Confessions of An Economic Hit Man – John Perkins

Anti-Zionist ultra-Orthodox Jews visit Hamas leaders in Gaza in show of solidarity

Neturei Karta with Haniyeh in Gaza (Photo: Reuters)

Anti-Zionist ultra-Orthodox Jews visit Gaza

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Representatives of an anti-Zionist, ultra-Orthodox Jewish sect paid a brief visit to the Gaza Strip on Thursday on a solidarity mission with the area’s militantly anti-Israel Hamas leaders.

It was the first time envoys from the Neturei Karta have visited the Gaza Strip since Hamas seized control in June 2007.

The sect denounces Israel’s existence and traditionally embraces its enemies — including Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whom Neturei Karta members famously hugged at a Holocaust denial conference in December 2006.

Four sect representatives from the U.S. sat down with Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh on Thursday, after crossing into the territory through Egypt the night before with dozens of other pro-Palestinian activists. Israel, which maintains a strict blockade of Gaza, would not let them cross through its passages with the territory.

“We feel your suffering, we cry your cry,” said Rabbi Yisroel Weiss upon arriving Wednesday night.

“It is your land, it is occupied, illegitimately and unjustly by people who stole it, kidnapped the name of Judaism and our identity,”

said Weiss, wearing the black hat, black coat and long side-curls typical of ultra-Orthodox Jews. His delegation left early Thursday.

Hamas seeks the destruction of the state of Israel and has killed more than 250 Israelis in suicide bombings. Israel, along with the U.S. and European Union, considers Hamas a terrorist group.

During their Thursday meeting, Haniyeh told them he held no grudge against Jews, but against the state of Israel, according to a Hamas web site.

Neturei Karta, Aramaic for “Guardians of the City,” was founded some 70 years ago in Jerusalem by Jews who opposed the drive to establish the state of Israel, believing only the Messiah could do that. Estimates of the group’s size range from a few hundred to a few thousand.

Representatives of the sect had previously visited Gaza when it was ruled by Fatah, Hamas’ more secular rival.

One acted as Yasser Arafat’s adviser on Jewish affairs, and a delegation traveled to Paris in 2004 to pray for the Palestinian leader’s health as he lay dying in a hospital. Months later, a group participated in a conference in Lebanon with Hamas and Hezbollah militants.

Merciful storekeeper changes robber’s mind, religion

Reported on CNN on June 2, 2009 — Updated 0227 GMT (1027 HKT)
NEW YORK (CNN) — A potential victim became a compassionate counselor during a recent robbery attempt, changing the would-be criminal’s mind — and apparently his religion.

Surveillance video shows storekeeper Mohammad Sohail holding a robber at bay with a shotgun.
1 of 2 Storekeeper Mohammad Sohail was closing up his Long Island convenience store just after midnight on May 21 when — as shown on the store’s surveillance video — a man came in wielding a baseball bat and demanding money.

“He said, ‘Hurry up and give me the money, give me the money!’ and I said, ‘Hold on’,” Sohail recalled in a phone interview with CNN on Tuesday, after the store video and his story was carried on local TV.

Sohail said he reached under the counter, grabbed his shotgun and told the robber to drop the bat and get down on his knees.

“He’s crying like a baby,” Sohail said. “He says, ‘Don’t call police, don’t shoot me, I have no money, I have no food in my house.’ ”

Amidst the man’s apologies and pleas, Sohail said he felt a surge of compassion.

He made the man promise never to rob anyone again and when he agreed, Sohail gave him $40 and a loaf of bread.

“When he gets $40, he’s very impressed, he says, ‘I want to be a Muslim just like you,’ ” Sohail said, adding he had the would-be criminal recite an Islamic oath.

“I said ‘Congratulations. You are now a Muslim and your name is Nawaz Sharif Zardari.'”

When asked why he chose the hybrid of two Pakistani presidents’ names, the Pakistani immigrant laughed and said he had been watching a South Asian news channel moments before the confrontation.

Sohail said the man fled the store when he turned away to get the man some free milk.

He said police might still be looking for the suspect but he doesn’t intend to press charges.

“The guy, you know, everybody has a hard time right now, it’s too bad for everybody right now in this economy,” said the storekeeper.

Rumsfeld ‘Bible texts’ criticised

Source : BBC
Former US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has been accused of using quotes from the Bible in his briefings to George W Bush during the Iraq War.

The quotes were placed on the cover of the briefings alongside images of US soldiers, GQ magazine has reported.

President Bush was criticised for using the word “crusade” to describe the US “war on terror”.

