Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Bringing banking in line with Islamic law

That's the duty of John Weguelin, the managing director of European Islamic Investment Bank. The long-awaited second issue of Portfolio (that's another story) has a short profile on the dapper Londoner. But after reading that Weguelin's bank is in accordance with sharia, my only question was: huh?
(F)or a clear sign of what makes E.I.I.B. different, just turn to the bank’s first annual report, in which briefings from the chairman and company secretary open with “In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful” and calculations of shareholders’ zakah, an annual charitable donation required of all Muslims, are supplied. The cornerstone of the bank’s Islamic nature lies in its transactions and ventures, which are guarded by its Sharia Board—four Islamic scholars who vet funds and deals to make sure they don’t contravene Koranic bans on earning interest and making profit from alcohol, pork, or unethical activities.
That makes sense. But can they employ a Sharia Goy to do the unholy business?

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Not sure if i understand what the question. the way i understand it, you are asking if some non-muslim can deal with interest (sharia banned activities) on behalf of Muslims?

If so then the answer would be no. It would not be the same as some one employed to do things for Sabbath observant Jews, because those things are not necessarily against the Sharia laws. They are not even occasionally banned because of a certain religious observance.

In fact, in the hadith, or the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, he states that those who deal in interest (muslims) in their lives will be given a sword on the day of judgement to battle with God because they defied God's decree on this issue.

Hope that answers your question. Things get more complicated and are not so "black and white" on this issue, but this is the simplest explanation given the forum.

Brad A. Greenberg said...

Thanks for the explanation, Affad. That does answer my question.