonotoffendmembersofareligious minority has led U.S. officials to be overly accommodating, to the detriment of the principlesofequalitybeforethelawandseparationofchurchandstate. Dr. Mahmoud ElGamal, who served as the Department of Treasurys scholarin residence, wrote, If we take the universal message of Islam seriously...then we must believethatIslamicfinancewillbebetterfinance.Infact,itshouldbesogoodastoattract thosewhodonotcarewhetherornotitiscalledIslamic,andwhetherornotprofessional

struckthelargestmilitary powerdeepintheheart, thankstoAllahthealmighty. Thisisaclearproofthatthis internationalusurious, damnableeconomywhich Americausesalongwithits militarypowertoimpose infidelityandhumiliationon weakpeoplecaneasily collapseIftheireconomyis destroyed,theywillbebusy withtheirownaffairsrather thanenslavingtheweak peoples.Itisveryimportant toconcentrateonhittingthe USeconomythroughall possiblemeans. OsamabinLaden December 27, 2001

JeanCharlesBrisard,TerrorismFinancing:RootsandTrendsofSaudiTerrorismFinancing,reportPreparedfor thePresidentoftheSecurityCouncil,UnitedNations,December19,2002,p.3. Page 4

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financial jurists approve its contracts. 4 When the U.S. Department of Treasury held a seminar in 2008 entitled Islamic Finance 101, it was cohosted by the Islamic Finance Project at Harvard Law School, a project which is in turn sponsored by four Islamic financial institutions: Abu Dhabi Islamic bank, Arcapita Bank, HSBC Amanah, and Kuwait Finance House. In its annual report, Arcapita writes, we embrace the values of originality, integrity, transparency, professional excellence and, above all, adherence to Islamicprinciple. 5 TheadherencetoIslamicprinciplesamongthoseadvisingtheU.S.governmentand shaping U.S. policy would not be an issue if those principles were compatible with the valuesandprinciplesenshrinedintheUnitedStatesConstitution.Buttheyarenot.Islams leading ideologues and spokespersons have openly and repeatedly declared ideological waronAmerica.TheyhavestatedthatAmericanvaluesareincompatiblewiththevalues ofIslam.Theybelieveourfreedomleadstocorruptionandexploitation.Theydisregard therealityofthelongsustainedrecordofAmericanprosperity.Theydisregardthereality ofAmericasreligiousfreedoms,thefactthatforfourcenturiesAmericahasbeenableto provide a home to every race, every creed, every ethnicity, because it holds all men and womenasequal,anditenshrinesthatequalityinitslaws.ForMawdudi,AlBanna,Qutb, Qaradawi,andbinLaden,theonlyequalityisthatofMuslimwithMuslim. TheUnitedStateshasdonesomuchthroughthecourseofitshistorytoservethe greatercauseoffreedomandopportunityforadvancementandfulfillmentbasedpurelyon ones merits, rather than on racial, religious, or tribal membership. It is an imperfect nation,tobesure,butbydispersingpower,andallowingprivatebelieftoremainprivate,it has come closer than any other nation to preventing one man or one group from tyrannizing or subjugating others. Fundamentalist Muslims would do away with that. Ultimatelytheywoulddoawaywithoureconomicsystem,ourequalities,ourconstitution, becauseintheirversionofIslam,thetwocannotcoexist:TheIslamicStateisaworld order, with a government, a court, a constitution and an army. 6 This is the fundamentalist voice of Islam. It may not yet be the majority voice ofIslam,but it is the loudestvoice,anditisthevoicethatisbehindShariafinance.

MahmoudA.ElGamal,LimitsandDangersofShariaArbitrage, http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~elgamal/files/Arbitrage.pdf,accessed8/4/2009. 5 ArcapitaAnnualReport2004,http://www.arcapita.com/about/fininfo/pdf/Arcapita_annual_report_2004.pdf, accessed7/28/2009. 6 IsmailRajialFaruqi,Islam(Beltsville,MD:AmanaPublications,1985),p.65. Sharia Finance and the U.S. Constitution Page 5

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To learn more about Sharia Finance, The Westminster Institute recommends Understanding Sharia Finance, by Dr. Patrick Sookhdeo:
The last twenty years have seen a distinctively Islamic financial system become a major player on the world economic stage. The Islamic view thatIslammustcontrolallareasoflifehasledmanyMuslimstoreject Western financial products and institutions, which they believe to be incompatiblewithshari`alaw.Theyhavealsogeneratedawiderangeof alternative economic tools, initially in the Muslim world but more recently in the West, and have developed an increasingly lucrative international market. This stimulating and accessible study will interest anyone concerned abouttheworldwideIslamicresurgenceanditspossibleimplicationsfor globalfinanceandpolitics.$12.99. Toorder:www.isaacpublishing.usorcall17032882885. _____________________________________________________________________________________

For a fuller discussion of the legal risks inherent in Sharia finance, we recommend
Shari'ah's Black Box: Civil Liability and Criminal Exposure Surrounding Shari'ah-Compliant Finance, by David Yarushelmi:
This article examines the multitude of legal issues both criminal and civil that Shari'ahcompliant finance (SCF) presents to U.S. financial institutions and their professional advisers. While SCF is marketedasprimarilytheavoidanceoftransactionsinvolvinginterestandalsoincludesaprohibitionon investing in vice industries, this appearance ignores the reality of Shari'ah as determined by the contemporary and authoritative historical Shari'ah scholars. With a modicum of due diligence, one learns that the SCF black box fails to disclose the fact that leading Shari'ah authorities have issued authoritativeShariahlegalrulingscallingforviolentJihadagainstthenonMuslimworld.Assuch,SCF presents U.S. investors and legal advisers with considerable risk under securities, antiterrorism, antitrust,andracketeeringlaws. ThecivilliabilityandcriminalexposuresurroundingSCFhavebeenignoredbylegalacademia.Although some scholars have broached the topic of SCF, these scholars have merely trumpeted the practice's virtues without questioning its legality. In an area that begs for vigorous analysis, only those with a vested interest in the success of SCF has been presented in the legal literature. This article, by identifying both professional responsibility and substantive legal issues inherent in SCF, seeks to fill in the current gap and instigate a much needed critical examination among practitioners, scholars, and policymakers. Availableat:http://works.bepress.com/david_yerushalmi/1

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