Critics said he risked giving Muslims the impression that the war was a clash between Christianity and Islam.

Defence department staff were privately worried, GQ reports, that if the briefings with biblical quotes on them had ever been made public, the fallout would have been “as bad as [the revelations of prisoner abuse at] Abu Ghraib”.

One Muslim member of staff was offended by the quotations, GQ reveals.

Soldiers at prayer

But other former officials doubt that Mr Bush saw the briefings very regularly, and say that Mr Rumsfeld was unlikely to have “tolerated” having the quotes on the briefings for very long, the New York Times reports.

The decision to put the biblical quotations on the cover pages was taken by Maj Gen Glen Shaffer, a director for intelligence serving both Mr Rumsfeld and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, according to GQ.

The use of the quotations has been criticised by some US commentators.

“If these official daily collages of Crusade-like messaging and war imagery had been leaked, they would have reinforced the Muslim world’s apocalyptic fear that America was waging a religious war,” wrote Frank Rich in the New York Times.

Mr Rumsfeld was “taking a risk with national security,” he added.

One cover page featured pictures of US soldiers at prayer and US tanks in Iraq, underneath a passage from the Book of Isaiah: “Their arrows are sharp, all their bows are strung; their horses’ hoofs seem like flint, their chariot wheels are like a whirlwind.”

Another briefing showed a picture of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein beneath a quotation from the First Epistle of Peter: “It is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men.”

US MEDIA REACTION TO RUMSFELD’S USE OF BIBLICAL QUOTES

I wonder what’s worse: a defense secretary who puts Old Testament quotes on progress updates on an invasion of a Muslim country or a defense secretary who thinks this will add to his president’s knowledge and expertise.

The Atlantic Monthly’s Andrew Sullivan questions Mr Rumsfeld’s wisdom and judgement.

Proof that Don Rumsfeld was actually a closet crusader? No, more like proof that Rumsfeld tried to speak Bush’s language in the early days of the war to give him strength as the first casualties were taken.

“Allahpundit”, writing at Hotair.com, takes a more sympathetic view of the former Defence Secretary.

Who could possibly think that something like this could make people think that we were on a crusade against Islam?

“Hilzoy”, of Obsidian Wings, thinks the Bible quotations could have inflamed Islamic opinion.

He was cynically playing the religious angle to seduce and manipulate a president who frequently quoted the Bible. But the secretary’s actions were not just oily; he was also taking a risk with national security. If these official daily collages of Crusade-like messaging and war imagery had been leaked, they would have reinforced the Muslim world’s apocalyptic fear that America was waging a religious war.

New York Times columnist Frank Rich does not mince his words in his assessment of the Defence Secretary.

Let’s Appreciate our Parents

Source : Suhaib Webb

وَقَضَى رَبُّكَ أَلاَّ تَعْبُدُواْ إِلاَّ إِيَّـهُ وَبِالْوَلِدَيْنِ إِحْسَـناً إِمَّا يَبْلُغَنَّ عِندَكَ الْكِبَرَ أَحَدُهُمَا أَوْ كِلاَهُمَا فَلاَ تَقُل لَّهُمَآ أُفٍّ وَلاَ تَنْهَرْهُمَا وَقُل لَّهُمَا قَوْلاً كَرِيمًا وَاخْفِضْ لَهُمَا جَنَاحَ الذُّلِّ مِنَ الرَّحْمَةِ وَقُل رَّبِّ ارْحَمْهُمَا كَمَا رَبَّيَانِى صَغِيرًا

And your Lord has decreed that you worship none but Him, and that you be excellent to your parents. If one of them or both of them attain old age in your life, say not to them a word of disrespect, nor shout at them, but address them in terms of honor. And lower unto them the wing of submission and humility through mercy, and say: “My Lord! Bestow on them Your mercy as they did bring me up when I was young.” (Isra 17:23-24)

A Straight Look at the Jewish Lobby

Obama is talking in AIPAC, America's Pro-Israel Lobbying Group

By Mark Weber

For many years Israel has violated well established precepts of international law and has defied numerous United Nations resolutions in its occupation of conquered lands, in extra-judicial killings, and in its repeated acts of military aggression.

Most of the world regards Israel’s policies, and especially its oppression of Pal­estinians, as illegal and outrageous. This international consen­sus is reflected, for example, in numerous UN resolutions condemning Israel, which have been approved with overwhelming majorities.

