A Hometown Bank Heeds a Call to Serve Its Islamic Clients

[elleng]

Source: NYT

To distill and simplify some complicated theological and financial concepts, the basis of Islamic finance is Shariah’s forbidding of “riba,” which can be variously translated as usury or interest. Mortgage alternatives, which are the most popular financial product for Islamic consumers in the United States, essentially add what would have been the monthly interest into the purchase price of a home.

In one variation, the bank actually buys the house at a qualified customer’s direction, and then sells it to that customer through monthly installments modeled on the payments of a 30-year mortgage. In two other common methods, the customer either acquires the home from the bank on a lease-to-own arrangement or purchases the home in partnership with the bank and gradually buys out the bank’s share.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/07/us/07religion.html?_r=1&th&emc=th

[DUlover2909]

1. Islamic clients, cultists, whatever. It's all superstition either way.

:wtf:

[peacetalksforall]

3. To each his own superstition. Religions are loaded with them - across the board.

They are called belief-laws if you are a member of one and superstitions if you are not.

Taking your head piece off in one, putting a head piece on in another.

The same for cultures: rubbing the head of a child or bald guy in one, never rubbing the head of either in another.

But our internal organs are all the same, by gender.

Honoring is more of what it's all about.

[Tim01]

2. And in Detroit

The Walmart had set up pork free check out lines for their muslim workers. It really is coming. Just look at the rest of the world.

[I Have A Dream]

4. *what* is coming? nt

[Posteritatis]

10. Another one paranoid about creeping sharia unless I miss my guess (nt)

[Spouting Horn]

18. A Pubic University

in Michigan spent taxpayer/public funds to build footbaths for Muslim students, so they can wash their feet before they pray.

If this isn't a violation of the 1st amendment, then nothing is.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

6. What's coming?

Pork free checkout lines? I think I'll live.

[Tim01]

7. Now we have pork free lines.

We didn't used to have those. The pockets of muslims who refuse to assimilate will increase in area and population. There are probably already areas which are basically police no-go zones. Where muslims live their lives according to their culture instead of our laws. It is only a matter of time untiil we start seeing honor killings, and muslim politicians influencing our laws. It is the same all over the world.
Think I'm wrong? Think we are so very different from the rest of the world? I'd be happy to be wrong on this one.

[Orangeone]

8. Yuck

It's hostile attitudes like yours that makes it hard for people to assimilate!

[Tim01]

9. I understand your point of view. Really I do.

But I do not think the world is as nice a place as you would like it to be. I'm not going to argue with you anymore about this. I don't thing it is useful for either of us.
I am not hostile toward you, but I do think you are wrong. I understand you think I am wrong.

http://www.muslimnews.co.uk/news/news.php?article=15597

Australian PM demands apology from Muslim leader on marital rape

22-01-2009

Herald Sun:

PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd has demanded an apology from an Islamic cleric who declared marital rape "impossible".

As exclusively revealed by the Herald Sun this morning, a Melbourne Islamic cleric has told his male followers they can force their wives to have sex and hit them if they are disobedient.

Coburg's self-styled cleric Samir Abu Hamza said despite Australian rape laws it was impossible for a man to rape his wife even if she refused to have sex with him.

[muriel_volestrangler]

15. As much as that may shock you, marital rape wasn't a crime 40 years ago in the US

Until 1976, marital rape was legal in every state in the United States

http://marriage.about.com/cs/maritalrape/f/maritalrape10.htm

And 20 years ago in the UK:

Up until 1991 there was no such crime as marital rape, however since then law agencies do take claims of it seriously, and do take action.

http://survive.org.uk/maritalrape.html

or Australia itself:

It is hard to believe that only 16 years ago the High Court abolished a ruling that exempted any husband from being convicted of rape if his victim was his wife (although states such as South Australia had partially abolished spousal immunity as early as 1975).

http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/rape-within-marriage-no-less-a-crime/2007/09/09/1189276541976.html

Yeah, the cleric is backward. But that went for a lot of countries' legal system, just a couple of decades ago.

[Spouting Horn]

17. It's very hard to

assimilate, when one does not want to assimilate.

