I was just browsing the internet when I came across an article on Shariah, Law and ‘Financial Jihad’: How Should America Respond? – and I was shocked to the core when I read further on one of the objectives of the project, i.e., to examine the extent to which Shariah amounts to a criminal conspiracy to overthrow the government of the United States by undermining and ultimately replacing the Constitution with Islamic law. In the process, every effort is made to document evidence of jihadist sympathies or teachings since such activities are tactics for advancing Shariah.
My first response was – this article is full of crap… (forgive my language, here..) and does not have any substance whatsoever but there should be a stop to all these ridiculous propaganda/attack on Islam. Here, the article linked prominent Shariah scholars to terrorists :
1. Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi - issue fatwas advocating suicide bombing and terrorism.
2. Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani – affiliated with jihad-centred education institutions
3. Sheikh Yusuf Talal DeLorenzo - member of an organization that provides funds to terrorist groups
Since they have no grounds (or have wasted all their resources) to find faults and start new wars with Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and Syria, they are now starting to attack Shariah compliant products and services. Yes, they are creative but they must realize that generally, people are no longer stupid to follow their ideology…whether they like it or not, Islamic finance is progressing very well and have the full backing of emerging markets. Islamic finance is not there to convert non-Muslims to Muslims (therefore, such pickets and demonstrations held in London, Birmingham and Manchester are really not necessary).
Change is necessary, however, one must have an open mind – finance and religion are two separate issues. Yes, Shariah encompasses all aspects of life, however, what is only projected in finance is just the muamalat aspects (dealings between man and man).
The prominent scholars are well respected in their own rights – they have the Islamic background and the breadth of knowledge in modern finance – I guess by attacking them personally like this show that the authors are really out of ideas to add credibility to their so-called “study”.
My advice to my readers out there – open your heart, open your eyes, open your minds, evaluate for yourself – who is right and who is wrong. All I can conclude is that the article is just a “cheap” way of getting attention and to steer away the attention of the Americans on the real economic situation in their own country – the easy way out is just to blame others (or finding other scape goats for the troubles that have been created by “capitalism”).