“The whole world,“ said United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, “is demanding that Israel withdraw [from occupied Palestinian territories]. I don’t think the whole world… can be wrong.” [1]

Only in the United States do politicians and the media still fervently support Israel and defend its policies. For many years the US has provided Israel with crucial military, diplo­matic and financial backing, including more than $3 billion each year in aid.

Why is the US such a staunch bastion of support for Israel?

Bishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa, who was awarded the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize, has candidly identified the reason. Speaking to an audience in Boston, he said:

But you know as well as I do that, somehow, the Israeli government is placed on a pedestal [in the US], and to criticize it is to be immediately dubbed anti-Semitic … People are scared in this country, to say wrong is wrong because the Jewish lobby is powerful — very powerful. [2]

Bishop Tutu spoke the truth. Although Jews make up only two or three percent of the US population, they wield immense power and influ­ence – much more than any other ethnic or religious group.

As Jewish author and political science professor Benjamin Ginsberg has pointed out: [3]

Since the 1960s, Jews have come to wield considerable influence in American economic, cultural, intellectual and political life. Jews played a central role in American finance during the 1980s, and they were among the chief beneficiaries of that decade’s corporate mergers and reorganizations. Today, though barely two percent of the nation’s population is Jewish, close to half its billionaires are Jews. The chief executive officers of the three major television networks and the four largest film studios are Jews, as are the owners of the nation’s larg­est newspaper chain and the most influential single newspaper, the New York Times… The role and influence of Jews in Ameri­can politics is equally marked…

“Jews are only three percent of the nation’s population and com­prise eleven percent of what this study defines as the nation’s elite. However, Jews constitute more than 25 percent of the elite journalists and publishers, more than 17 percent of the leaders of important voluntary and public interest organiza­tions, and more than 15 percent of the top ranking civil ser­vants.”

Stephen Steinlight, former Director of National Affairs of the American Jewish Committee, similarly notes the “disproportionate political power” of Jews, which is “pound for pound the greatest of any ethnic/cultural group in America.” He goes on to explain that “Jewish economic influence and power are disproportionately concentrated in Hollywood, television, and in the news industry.“ [4]

Two well-known Jewish writers, Seymour Lipset and Earl Raab, point­ed out in their 1995 book, Jews and the New American Scene: [5]

During the last three decades Jews [in the United States] have made up 50 percent of the top two hundred intellectu­als… 20 percent of professors at the leading universities … 40 percent of partners in the leading law firms in New York and Washington … 59 percent of the directors, writ­ers, and producers of the 50 top-grossing motion pictures from 1965 to 1982, and 58 percent of directors, writers, and producers in two or more primetime television series.

Vanity Fair magazine in October 2007 published a list of what it calls “the world’s most powerful people” – a lineup of the one hundred most influential media bosses, bankers, publishers, image makers, and so forth, who determine how we view ourselves and the world, and who – directly and indirectly — shape our lives and our futures. Jews made up more than half of the powerful men and women on the Vanity Fair list, reported a leading Israeli newspaper, The Jerusalem Post. [6]

The influence of American Jewry in Washington, The Jerusalem Post has also noted, is “far disproportionate to the size of the community, Jewish leaders and US officials acknowledge. But so is the amount of money they contribute to [election] campaigns.” One member of the influential Conference of Presidents of Major Amer­ican Jewish Organizations “estimated Jews alone had contributed 50 percent of the funds for [President Bill] Clinton’s 1996 re-elec­tion campaign.” [7]

Mother Jones magazine compiled a listing of the 400 leading contributors to the 2000 US national elections. Seven of the first ten were Jewish, as were twelve of the top 20, and 125 of the top 250. [8]

Haim Saban with Hillary

The single biggest donor to American politicians is Israeli billionaire and media mogul Haim Saban. In January 2007 it was revealed that he had donated approximately $13 billion to various US political candidates. [9] The New York Times has noted Saban’s ardent devotion to the Jewish state: “He has since emerged as perhaps the most politically connected mogul in Hollywood, throwing his weight and money around Washington, and increasingly, the world, trying to influence all things Israeli. He said

‘I’m a one-issue guy and my issue is Israel,’ [10]

A Grip on Hollywood

It makes no sense at all to try to deny the reality of Jewish power and prominence in popular culture,” acknowledges Michael Medved, a well-known Jewish author and film critic. “Any list of the most influential production executives at each of the major movie stu­dios will produce a heavy majority of recognizably Jewish names. [11]

One person who has carefully studied this subject is Jonathan J. Goldberg, editor of the influential Jewish community weekly Forward. In his 1996 book, Jewish Power, he wrote: [12]

“In a few key sectors of the media, notably among Hollywood stu­dio executives, Jews are so numerically dominant that calling these businesses Jewish-controlled is little more than a sta­tistical observation …

“Hollywood at the end of the twentieth century is still an industry with a pronounced ethnic tinge. Virtually all the senior executives at the major studios are Jews. Writers, pro­ducers, and to a lesser degree directors are disproportionately Jewish — one recent study showed the figure as high as 59 per­cent among top-grossing films.