Mosques all over the West preach to their flocks the evils of assimilation. They are instructed to stay separate and to not assimilate.

Of course, many Muslims choose to assimilate into western cultures, but that often brings dire consequences, ie, "honor killings" and such.

[LanternWaste]

19. A lot of "white" churches do the very same thing...

A lot of "white" churches do the very same thing...

I myself have been to many Baptist churches which dictate that we eschew worldly desires and temptations and rather stay as separate and and Godly as possible.

'Churches all over America preach to their flocks the evils of the secular and commercial world. They are instructed to stay separate and and avoid the secular.'

'Now, of course many wives choose to assimilate into the secular world, but that often brings dire consequences, i.e., spousal abuse and such...'



You see-- radical clerics are radical clerical-- regardless of whether they are Muslim clerics preaching radicalism or merely lily-white, corn-bred southern Baptist clerics that preach the very same thing.

It's simply six of one, and half a dozen of the other.

[Tim01]

26. You know about the honor killings.

Girls killed as a punishment for being raped,or suspected of being raped. Killed for choosing the wrong boy. The abuse really is just off the charts. It is well know through out the world because it happens that often.
I have no love for baptists, but at the worst they are annoying. Have you ever heard of christians in this country killing their own children out of honor?
What happens when you publicly denounce jesus. How about an artist submerging a christian symbol in a glass of urine and publishing photos of it? Do the christians freak out? Sure they boycot companies. Big deal.
And what about if something negative is said about the Muslim religion? Riots.Fires. Death threats. Murder.

There is a difference.
I am pagan. And what do the christians in this country do to me as a result of me rejecting their religion? They pray for me. Wow, that's harsh.
If this was a muslim country I would be executed.Or at the very least caned and imprisoned until I accepted islam.

[LanternWaste]

28. I know that Jim Jones was a mainstream Christian.

I know that Jim Jones was a mainstream Christian.


"There is a difference.
Sure there's a difference-- you tolerate one religion and not the other one. You minimize the abuse going on within one religion and dramatically advertise the lesser amount of violence going on within other religions. That's the difference...

[Tim01]

30. I don't know why you can't see the difference.

I'm pretty much surrounded by southern baptists. At worst, they are annoying.

You are not going to convince me american christians are anything like this.


http://www.aina.org/news/20070425181603.htm

Warning: the following videos (RealPlayer) show graphic and disturbing images:

video

From the clips it appears that the girl was first stripped naked to symbolize that she had dishonored her family and her Yezidi religion. She is lying on the road naked while her smashed face is covered with blood and still breathing.

According to the website and footage from the clip a number of armed local police officers were present who in fact helped the crowd to kill the woman rather than preventing the crime. Sometime later the Iraqi army arrived at the scene and refused anyone entry, including the press.

Killing women for reasons of honor, shame and religion does happens in regions of Kurdistan and Iraq. The above incidents are not uncommon in some of the deeply religious and traditional communities. For long violence against women has been commonly used as a political and religious weapon and as a means of social control.

By Kameel Ahmady, Mina Rojdar
www.Kurdishaspect.com

[Aristus]

32. American Christianists (not real Christians, of which I am one) don't kill their own.

They kill everybody else. Matthew Shepherd, innocent Iraqis, you name it. If one of their leaders can make them hate a people, pretty soon, the entire nation is at war with those people.

[Tim01]

36. Seriously?

Mathew Shepherd was killed because he was gay, by guys who hate gays. They didn't hunt him down because he was in violation of gods laws.
And americans did not fly to the other side of the globe and make war on Iraqis be cause they are not christian. Americans like power and war. And when those planes flew into our towers the whole country was welded into a war machine eager for revenge.
Funny how many groups claim to be the only *real* christians. Westboro Baptist Church, Mormons,Catholics, you,...I'm not going to continue on this list.Isn't there something in the bible about pride. I always figured if a person claimes to be a real christian compared to others, such a prideful boast makes them a bad christian.

[Aristus]

42. Matthew Shepherd's murderer's believed they had a God-given right to kill him because

as they believe "Homosexuality is an abomination"; notice, they cleverly overlooked the fact that murder is condemned in the Ten Commandments, and homosexuality isn't.

