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Nov. 6, 2009
Rabbi Berel Wein: Choosing to hear
JWisdom.com Zero to 1/60th: How to Empower An Hour with Gavriel Aryeh Sande (7 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick The mullahs' big week
Suzanne Fields A Fallen Wall for Fallen Man
Nov. 5, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet: Three scrumptious -- but simple -- butternut squash dishes
JWisdom.com Hidden Hints: Unlocking Faith & Prayer with Rabbi Jay Yaacov Schwartz (10 minutes)
Nov. 4, 2009
Tom Hamburger and Kim Geiger: Should prayers be covered?
JWisdom.com When God played peacemaker With Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
Nov. 3, 2009
Martin Peretz: Beware, Barack. Beware, Rahm. Beware, Axelrod
JWisdom.com Are you are closet idolater? With Sara Yoheved Rigler (10 minutes)
Nov. 2, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The Holocaust is now on Facebook
JWisdom.com Abraham's Strange Change With Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer (5 minutes)
Oct. 30, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: Secret to Immortality
Caroline B. Glick Silencing dissent in America
Oct. 29, 2009
Lini S. Kadaba: Do tactics avert flu or reduce humanity?
JWisdom.com We Must Revamp our Religious Vocabulary With Gavriel Aryeh Sanders ( 10 minutes)
Oct. 28, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Atheists in Bubbleland
JWisdom.com Why what we wear impacts who we are With Rabbis Mordechai Becher, Menachem Golberger and Aliza Bulow ( 10 minutes)
Oct. 27, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The United Nations Is Outraged Again, Or: Department of Mideast Static
JWisdom.com The Science of Love With Rabbi Jonathan Rietti ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 26, 2009
The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Damaging disclosures with a twist
JWisdom.com Wisdom and Wonks With Rabbi Eytan Feiner ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 23, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: Are you ready for the ultimate pleasure?
JWisdom.com Watermark and oneness with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 4 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick Stop using limited powers in a way that expands our enemies' advantages over us
Oct. 22, 2009
Steven Emerson: Terror Cases Share Desire to Kill Americans
JWisdom.com No More More Family Fights --- Really? By Sarah Chana Radcliffe ( 5 minutes)
Oct. 21, 2009
Tonya Alanez: Holocaust denier sues survivor, calling Auschwitz memoir 'vicious lies'
JWisdom.com Meditating Jewishly: A Panacea for Success by Sarah Yoheved Rigler ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 20, 2009
Dennis Prager: Obama and Dalai Lama: Why Israel Worries about U.S. President
JWisdom.com Abraham was not religious By Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer ( 6 minutes)
Oct. 19, 2009
JWisdom.comWhy Good People Do Bad Things By Rabbi Eytan Feiner ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 16, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: The Perfect Number
JWisdom.com Hearing Voices By Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 5 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick How Turkey was lost
Oct. 15, 2009
Jeff Jacoby: Peace vs. the 'peace process'
JWisdom.com: Former MTV producer and stand-up comedian Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff: Taming a Control Freak (A VERY fast 15 minutes)
Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review June 24, 2008 / 21 Sivan 5768

Guilty knowledge

By Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | In recent months, a growing number of U.S. commercial banks, hedge funds and other financial institutions have begun promoting products described as "Shariah-Compliant." By so doing, they hope to attract some of the immense petro-wealth now accumulating in the Islamic Middle East. Neither the management nor shareholders of the firms engaged in such Shariah-Compliant Finance (SCF) appear to admit, however, the civil and criminal exposure to which they are exposing themselves — and the serious dangers this practice entails for their country.


The problem lies with "Shariah." This is the term used by the most powerful — and virulent — Islamic authorities to describe their theo-political-military doctrine. Its stated purpose is to replace sovereign, secular nations like the United States with a transnational Islamic order governed by a ruling authority, the Sunni's Caliph or his Shiite counterpart, with Shariah as its foundational law or constitution. Under Shariah Law, violent means are ordered if necessary to effect the world's submission to Islam.