“The combined weight of so many Jews in one of America’s most lucrative and important industries gives the Jews of Hollywood a great deal of political power. They are a major source of money for Democratic candidates.”

“As a proud Jew,” writes Joel Stein, a columnist for the Los Angeles Times, “I want America to know about our accomplishment. Yes, we control Hollywood … I don’t care if Americans think we’re running the news media, Hollywood, Wall Street or the government. I just care that we get to keep running them.” [13]

Reflecting their role in the American media, Jews are routinely portrayed as high-minded, altruistic, trustworthy, compassionate, and deserving of sympathy and support. While millions of Ameri­cans readily accept such imagery, not everyone is impressed. “I am very angry with some of the Jews,” complained actor Marlon Brando during a 1996 interview. “They know perfectly well what their responsibilities are… Hollywood is run by Jews. It’s owned by Jews, and they should have a greater sensitivity about the issue of people who are suffering.” [14]

A Well-Entrenched Factor

This intimidating power is not a new phenom­enon, but has long been an important factor in American life. In 1972, during a private White House meeting, President Richard Nixon and the Rev. Billy Graham spoke frankly about the Jewish grip on the media. “This stranglehold has got to be broken or the country’s going down the drain,” said Graham, the nation’s best-known Christian evangelist. “You believe that?,” Nixon responded. “Yes, sir,” said Graham. “Oh, boy,” replied Nixon. “So do I. I can’t ever say that, but I believe it.” [15]

In 1978, Jewish American scholar Alfred M. Lilienthal wrote in his detailed study, The Zionist Connection: [16]

“How has the Zionist will been imposed on the American people?… It is the Jewish connection, the tribal solidarity among themselves and the amazing pull on non-Jews, that has molded this unprecedented power … The Jewish connection covers all areas and reaches every level. Most Americans may not even sense this gigantic effort, but there is scarcely a Jew who is not touched by its tentacles…

“The extent and depth to which organized Jewry reached – and reaches – in the U.S. is indeed awesome … The most effective component of the Jewish connection is probably that of media control … Jews, toughened by centuries of persecution, have risen to places of prime importance in the business and financial world… Jewish wealth and acumen wields unprecedented power in the area of finance and investment banking, playing an important role in influencing U.S. policy toward the Middle East … In the larger metropolitan areas, the Jewish-Zionist connection thoroughly pervades affluent financial, commercial, social, entertainment, and art circles.”

Foreign Policy Role

Jews in Israel feel free to act brutally against Arabs, writes Is­raeli journalist Ari Shavit, “believing with absolute certitude that now, with the White House, the Senate and much of the American media in our hands, the lives of others do not count as much as our own.” [17]

In Britain, a veteran member of the House of Commons candidly declared in May 2003 that pro-Israel Jews had taken control of America’s foreign policy, and had succeeded in pushing the US and Britain into war in Iraq. Tam Dalyell, a Labour party deputy known as “Father of the House” because he is the longest-serving Member of Parliament, said: “A Jewish cabal have taken over the government in the United States and formed an unholy alliance with fundamentalist Christians … There is far too much Jewish influence in the United States.” [18]

Admiral Thomas Moorer, former Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, has spoken with blunt exasperation about the Jewish-Israeli hold on the United States: [19]

“I’ve never seen a President — I don’t care who he is — stand up to them [the Israelis]. It just boggles the mind. They always get what they want. The Israelis know what is going on all the time. I got to the point where I wasn’t writing any­thing down. If the American people understood what a grip those people have got on our government, they would rise up in arms. Our citizens certainly don’t have any idea what goes on.”

Today the danger has never been greater. Israel and Jewish organiza­tions are prodding the United States into new wars against Israel’s en­emies.

To sum up: Jews wield immense power and influence in the United States. The “Jewish lobby” is a decisive factor in US support for Israel. Jewish-Zionist interests are not identical to American in­terests. In fact, they often conflict.

As long as the “very powerful” Jewish lobby remains entrenched, there will be no end to the Jewish-Zionist domination of the US polit­ical system and the American media, the Zionist oppression of Palestinians, the Israeli threat to peace, and the bloody con­flict between Jews and non-Jews in the Middle East.

