Government Capitulating to Islamic Law if Shari'ah Finance Regulations Changed as Proposed
by Staff
March 12, 2009
MEDIA ADVISORY, (christiansunite.com) -- The British Government will be capitulating to Islamic religious law if they change the current financial regulations to accommodate Shari'ah Finance and issue sukuk bonds, following recommended changes to the Legislative Framework for the Regulation of Alternative Finance Investment Bonds (Sukuk) as proposed.Christian Concern for our Nation and the Christian Legal Centre, in a written submission to the Treasury and the Financial Services Authority, give what they describe as a 'prophetic warning' over what could radically change the fundamental basis of British society through its financial regulation.
Andrea Minichiello Williams, Barrister and Director of the two organisations, said: "The accommodation of Shari'ah Compliant Finance by the British Government represents a capitulation to Islamic religious law. The Shari'ah scholars who mastermind this kind of finance desire to see the Islamisation of the UK and its submission to Shari'ah Law. The authority given to Shari'ah scholars by financial institutions and the plans announced by the Authorities to appoint such clerics to advise them shows just how far adrift we have sailed as a nation from tolerance, via multiculturalism to accommodation and soon to subjugation."
Mrs. Williams has reminded the Treasury that in 2003, the European Court of Human Rights found that Shari'ah Law: "...was incompatible with the fundamental principles of democracy as set forth in the Convention. It considered that 'sharia, which faithfully reflects the dogmas and divine rules laid down by religion, is stable and invariable. Principles such as pluralism in the political sphere or the constant evolution of public freedoms have no place in it'. According to the Court, it was difficult to declare one's respect for democracy and human rights while at the same time supporting a regime based on shari'ah, which clearly diverged from Convention values, particularly with regard to its criminal law and criminal procedure, its rules on the legal status of women and the way it intervened in all spheres of private and public life in accordance with religious precepts.
In October last year, the House of Lords also found Shari'ah Law to be incompatible with human rights, stating that it was 'arbitrary and discriminatory'.
Muhammad Taqi Usmani, a 'Godfather' of Islamic Finance, was quoted in The Times in September 2007 as saying that Muslims should wage jihad in "to establish the supremacy of Islam" worldwide. This includes jihad bi l mal, or jihad through financial activities.
The Government has publicised its support for Islamic or 'Shari'ah-Compliant' Finance (hereinafter 'SCF' or 'Islamic Finance') and has stated its intention to facilitate the growth of the sector so that London remains Europe's gateway to international Islamic finance. The Government has already passed a number of enactments and laid several sets of regulations in order to create a 'level playing field' in tax and regulatory law for Islamic products vis-à-vis conventional ones. HM Treasury and the Financial Services Authority are currently seeking to establish how best to regulate an issue by the British Government of sukuk, or Islamic bonds. They say that these bonds share the legal framework of collective investment schemes, yet mirror debt securities or asset-backed securities in economic substance.
The Authorities believe that issuing such bonds and thus accommodating Shari'ah Finance will be of benefit to society as a whole, will increase liquidity for the Treasury and will enable Muslims to be financially enfranchised.
