If you think they aren't funding terrorism through these banks, I've got a bridge to sell you.
What?
Why non-Muslims are converting to sharia finance
41–50 of 163 posts
Re: Why non-Muslims are converting to sharia finance
#42If you think they aren't funding terrorism through these banks, I've got a bridge to sell you.
That's a pretty big jump.
Re: Why non-Muslims are converting to sharia finance
#43This is great. I'm not a Muslim, but learning that there are banks that don't invest in arms and tobacco - this is great news, and I guess I'll take a closer look at halal banking soon. For too long I've been bothered by the fact that I don't have much say in where my funds are invested by the 'normal banks' - the fact that there is an option for those of us who don't want to participate in the military-industrial-ph…
See also Ethical Banking, here's a list of regular banks in the USA who dont lend to certain industries: https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/banking/socially-responsible... Maybe its not a very big thing in the USA. Ethical Banking is pretty big in the UK.
Big enough that, for example, the Money Saving Expert site, a popular independent comparison site for savings accounts and similar products, has a separate category if you decide you only want good savings IF they are with an ethical bank.
e.g. You can get about 1.5% interest by choosing the best rates (whereas many popular banks offer 0.1% or lower) but the ethical option is 1.35% from Yorkshire Building Society (which is a mutual so your money is being spent buying houses for people and both you & they share the profits from operations). Lots of people will decide that actually not supporting dubious industries is worth 0.15% interest.
Not least because the mutuals tend to have fewer aggressive anti-consumer practices, after all the consumers own them so that would be kinda crazy.
Re: Why non-Muslims are converting to sharia finance
#44I like the idea of more ethical banks, but I think the article is overselling the popularity of Islamic institutions in the UK. I live in London and whilst I'm aware that Sharia banking exists as a concept, I've never heard of BLME. Also the opening sentence comes off as slightly absurd: >THE HALAL restaurants established by Muslim migrants in Britain quickly inspired an almost religious following among non-believers…
Here in UK, I'm a fan of halal chippies as they always use vegetable oil instead of beef dripping for their chips and patties.
I'm always sad when I see signs with "No Lard No Pork No MSG" it's like all the good stuff taken away.
Re: Why non-Muslims are converting to sharia finance
#45usury ?
Are you asking for the definition?
Usury (/ˈjuːʒəri/)[1][2] is, as defined today, the practice of making unethical or immoral monetary loans that unfairly enrich the lender. Originally, usury meant interest of any kind. A loan may be considered usurious because of excessive or abusive interest rates or other factors. Historically, in some Christian societies, and in many Islamic societies even today, charging any interest at all would be considered usury. Someone who practices usury can be called a usurer, but a more common term in contemporary English is loan shark. [0]
Re: Why non-Muslims are converting to sharia finance
#46If you think they aren't funding terrorism through these banks, I've got a bridge to sell you.
These banks have to follow whatever the UK equivalent of KYC laws and anti-money laundering laws in order to business in the UK.
Re: Why non-Muslims are converting to sharia finance
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
The Economist would surely mark a PR piece https://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2013/09/04/...
Then a real good paying PR piece -- the kind that's passed as an actual article.
Could you please identify the PR for me? I'm genuinely intrigued: all I see is an observation that different kind of bank has an audience outside of its intended audience, an explanation of how it operates differently, and criticism that it is not as different as it makes itself out to be.
Re: Why non-Muslims are converting to sharia finance
#48I like the idea of more ethical banks, but I think the article is overselling the popularity of Islamic institutions in the UK. I live in London and whilst I'm aware that Sharia banking exists as a concept, I've never heard of BLME. Also the opening sentence comes off as slightly absurd: >THE HALAL restaurants established by Muslim migrants in Britain quickly inspired an almost religious following among non-believers…
Yeah, some actual growth numbers and customer numbers would have been nice, but I don't see The Economist overselling the popularity at all; instead, I just see them saying that it is growing (based on my reading of the first paragraph).
Edit: fix typo
Re: Why non-Muslims are converting to sharia finance
#49I like the idea of more ethical banks, but I think the article is overselling the popularity of Islamic institutions in the UK. I live in London and whilst I'm aware that Sharia banking exists as a concept, I've never heard of BLME. Also the opening sentence comes off as slightly absurd: >THE HALAL restaurants established by Muslim migrants in Britain quickly inspired an almost religious following among non-believers…
So-called 'sharia finance' isn't more ethical, not that there anything unethical with charging interests.
What they do is a lot of mental gymnastics to avoid calling what you pay for a loan 'interest'.
Re: Why non-Muslims are converting to sharia finance
#50The title and article are using reglion as a context when it's not. As a consumer I am not converting to Sharia finance, I have just found a product which meets my requirements.
The index fund I am invested in turns out to be mainly high tech stocks with a low fee, just because it has 'Islamic' in the fund name doesn't mean I'm a convert to the religious philosophy.