Notes

1. On April 8, 2002, in Madrid. Quoted in Forward (New York), April 19, 2002, p. 11.

2. D. Tutu, “Apartheid in the Holy Land,” The Guardian (Britain), April 29, 2002.
( http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/comment/0,10551,706911,00.html )

3. Benjamin Ginsberg, The Fatal Embrace: Jews and the State (University of Chicago, 1993), pp. 1, 103.

4. S. Steinlight, “The Jewish Stake in America’s Changing Demography: Reconsidering a Misguided Immigration Policy,” Center for Immigration Studies, Nov. 2001.
( http://www.cis.org/articles/2001/back1301.html )

5. Seymour Martin Lipset and Earl Raab, Jews and the New American Scene (Harvard Univ. Press, 1995), pp. 26-27.

6. N. Burstein, “Jewish power dominates at ‘Vanity Fair’,” The Jerusalem Post (Israel), Oct.12, 2007.
( http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1191257286817&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull )

7. Janine Zacharia, “The Unofficial Ambassadors of the Jewish State,” The Jerusalem Post (Israel), April 2, 2000. Reprinted in “Other Voices,” June 2000, p. OV-4, a supplement to The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.

8. A. Cockburn, “The Uproar Over the Israel Lobby,” May 5 (or 8), 2006.
( http://www.freepress.org/columns/display/2/2006/1368 )
( http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn05082006.html )

9. “Israeli Billionaire Saban is Biggest Donor to US Politicians,” Ynet News (Israel), Jan. 23, 2007.
( http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/1,7340,L-3355786,00.html )

10. A. R. Sorkin, “Schlepping to Moguldom,” The New York Times, Sept. 5, 2004.
( http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/05/business/yourmoney/05sab.html )

11. M. Medved, “Is Hollywood Too Jewish?,” Moment, Vol. 21, No. 4 (1996), p. 37.

12. Jonathan Jeremy Goldberg, Jewish Power: Inside the American Jewish Establishment (Addison-Wesley, 1996), pp. 280, 287-288. See also pp. 39-40, 290-291.

13. J. Stein, “How Jewish Is Hollywood?,” Los Angeles Times, Dec. 19, 2008.
( http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-stein19-2008dec19,0,4676183.column )

14. Interview with Larry King, CNN network, April 5, 1996. “Brando Remarks,” Los Angeles Times, April 8, 1996, p. F4 (OC). A short time later, Brando was obliged to apologize for his remarks.

15. “Nixon, Billy Graham Make Derogatory Comments About Jews on Tapes,” Chicago Tribune, March 1, 2002 (or Feb. 28, 2002)
( http://www.fpp.co.uk/online/02/02/Graham_Nixon.html );
“Billy Graham Apologizes for ’72 Remarks,” Associated Press, Los Angeles Times, March 2, 2002. “Graham Regrets Jewish Slur,” BBC News, March 2, 2002.
( http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/1850077.stm ) The conversation apparently took place on Feb. 1, 1972.

16. A. Lilienthal, The Zionist Connection (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1978), pp. 206, 209, 212, 218, 228, 229.

17. The New York Times, May 27, 1996. Shavit is identified as a columnist for Ha’aretz, a Hebrew-language Israeli daily newspaper, “from which this article is adapted.”

18. F. Nelson, “Anger Over Dalyell’s ‘Jewish Cabal’ Slur,” The Scotsman (Edinburgh), May 5, 2003; M. White, “Dalyell Steps Up Attack On Levy,” The Guardian (London), May 6, 2003.
See also: M. Weber, “ Iraq: A War for Israel” ( http://www.ihr.org/leaflets/iraqwar.shtml )

19. Interview with Moorer, Aug. 24, 1983. Quoted in: Paul Findley, They Dare to Speak Out: People and Institutions Confront Israel’s Lobby (Lawrence Hill, 1984 and 1985), p. 161.

Is Islamic Finance The Answer?

Experts in Islamic finance believe their way of doing business has shielded them from the global credit crisis.
Source : BBC

But how does it differ from conventional Western finance?

A former executive director of the International Monetary Fund, Dr Abbas Mirakhor, says wider Islamic economics relies on God’s guidance, handed down almost 1,400 years ago.

There is a “consciousness of a supreme creator and a system that he has provided”, he says.

What we know as the conventional Western way does not have that, which is “really the major difference between the two”, he adds.

In practical terms, the most significant difference is that charging interest is not allowed in Islamic finance.

