Exclusive: Are We Financing Our Own Demise?
March 2, 2010 - Gadi Adelman, Joy Brighton
[...]Just as Sharia is not about religion, but rather politics and power, Sharia banking is not about banking: it is about politics, economics, and power – which explains why Iran was the first and remains the only one of two countries in the world today (Sudan being the second) that mandates 100 percent Sharia banking. When Khomeini deposed the Shah in 1978, secular law and human rights went out and Sharia law, oppression and zealot mullahs came into every aspect of life, including the banking system. Prior to 1978, the entire world including the Middle East practiced traditional, Western banking. Today, Iran remains the market leader in Sharia Finance and the market leader in terror finance and terror in general.
Would AIG, Citigroup, Dow Jones, HSBC, UBS, Visa and Mastercard have become involved with something called Apartheid Finance? Or Nazi Finance? Of course not. So why are they involved with Sharia Finance? Have these firms stopped reading the newspapers? Don’t they know that Sharia-driven Iran is building nuclear weapons and funding the Sharia-driven Taliban who is killing our own young men and women soldiers? Or that our President is putting economic sanctions on Sharia-driven Iran?[...]
[...]Four of the most sought-after “Sharia authorities” in the industry, listed below, reads like a Who’s Who of Terrorists. They all sit on the board of the AAOIFI (Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions) or the board of IFSB (Islamic Finance Standards Board).
And guess who sits on these boards? IFSB members include the central banks of Iran, Sudan, and Syria (all designated state sponsors of terrorism) and the Palestinian Monetary Authority (PMA), which is widely documented since its inception to be a funder of terrorism.
Sheik Yusuf Al-Qaradawiis on the Board of AAOIFI, the Bank Al-Taqwa (shut down in 2001 by the U.S. Treasury for terror funding) and many other Middle East banks. Qaradawi, has been banned from entering the United States of America since 1999 and the United Kingdom since 2008 because of his ties to terrorism. He created a 57-member network of charities called the “Union of Good,” which is designated as a sponsor of terrorism by the U.S. Government.
In July 2003 in Stockholm, at a conference arranged by the Muslim Association of Sweden, he expressed his support for suicide attacks against Israeli civilians which he called a “necessary Jihad.” Perhaps this is why he described Sharia charity dollars as “Jihad with Money” in an interview with the BBC in 2006. During an address to the Journalists Syndicate in Cairo (Associated Press, September 2, 2004) he stated, “Fighting American civilians in Iraq is a duty for all Muslims… Americans in Iraq are all fighters and invaders. There is no difference between a civilian and a military American in Iraq”. Lastly, just to show how ‘charitable’ he really is on July 7, 2004, in an interview with BBC TWO’s Newsnight he said, “Allah Almighty is just; through his infinite wisdom he has given the weak a weapon the strong do not have and that is their ability to turn their bodies into bombs as Palestinians do.”[...]
[...]Funny how our government seems to be talking about sanctioning Iran while, at the same time, stopping the Taliban (with the blood of our own young people). The SEC is urging stricter regulations to avoid another sub-prime disaster. The U.S. Treasury and 32 central banks are considering stopping business with the shady Iranianbanking system which doesn’t comply with global banking standards of transparency and money-laundering. Yet Sharia Finance, the financial system of Iran, is rolling full speed ahead right into neighborhoodbranches of AIG, Citi, HSBC, Goldman Sachs, Prudential and UBS.
As I have said and written many times before; enough is enough, open your eyes, get involved, tell your friends, family and colleagues and your Congressmen and Senators too. Sound the alarm![...]
Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmaniis the Chairman of AAOIFI and is, or has been a paid Sharia Sheik on the Board of HSBC, Dow Jones, Citigroup and Guidance Financial. He is the Founder and Director of Jamia Uloom madrassa, the second largest madrassa in Pakistan, which “boasts close ties to the Taliban” according to International Crisis Human Rights Group. He was the Deobandi Cleric to the Taliban in 2001. According to a comment piece in The Times (UK), September 8, 2007 Usmani “believes that aggressive military jihad should be waged by Muslims ‘to establish the supremacy of Islam’ worldwide.”
Imran Ashraf Usmaniis on the Boards of AAOIFI; AIG, HSBC, Citigroup, Lloyds TSB Bank (UK) and Credit Suisse Bank. Imran is the son of Sheik Taqi Usmani, schooled in the same Jihadist Pakistan madrassa. Banks are replacing Taqi Usmani with his son, Imran, as his father’s Jihadist background is being publicized.