And the Iraq War was started by people who claimed to believe that the war on terrorism is some kind of crazy, twisted crusade against Muslims, 99.9999999% of whom follow the Qu'ran by living in peace, hospitality, generosity and brotherhood.

Remember Jerry Boykin's colossally idiotic remark: "My God is stronger than their God"? It is the same God! Christians and Muslims both worship the God of Abraham. But the warmongers succeeded in making their blockheaded followers believe that it was a different God; one that threatened their Wal-Mart shopping, trailer-dwelling pathetic way of life...

[LanternWaste]

39. Honor killings are and aberration in the U.S., yes?

Religious honor killings are an aberration in the U.S., yes? Is spousal abuse committed by American christian an aberration? (For my part, I have a pretty difficult time as seeing spousal abuse as "annoying")

[Lost in CT]

34. No Jim Jones was a Loony Tune... he might have been our Loony Tune

but he no more represented Christianity (or liberals) than Timothy McVeigh represents Atheists (Or conservatives)

[shrike]

38. Boy, was he ever

The more I've read about him, the more I'm convinced he was one of the freakiest dudes ever to come down the pike. He wasn't Christian -- he wasn't atheist, either, though apparently he told some people that he was. Atheists have no gods; this guy's god was himself.

[LanternWaste]

40. Then the corollary must then be true

Then the corollary must then be true-- U.S. Muslims who engage in violent acts are also "loony tunes"-- not representative of the American Muslim community at large.

[Lost in CT]

41. Yes I agree and your point???? nt

[LanternWaste]

43. no more, nor no less representative

"Yes I agree and your point????"

That any American Muslim who engages in an "honor killing" is no more, nor no less representative of his religion that an American Christian who convinces his flock to commit suicide is of his...


I thought my implication was both clear and obvious given the overall context of the thread. Maybe not...

edited: sp

[Critters2]

13. So, you'll want pork sausage on your pizza? nt

[muriel_volestrangler]

14. Heh

:thumbsup:

[KamaAina]

20. There may indeed be "police no-go zones"

but I'd be surprised if any of them were in immigrant Muslim neighborhoods. :eyes:

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

25. I think you need to leave mom's basement more often.

We're not being invaded by the scary mooslims. Get a freakin grip.

[Lost in CT]

33. Thats silly, What company would be stupid enough to do that. nt

[Bozita]

11. If pork is offensive in a checkout, why is it OK to work in a pork-selling store?

I can't wrap my head around this one.

[Tim01]

12. They refuse to touch it.

It makes them unclean or something. So if you have bacon in your cart, you can't use that check out line. You have to go to the non-muslim check out line.

[Bozita]

16. Sounds a lot like christian fundie pharmacists refusing to dispense birth control pills

[Tim01]

27. Yes it does. nt

[LanternWaste]

29. Companies catering to their locale client base?

"It really is coming...."

What? Companies catering to their locale client base? Sounds like good business to me.

[elleng]

31. Of course.

Anyone notice the different stock at different grocery stores of the same company, in nearby towns/areas???

[Bill McBlueState]

37. And around here,

there's all kinds of stuff I can't do on a Sunday morning because of the Christians. I suppose that really is coming, too.

[Sultana]

5. Well, isn't grand

Muslims always getting special privileges...

[CJCRANE]

21. It's free-market capitalism.

If there's a niche for a product, go for it.

There's now some guy selling "Christian" salt - doesn't stop me from buying whatever kind of salt I want.

[Spouting Horn]

22. And that begs the following question:

Why do Muslims move to the West then?

Your comparison would be more valid if members of "white churches" were moving to other countries, then preaching unassimilation.

[Coventina]

23. Sooooo, aren't the customers still paying the "interest"

even if it's just "tacked on" to the initial price?

I guess it's all about obeying the letter of the law, and not the spirit.

:eyes:

[JCMach1]

24. I pay no interest on my Shariah compliant credit card...

That's actually a very good thing.

[Lost in CT]

35. British Banks have been doing this for years... It's good business. nt