Neither are most forms of speculative investment permitted, such as hedging or derivatives trading.

“We don’t recognise the concept of interest… to look for some profit from trading money,” explains Dr Bambang Brodjonegoro from the Islamic Development Bank.

“In the Islamic concept, money is strictly for the purpose of exchange or storing value, but not for the transaction of looking for excessive profit,” he says.

Sharing risks

How then, does an Islamic bank, and a customer who puts money in that bank, make a profit?

The system is asset-based, with tangible assets or commodities at the heart of it. There are buyers and sellers, not borrowers and lenders.

Here is a comparison.

In Los Angeles a customer who wants to borrow money to buy a car would go to a conventional bank and agree a loan. The bank would hand over the money.

There would be regular repayments, which include interest accrued on the loan.

In Lahore a customer could go to an Islamic bank and sign a contract with the bank to buy a car from them.

The bank would not loan the money but buy the car itself. Then it would sell it to the customer at a mark up.

The customer would agree to pay back the cost in instalments over a regular period.

One of the core principles at the heart of Islamic economics is risk sharing. The bank and the people who put their money in it share any profit, or loss, from investments.

“In Islam we appreciate merit, so if someone works harder in a business…they (the bank) will get the sharing benefit,” explains Dr Brodjonegoro.

“The more important thing is that there will be no bank that rules everything. It will be bank and borrowers at the same level and they share the risk and benefit.”

Alternative way

This sense of equality is important. It is one of the defining characteristics which proponents of Islamic economics say make it different from the conventional western way.

Islamic economics also highlights a belief in benefitting the wider Muslim community.

The former IMF Executive Director Dr Mirakhor says that it chimes with “a movement toward becoming more ‘other conscious’…having consciousness about the other fellow, about the general public interest.”

This contrasts with what he described as the “simple narrow basis of self interest which motivates, supposedly, the economic agents in the liberal economic system.”

Some see the Islamic model as an alternative. Others see it as complementary to the system which has dominated the western world.

“I don think that this Islamic banking system is the alternative, that we have one or the other. I think this is a complimentary service, a way of doing service,” says Prof Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Countries.

“It needs to be an option there where people can find different ways of doing the same thing.”

Compromising principles

Islamic economics is not the exclusive preserve of Muslims.

London is emerging as a major financial centre for Islamic finance. Islamic banking products are also widely used by non Muslims in Malaysia.

“This is an alternative system that can be applied to everybody. Everybody can use it regardless of their religion,” says Dr Brodjonegoro from the Islamic Development Bank.

Major banks like Britain’s HSBC and Citi of the US have set up Islamic banking subsidiaries that are flourishing. Some of the champions of the Islamic way want to see business expand beyond the natural market of Muslim countries.

They believe that now, more than ever, there is a market for non Muslims who share in the values espoused in Islamic economics.

But there are some who fear that by expanding the Islamic way is becoming less Islamic.

Time to reflect

“Unfortunately what is happening is that Islamic finance in some ways is moving more and more closely to the conventional finance,” says Prof Habib Ahmed, a world authority on Islamic finance.

“If you look at the development in the past few years, Islamic finance appears to be mimicking most of the products of conventional finance.”

There has never been a better time to champion an economic model which is different to the one laying in shreds on Wall Street, says Prof Ahmed. But he believes that the Islamic concept is being diluted.

“As people after this crisis are looking for solutions…the Islamic finance industry is moving towards that very system,” he says.

“I think it is time for Islamic finance to pause and think of the direction it is taking”.

US Guantanamo guard converts to Islam

Coca Cola Muslim Generation by Abdul Raheem Green

Position on the War on Terrorism

Source : The Caliph Speaks
We at Islamic-World have had many requests to make a public declaration of our position on the recent tragic events in the United States of America. First, we want to make it clear that we will never support or accept the use of violence of any kind or for any reason, unless it is in direct self-defense necessary to protect innocent Muslims or Islamic nations against physical attack. Second, there are no words satisfactory to express the great depth of our sorrow at the deaths of thousands of Americans and citizens of many other nations in the terrorist actions against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon last week(11 September, 2001). I’m sure seeing the almost unendurable sadness of the families who have so unfairly lost their loved ones has touched the hearts of every right thinking person, and brought tears to many million eyes around the world.We commit to do our part in the struggle to rid the world of criminal violence and terrorism, and to help bring about a world of peace, love and justice according to the Will of Allah.