Shariah is what the Taliban brutally practiced in Afghanistan. It is the law of the land in Iran, Sudan and Saudi Arabia — three of the most repressive regimes in the world, all of which have extensive ties to jihadist terrorism. It is characterized by such barbaric practices as beheadings of apostates, subjugation of Jews and Christians, stonings for adulterers, flagellation for women deemed "unchaste," amputations for petty crimes, female genital mutilation and martyrdom in the service of jihad.


Why on earth would Western bankers want to be promoting practices that comply with, and therefore institutionalize and legitimate, this repugnant and repressive code?


The answer, of course, is that they perceive in SCF a new way to make money. The sub-prime fiasco demonstrates that it is perfectly possible for American financiers to turn a blind eye to practices that are unwise, even reckless and criminal, when there are profits and bonuses to be garnered. Unfortunately, Shariah-Compliant Finance has the potential to create a national sub-prime meltdown on steroids.


The reason? As a legal memorandum prepared for the Center for Security Policy by experienced securities litigator David Yerushalmi (http://www.stopshariahnow.citymax.com/f/Research_Memo_re_Legal_Risks_of _SCF_(3).pdf) makes clear, Shariah-Compliant Finance entails considerable civil and criminal exposure for firms that engage in it.


For starters, the authoritative Shariah Law is inherently seditious, as it explicitly calls for the violent overthrow of governments like that of the United States and the replacement of democratic, constitutional government with its theocratic code.


The Shariah advisors — Islamist scholars who adhere to the most fundamentalist traditions and interpretations of their faith — enable Shariah-Compliant Finance. They do so in ways that expose their employers on Wall Street to such liabilities as racketeering, anti-trust violations and securities and consumer fraud. Incredible as it may seem, leading Shariah authorities like Mufti Usmani, employed by Dow Jones and HSBC SCF funds, have called for violent jihad against the West. Usmani has even published a book in English explaining how and why this is obligatory for all Shariah-faithful Muslims.


Worse yet, through practices known as zakat (the tithing to charities required of observant Muslims) and "purification" of funds (the donation to approved charities of proceeds from investments that are "tainted" by interest, speculation, pork or other non-Shariah-compliant activities), SCF's Shariah advisors and their financial industry employers may be involved in material support for terrorism.


It is unlikely that American investors in the post-9/11 environment would want to support such practices. One would hope that financial institutions would not want to assume the exposure associated with them, either. Yet, because the material facts about Shariah, its authorities and their charities are not being disclosed to investors, both are at serious risk. So is America to the extent that Shariah Law is being legitimated, its adherents are being empowered and its so-called "charities" are being enriched (four out of eight Shariah-approved uses for zakat can translate into support of terrorism — and have).


For these reasons, the Center for Security Policy recently sent the CEOs of dozens of the nation's leading commercial banks, hedge funds and other financial institutions copies of Mr. Yerushalmi's analysis. In an accompanying letter, I warned that they "may be exposed to personal civil and criminal liability and [their] firm will be exposed to reputational risk and/or price risk" should they be involved in Shariah-Compliant Finance. (See www.SecureFreedom.org for more on this correspondence.)


From now on, the leading Wall Street firms will not be able to profess ignorance of such risks. They will have a responsibility to disclose them to investors. Call it guilty knowledge.


Unfortunately, it nonetheless may take action by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Department of the Treasury, the Justice Department and/or Capitol Hill to get Wall Street's attention on SCF. The $800 billion invested in such products to date is expected to grow by 15-25% in the future, powered in part by the dictators' slush funds known as "Sovereign Wealth" that are recycling petrodollars into various, strategically ominous investments in the United States.


Alternatively, bringing to light the true nature and dangers associated with Shariah-Compliant Finance may fall to civil litigants like those who have brought suit in federal court in connection with Saudi and other interests' (many of them Shariah-compliant) ties to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The cost to Wall Street of such litigation could be in the billions.


Either way, the financial sector will have guilty knowledge about Shariah-Compliant Finance and be vulnerable to problems that will make sub-prime look like a day at the beach. Those involved are on notice.


Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.

JWR contributor Frank J. Gaffney, Jr. heads the Center for Security Policy. Comments by clicking here.

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