Time Immortal

Tarek Fatah points to a troubling new trend:

It seems only yesterday that Premier Dalton McGuinty declared: “There will be no Sharia law in Ontario.” Many of us, who witnessed the medieval nature of manmade sharia laws in our countries of birth, heaved a sigh of relief back in September of 2005. We thought this was the end of the attempt by Islamists to sneak sharia into a Western jurisdiction. We were wrong.

The campaign to introduce sharia is back. Last time, the campaign took a populist approach, invoking multiculturalism. This time, the pro-sharia lobby is dangling the carrot of new niche markets and has the backing of Canada’s major banks. Such icons of the corporate world as Citibank NA, HSBC Holdings PLC, and Barclays PLC have endorsed sharia banking and have started offering Islamic financing products to a vulnerable Muslim population.

…

The origin of Islamic banking has its roots in the 1920s, but did not start until the late 1970s and owes much of its foundation to the Islamist doctrine of two people — Abul Ala Maudoodi of the Jamaat-e-Islami in Pakistan and Hassan al-Banna of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. The theory was put into practice by Pakistani dictator General Zia-ul-Haq who established sharia banking law in Pakistan.

Proponents of sharia banking rest their case on many verses of the Holy Koran that outlaw usury, not interest.

Verses that address the question of loans and debts include:

Al Baqarah (2:275): God hath permitted trade and forbidden usury;

Al Baqarah (2:276): Allah does not bless usury, and He causes charitable deeds to prosper, and Allah does not love any ungrateful sinner.

Every English-language translation of the Koran has translated the Arabic word riba as usury, not interest. Yet, Islamists have deliberately portrayed bank interest as usury and labelled the current banking system as un-Islamic. Instead, these Islamists have created exotic products with names that are foreign to much of the world’s Muslim population. This is where they mask interest under the niqab of Mudraba, Musharaka, Murabaha, and Ijara.

…

In the name of Islam, deception and dishonesty is being practised while ordinary Muslims are being made to feel that their interaction with mainstream banks is un-Islamic and sinful. As Mr. Saleem asks, “If Islamic banks label their hamburger a Mecca Burger, as long as it still has the same ingredients as a McDonald’s burger, is it really any different in substance?”

Sharia is a barbaric system, a fusion of Islamic religion with political ideals. It is backward and openly misogynistic (a couple of examples that I find particularly odious are (a) how males, under sharia, are free to marry any woman from one of the three major monotheistic religions…but women are permitted to marry only another Muslim, and (b) divorce is a man’s unilateral right, but women must seek their husband’s permission to obtain one). It’s also just plain silly at times. And all of this doesn’t even begin to bring into focus the punishments Sharia prescribes for adulterers (stoning to death) or thieves (forcible removal of the hand). And did I mention the part where wife-beating is permissible under certain circumstances, and subject to certain criteria?

Put more plainly: Sharia and Western principles are wholly incompatible. No person has any business demanding that Sharia become the law of this land, or of any Western nation; any person who desires to live under Sharia is welcome to move/return to the Middle East and any of the nations there which are governed by this ugly system of laws. Yes, I am aware that most such countries are unliveable hellholes. Yes, I do think there’s a connection. No, I don’t think that means what I’m suggesting is unfair.

This will not be the last attempt to sneak principles of Sharia law in the back door of Canada’s legal system, and (as was the case with Sharia courts in Ontario a couple of years ago) must be opposed in no uncertain terms. Put simply, there is no place in Canada for the sort of near-barbarism that Sharia law represents, and it must be openly and plainly communicated that not only do Canadians regard as odious the deceptive and falsehood-laden tactics of Sharia propnents in the case of these banks, but that Canadians regard as odious the very tenets and principles which these would-be bankers claim to be driven by.

Because no sane Canadian should ever desire to see Sharia gain any foothold here.

(Unrelatedly, though, I’ll try not to feel too much of a swell of pride that a phrase which I may have coined is being used in the title of a column in a national newspaper (even if it is just the Globe & Mail).)

(In Soviet Russia, hat tips you: Kathy Shaidle)