With this said, and said with utmost sincerely, even at this moment of great sorrow some harsh realities must still be faced. America is not the most loved among nations. It is a telling fact that millions of people throughout the world hate America, and are convinced they do so with good reason. These deep seated negative feelings toward America are perhaps most evident among the people of the poorest nations in the developing world and the people of many of the world’s Islamic nations, who rightly consider themselves to have been oppressed and exploited by America and American interests. There seems to be no question that many million people across the world today are suffering, even dying, both directly and indirectly due to policies and practices of the American government and its allies. Many of those suffering are our Muslim brothers and sisters. Unless the real causes of this deep animosity toward America are removed it is naïve to think that it will be possible to stop those who would be willing to use violence to harm America,American citizens or American interests. Terrorism can never be stopped until injustice in all of its forms is stopped.

Regarding the issue of exploitation, particularly economic exploitation, we view as highly significant a comment made in an address to the people of America several years ago by then President of the United States, Bill Clinton, who said, “America with about five percent of the world’s population utilizes about forty percent of the world’s resources; and, we are going to have to work ever harder to keep it that way.” When you are an African parent sitting homeless in the dust, hungry and thirsty, while your children die slowly before your eyes it is easy to see the blatant unfairness of this economic disparity. Is it then surprising that there will be anger toward America? Allah has told us that wealth must be equitably distributed among the world’s people and nations.

The unfettered capitalism of America and the western nations, which has also now been foisted upon much of the rest of the world, is not fair, it is not just and it is not right – in a word it is evil. Islam offers what might be described as a form of limited capitalism, which is fair, just, and right in every aspect, and would result in an equitable distribution of wealth among the peoples and the nations of the world. The introduction of the Islamic economic system throughout the world would be a large step toward correcting past economic injustices, healing the wounds of the exploited masses, and would spread feelings of harmonious unity across the world.

Regarding the issue of oppression, the examples are so many it would be impossible to enumerate them. America has pushed upon the world, through powerful and often unfair techniques of social influence, a belief in the myth of itself as a model of everything good and right. They insist there is no right political system but the American way, that there is no right social system but the American way, and that there is no right moral system but the American way. In doing so they have stripped the wonderfully varied peoples of the world of their traditional cultures, their traditional beliefs, and their traditional way of living. When you look around the world today you see the citizens of most nations striving in a desperate attempt to mimic the look, the language, and the behaviour of Americans. It is often not a pretty sight!

America has convinced(through the use of economic, diplomatic, and even military force among other means) much of the world that their form of democracy is the best political system in the world, that it is the only right political system, and that it must be used to govern every nation in the world. As Muslims we must know that the American form of democracy can never be allowed in a truly Islamic society. In the American form of democracy any issue is allowed to be put to a vote of the people, and the majority decision prevails upon all. Can we as Muslims put an issue that has already been decided for us by Allah up for a vote and accept the will of the majority if they vote against the Will of Allah? Of course we cannot, so therefore we can never accept democracy as defined, practiced, and promoted by America. Islam offers a political system that is based on consultation and consensus that allows each individual’s voice to be heard, but can never make a decision against the Will of Allah. The nature of this political process is such that it could easily be described as an Islamic democracy.

The President of the United States, George Bush, now says, “Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists”. This is a very scary thing to hear. He has made it very clear to anyone who is not ‘with them’ that America will harm them in every way that it can. What exactly does he mean when he says, “with us”, does it mean as his words seem to suggest the unopposed acceptance of the rightness of their whole way of life? It was suggested a few days ago by one of the leading U.S. government officials that as part of this “war against evil” Muslims in Islamic nations not be allowed to criticize America in their educational institutions, their government functions, or even during their religious activities. We at Islamic-World are most definitely not with the terrorists, but as Muslims we cannot accept much of what is their ‘American way of life’. Can we not support them in their attempt to rid the world of criminal violence and terrorism and at the same time not support in its entirety their way of life? We are, and we must remain, critical of all aspects of the American way of life that are in opposition to the Will of Allah.

This is a very critical moment in history for Muslims and for Islam. While President Bush is ever so careful at this point to claim that this war against terrorism is not a ‘war’ against Islam, we must wonder what the future really holds. While America is said to welcome Muslims in their practice of the religion of Islam, we wonder if this Islam we are being so welcomed to practice is truly the Islam given to us by Allah in the Qur’an and in the sunnah of our beloved Prophet Muhammad(peace be upon him); or, will they allow us only to practice a weakened and secularized parody of true Islam, similar to that emasculated form of Christianity ‘practiced’ by the millions of nominal Christians in America and the rest of the western world that seems to blow with the ever changing winds of social fashion and human opinion?

