Wintons week HSBC Does British Muslims Disservice With “Interest-Free” Scheme Islam Bars Paying, Receiving Interest ; Does Anyone Know Why? “You can call it Margaret if you like, but it is still interest” Instead of patronising British Muslims by pretending they can buy houses without paying interest, HSBC would do more of a service by persuading them to reject this counter-productive aspect of Islam. HSBC, which fatuously describes itself on TV ads as “The World’s Local Bank”, has announced a scheme to allow British Muslims to buy property without having to acknowledge that they are paying interest. HSBC will buy the property and lease it back to their Muslim customers. When the final payment is made, the customer owns the property. This is said to get around the Islamic rule against paying interest. Flim-Flam But this is just flim-flam, a form of words, spin. Anyone using a bank to buy property has to pay interest. You cannot borrow capital without paying to use it. This is called interest. As E.U. President Romano Prodi once famously said of the European Army – “If you don't want to call it a European army, don't call it a European army. You can call it 'Margaret', you can call it 'Mary Ann', you can call it any name." You can call it Margaret if you like, but it is still interest. Shamaz Majid, quoted on the BBC’s web site in a story entitled “High Street Bank offers Islamic Mortgage”, agrees. “I can’t believe that people are falling for this. You can call it anything you want – at the end of the day, what the consumer is paying is interest to the banks, except that it’s dressed up as ‘rent’. At the end of the day, one could take the same view of the current system and think of the monthly mortgage payments as rent,” Majid said. What Is Wrong With Paying Interest? According to the Muslim Council of Great Britain, many British Muslims have been locked out of the property market because they are forbidden to pay interest. Paying interest is against the Muslim faith, although so far I’ve not seen any justification as to why this should be such an evil thing to do. After all, just about all of the British population pays interest in some form or another, so what is so inherently wrong with this? This is not murder, or stealing, or adultery. According to the BBC’s story, Islamic Law forbids the receipt and payment of interest. But it doesn’t say why. Just what the Islamic faith thinks is wrong with this is not clear. Wracked With Guilt According to Iqbal Asaria, spokesman for the Muslim Council of Great Britain, quoted by the BBC, HSBC’s move is long overdue. “Some (Muslims) are wracked with guilt because they have broken Islamic law. While others’ values are beyond question, they are more pragmatic in order to keep a roof over their family’s head. HSBC’s initiative frees them from this dilemma and is the first step to delivering a level playing field for Muslims seeking financial solutions in the U.K,” Asaria said. Why is this barred by Islam? How could it possibly be something to feel guilty about? Why can’t British Muslims simply do what all other Britons are quite happy to do? Pandering And this brings me back to HSBC. By pandering to what seems a senseless, out-of-date, religious edict, HSBC is getting in the way of good, long-term community relations. British Muslims would be better off seeking to emulate useful local customs like buying property with a mortgage, not seeking ways to avoid them. According to Serge Trifkovic, in his book “The Sword of the Prophet – Islam, history, theology, impact on the world” Islam is uneasy in the modern economy. “With all of their oil wealth, why are there no Muslim countries among the top 30 of the world’s richest nations? Why is it that two-thirds of the world’s poorest people live in Muslim countries? Why are democracy and the rule of law nonexistent in most Muslim states?” Trifkovic suggest that Islam is incompatible with modern economics. If Moslems are not allowed to borrow money to run businesses or buy homes, it’s not surprising that their countries are poverty stricken. Hocus-Pocus, Political Correctness The World’s Local Bank would be more responsible if it tried to put a stop to practices that doom people to poverty, rather than using hocus-pocus and political correctness to try and ingratiate itself with Muslim groups for profit. Neil Winton, July 19, 2003 Top