Vatican Paper
Supports Islamic Finance.
France Wants
Its Share of Sharia Banking
http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/3819
From the desk of
Tiberge on Thu, 2009-03-12 10:52
In yet another
act of conciliation on the part of Western religions towards Islam, the
Vatican newspaper Osservatore Romano has
voiced its approval of Islamic finance. The Vatican paper wrote that banks
should look at the rules of Islamic finance to restore confidence amongst
their clients at a time of global economic crisis. “The ethical principles on
which Islamic finance is based may bring banks closer to their clients and to
the true spirit which should mark every financial service,” the
Osservatore Romano said. “Western banks could use tools such as the
Islamic bonds, known as sukuk, as collateral”. Sukuk may be used to fund the
“‘car industry or the next Olympic Games in London,” the article says.
The Vatican
article is only one of many articles that have recently appeared on the
acceptance by Western governments and bankers of an Islamic financing system.
More than accepting it, they seem to be welcoming it, though they are
certainly being pressured into this by unnamed forces bowing to the dictates
of Islam.
Last December, the
French Senate looked at ways to eliminate legal hurdles, particularly levies,
for Islamic financial services and products in France and the potential for
listing companies on the Paris Stock Exchange. Senate sources said that this
area of the financial market is worth from 500 to 600 billion dollars and could
grow by an average 11 percent a year.
French Finance
Minister Christine Lagarde has announced France’s intention to make Paris “the
capital of Islamic finance” and announced several Islamic banks would open
branches in the French capital in 2009.
This hearkens back to a
video from
November 26, 2008 that was posted at many French websites showing Madame Lagarde
announcing with (according to some bloggers) visible embarrassment the decision
to allow Islamic financing in France. Whether or not this move is constitutional
is apparently not even an issue, since European countries change their laws to
accommodate Islam. If the “sacred” law separating Church and State can be
violated, any law can. The video, with its very soft audio, shows the minister
in a strange garb, and struggling to present a happy countenance. There is no
way of knowing if this is merely the quality of the video, or an indication of
her emotional state. An article from
Le Parisien dated November 27, 2008 provides the following
information, in addition to the facts presented above:
A revolution
in the banking world. After London, where the first Islamic bank opened its
doors in September 2004, France could authorize banks respecting sharia law to
open in 2009 (...) Hervé de Charette, president of the Franco-Arab Chamber of
Commerce emphasizes that “importing Islamic banking into France would help the
integration process”. The main obstacle: “Islamic banking arouses fear because
it is associated, wrongly, with religious fundamentalism, even with the
financing of terrorism,” deplores Elyès Jouini, professor of economics at the
University of Paris. (...)
The world economic crisis has changed the ball game. From New York to Hong
Kong, all the financial centers on the planet are grabbing the billions of
dollars amassed by the oil-rich monarchies of the Gulf. To tap into this manna
(...) is the stated goal of Christine Lagarde. “We are determined to make of
Paris a great center for Islamic finance,” declared the Finance Minister as
she inaugurated the second French forum on Islamic banking.
For another longer
English-language article, visit Islam On Line. This
article goes back to July 2008, showing that even before the crisis, France
had initiated a policy favoring Islamic banking.
See also:
Islamic Banking in Britain,
12 February 2007
First Sharia Bank in
Switzerland, 8 October 2006
The Netherlands Want to
Become Centre of Sharia Banking, 17 July 2007
Swiss
Risk Losing Islamic Goldmine, 6 April
2008