We must remember it was not many years ago that a leader of the United States Congress stated in an address to the people of America, “Now with the fall of communism the only remaining threat to the American way of life is Islam”. The leaders of America and leaders of nations subordinate to American interests often refer to “religious extremism” among Muslims. This ‘religious extremism’ they refer to sometimes includes such traditional Islamic practices as: Muslim sisters wearing the hijab (head scarf);Muslim brothers having beards, wearing turbans, or dressing in a tradition Islamic manner; praying regularly five times a day; praying too often at the masjid (mosque); or,believing that it is obligatory to live according to sharia (the Laws of Allah). The leaders of America and the western nations have made the term “fundamentalist Muslim” almost synonymous with the word terrorist. The term ‘fundamentalist’ as it refers to religion simply means, one who believes in the fundamental truths and doctrines of their religion. The term ‘fundamentalist’ is so alien to Muslims it would never be used by them. In Islam, if you are not a ‘fundamentalist’ Muslim you are not a Muslim.

Ultimately, America and the rest of the non-Muslim world must come to know and accept that all Muslims believe with good reason that they are responsible to Allah to help create a human society living fully and truly according to the Will of God, and most, if not all, Muslims will never cease in their efforts until that most sacred goal is achieved. This is the reality of Islamic faith and practice. Now is the time for Muslims across the world to stand tall and stand united, it is the moment for Muslims to be strong and to be proud, for we have in the Islam given to us by Allah in His Mercy the answer to every terrible problem presently threatening to destroy human society.

We believe that Muslims throughout the world should aid in the struggle to bring an end to criminal violence and terrorism of all kinds and in all places. The world’s Muslims and Islamic nations should not, though, allow America to dictate the agenda in this proclaimed “war against evil”. The followers of Islam are better placed to determine what constitutes a good, right, and just society than any other sector in today’s world.No Muslim or Islamic nation should support, aid, or assist America to achieve any goal that is not consistent with Islam.

The non-Muslim world, as they decide how best to act against those they accuse of aiding, abetting, or carrying out acts of criminal violence or terrorism, must never ignore the fact that Islam does undeniably place high and binding obligation upon every Muslim to come to the aid of their innocent brothers and sisters anywhere in the world if they are attacked. If America and the world’s other non-Muslim governments do not rightly carry out this battle against evil, Muslims and Islamic nations would no longer be able to legitimately offer their support and assistance. If it ever becomes clear that innocent Muslims are suffering or dying due to this “war against terrorism” being carried out in a wrong and unjust manner, all Muslims and Islamic nations should immediately withdraw their support from those responsible for bringing about this harm, and offer assistance to their brothers and sisters who have become the victims of wrongful violence.

We do not think sufficient evidence has so far been presented to feel sure that Osama bin Laden is responsible for the tragic deaths of thousands in America. We are open to the possibility that he may be responsible but we hope, of course, that these deaths do not fall upon the responsibility of any Muslim. We would not like to think followers of Islam would ever perpetrate such appalling acts. We believe that in the interests of justice, and to make this battle against terrorism most effective, that no action should be taken against any party until the weight of evidence is undeniable. No matter who is ultimately proven to have committed this atrocity we believe they should receive fitting punishment. We believe the perpetrators should be punished not because we think that their punishment will deter future acts of terrorism – but, for acts so vile as to cause the deaths of thousands of innocent people to go unpunished would indeed send a very dangerous message to others who might contemplate such actions in the future.

It is our hope and our prayer that this “war against terrorism” will not turn into a vicious quest for revenge which could so very quickly transform itself into the “clash of civilizations”, Western secular materialism against Islam, which many believe is inevitable. At this critical point in human history the United States of America must make a most crucial choice. America in its grief can choose to exercise its unprecedented military and economic power in an orgy of vengeance, relentlessly crushing helpless ‘enemies’ both real and imagined, reveling in its role as the world’s sole remaining superpower, and continue ignoring the genuine concern of millions around the world who believe its cruel self-serving policies have been largely responsible for the intolerable suffering of the world’s poor and powerless, or America can choose to honour the memory of those who died so tragically by using its great power and influence to mark that moment of madness as the beginning of the creation of a future world of peace, love, and justice.

If America and the world’s other governments in their completely justified, very necessary, and much overdue “war against terrorism” will also commit part of this long and difficult struggle to the creation of a good, right, and just society, if they do so in a way that follows the accepted standards of justice, and if they harm no innocent citizens of any nation in the process, then it should be expected they will receive the full and continued support of virtually every Muslim in the World.