Call for sharia-compliant finance services to be available in Ireland

[scribblet]

Should there be separate financial systems based on religion? This is a more benign part of Sharia, but a part of it non the less, what's next.

Mind you, it doesn't sound half bad, if it's offered for one group, why not for all, no discrimination you know.

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/frontpage...1.html?digest=1

Call for sharia-compliant finance services to be available in Ireland

MARY FITZGERALD

THERE IS an “urgent need” for sharia-compliant financial services to be made available in Ireland so that Muslims living here do not contravene religious teachings, representatives from Irish financial institutions were told at a seminar on Islamic banking yesterday.

The seminar was held at the Islamic Cultural Centre of Ireland (ICCI), which is based at Ireland’s largest Sunni mosque in Clonskeagh, Dublin.

“We organised this conference because there is an urgent need for the Muslim community here to have mortgages and other financial services that do not drive them to break their Islamic teachings,” said Ali Selim, a theologian and secretary to Imam Hussein Halawa of the ICCI.

During yesterday’s seminar Imam Halawa outlined the religious tenets of Islam that forbid the payment or receipt of interest, known as riba.

Representatives from the Arab Banking Corporation’s London subsidiary and the Islamic Bank of Britain gave presentations on how the market for Islamic finance has developed in the UK in recent years.

Several high street banks in Britain now offer a variety of sharia-compliant services, including mortgages.

[M.Dancer]

Should there be separate financial systems based on religion? This is a more benign part of Sharia, but a part of it non the less, what's next.

Mind you, it doesn't sound half bad, if it's offered for one group, why not for all, no discrimination you know.

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/frontpage...1.html?digest=1

Call for sharia-compliant finance services to be available in Ireland

MARY FITZGERALD

As long as non practicing Muslims, Jews and catholics can get an interest free loan, I', okay with that. As far as protestants, Hindus and Buddhist are concerned, they can pay 3 points above prime....