Sheikh Yusef Talal DeLorenzo is on the boards of AAOIFI; IFSB, Barclays Capital, Dow Jones, Guidance International, Sharia Capital and Blackrock. He is an American convert to Islam who dropped out of Cornell and was educated at the same Jihadist Darul Uloom madrassa as the Usmani father and son team.
He was also an advisor to Pakistan President Zia al-Haq 1981–1984 during the creation of the Taliban. He is the past Director of Education for the Islamic Saudi Academy, which has been condemned for its hate curricula by the Congress-appointed U.S. Commission on Religious Freedom. DeLorenzo was the secretary of the Fiqh Council of North America (FCNA) which The Investigative Project has linked to Islamist extremism and terrorism. It was Sheikh DeLorenzo who said using the word “ethical” was a better description than “Sharia” for Western bankers to understand.
So what do these sheiks actually do? One of their jobs is to ensure that somehow money from Sharia investments gets sent off to charity. The problem is that their definition of charity and the definition of charity according to most Americans are polar opposites...
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.5632/pub_detail.asp
Excellent article in it’s entirety.
January 28, 2008
Today, governments in the Persian Gulf, China and Singapore have snapped up $US37 billion ($42 billion) of stakes in Wall Street, the bedrock of the US financial system.
Politicians and the White House are welcoming the cash and there is hardly a peep from the public.
This is no accident.
The warm reception reflects millions of dollars in lobbying by both overseas governments and their Wall Street targets - aided by Washington veterans from both parties, including big-time Republican fundraiser and lobbyist Wayne Berman.
And the investments have been carefully designed to avoid triggering close US government monitoring.
But by making investment by foreign governments seem routine, Washington may be ushering in a fundamental change to the US economy without assessing the longer-term implications.
Some economists say the stakes could provide autocratic governments an important say in how US companies do business, or give them access to sensitive information or technology. Former US Treasury secretary Lawrence Summers counsels caution. “There should be a very strong presumption in favour of allowing willing buyers to take non-controlling stakes in companies. However, it’s imaginable that government-related entities (investing in the US) will be motivated to strengthen their national economies, make political points, reward or punish competitors or suppliers, or extract know-how,” Summers says.
Last year the UAE launched a three-year $US15 million Washington lobbying campaign, the US-Emirates Alliance, to polish its reputation.
The alliance, headed by former Hillary Clinton campaign aide Richard Mintz, recruited about two dozen businesses to form a support group. It contributed $US140,000 to a prominent Washington think tank, the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, to start a “Gulf Roundtable” discussion series.
A participant says Schumer described the Dubai port controversy as an “anomaly”. Since then, executives from top financial firms have consulted Schumer when foreign firms have sought to buy stakes and regularly won his endorsement.
Schumer says the executives assure him that foreign investors will have “not just virtually no control, but virtually no influence”.
Banks and securities firms are also the largest industry contributors to members of the Senate Banking Committee and House Financial Services Committee, which can review investments in Wall Street firms. Schumer is a member of the Senate Banking Committee.
Wall Street and the UAE thought they had turned the corner last spring when another Dubai-owned company, Dubai Aerospace Enterprise, bought two firms that owned small US airports and maintenance facilities that serviced some navy transport plane engines.
The Dubai firm pledged to submit to government security reviews and submit its employees for security screening.
It also thoroughly briefed lawmakers on the deal. It ran into no obstacles on Capital Hill
The deal that provided a blueprint for the current wave of foreign investments was China’s $US3 billion stake in Blackstone Group’s initial public offering, announced last May.
In helping to gain congressional approval for the deal, lobbyist Berman emerged as a key strategist.
Blackstone asked Berman to help smooth the way in Congress for China to buy a piece of the private equity firm.
A minority stake made sense: Blackstone wanted to boost its presence in China. China, which was setting up China Investment Corp, wanted to show it could become a trusted investor in top US firms. Berman said offering a board seat, or a stake above 10 per cent, would invite government review. The two sides agreed on a stake of up to 9.9 per cent and passive investment.
“Policy considerations didn’t drive the specifics of the deal - they informed the deal,” Berman says.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/news/us-makes-a-u-turn-on-foreign-buyers/story-e6frg90x-1111115412005
Creeping sharia...and then there’s our greedy politicians and bankers.