Photo: GAZA CITY, GAZA - JULY 20: Palestinian Hamas militants are seen during a military show in the Bani Suheila district on July 20, 2017 in Gaza City, Gaza. For the past ten years Gaza residents have lived with constant power shortages, in recent years these cuts have worsened, with supply of regular power limited to four hours a day. On June 11, 2017 Israel announced a new round of cuts at the request of the Palestinian authorities and the decision was seen as an attempt by President Mahmoud Abbas to pressure Gaza's Hamas leadership. Prior to the new cuts Gaza received 150 megawatts per day, far below it's requirements of 450 megawatts. In April, Gaza's sole power station which supplied 60 megawatts shut down, after running out of fuel, the three lines from Egypt, which provided 27 megawatts are rarely operational, leaving Gaza reliant on the 125 megawatts supplied by Israel's power plant. The new cuts now restrict electricity to three hours a day severely effecting hospital patients with chronic conditions and babies on life support. During blackout hours residents use private generators, solar panels and battery operated light sources to live. June 2017 also marked ten years since Israel began a land, sea and air blockade over Gaza. Under the blockade, movement of people and goods is restricted and exports and imports of raw materials have been banned. The restrictions have virtually cut off access for Gaza's two million residents to the outside world and unemployment rates have skyrocketed forcing many people into poverty and leaving approximately 80% of the population dependent on humanitarian aid. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)
A growing number of Democrat cities are offering interest-free loans to comply with Sharia law – just the latest example of how the radical religious and moral code of Islam is supplanting American law without any input from voters.
Interest, or riba, is expressly forbidden under Sharia law, whether on personal loans, credit cards, or commercial banking. But instead of asking Muslims living in the United States to comply with American customs and financial institutions, liberal locales are bending over backwards to create “Sharia-compliant” loans – and may be unfairly giving Muslims a better deal in the process.
Investigative journalist Natalie Winters recently detailed several shocking examples of “cities, states and federal regulators changing loan programs, tax rules, banking policy and economic-development plans to accommodate Islam.”
EXC: Sharia financing is being adopted as official government policy across America. I found dozens of examples of cities, states and federal regulators changing loan programs, tax rules, banking policy and economic-development plans to accommodate Islam. Here’s the list 🧵
In Louisville, Kentucky, for instance, “Louisville Metro rewrote its own small-business lending program to accommodate Islamic finance, announcing that METCO ‘will now offer a Sharia-compliant modification option.’”
In Minneapolis, Minnesota, an “Alternative Financing” program has handed out $1.44 million in “Sharia compliant” loans since launching in 2007. The state government has also issued guidance for “Sharia-compliant mortgages” using “cost plus profit” components. These mortgages calculate how much interest would be paid over the lifetime of a loan and apply that to the sale price of the house.
In Maine, Democrats also changed the law so that “state-chartered credit unions ‘can now offer Sharia-compliant mortgage loans.’”
In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the city’s housing plan calls for developing “a Sharia-compliant Financing Product.”
In Seattle, Washington, the mayor’s office “created an official action item titled ‘Housing Tools for Sharia-Compliant Lending’ and committed the city to expanding access to those products.”
The list goes on.
Notably, charging interest was historically forbidden for Christians as well. Several passages in the Bible have been interpreted as prohibiting believers from charging interest. But at no point in American history have cities or localities offered special religious carve-outs for Christians.
Instead of charging interest, Sharia-compliant loans impose “service charges” or “rates of return.” In the case of Minneapolis, for instance, the city operates a “Two Percent Loan program,” whereby businesses can obtain a loan from a private lender for up to $75,000 and have the city government match it. For Muslim applicants, however, instead of having to pay the two percent interest rate, they have the option to pay a two percent “rate of return charge.”
As Alpha News explains, “the city receives a financial return on the investment it made into the business rather than charging interest on a set schedule. Despite the different terminology and structure, Minneapolis says it comes out the same financially.”
In order for it to “come out the same,” however, every loan must be repaid as promised. That has not always been the case. Minneapolis admits that some of the loans have gone into default.
But beyond simple financial concerns, Americans should be alarmed that state and local governments are going to such lengths to accommodate Sharia law, a religious and political ideology that is totally at odds with American culture and customs.
As AMAC Newsline has previously reported, beyond more benign things like prohibiting charging or paying interest on loans, Sharia law explicitly sanctions child marriage, forced veiling, restrictions on women’s movement and employment, and brutal corporal punishments, including public flogging, stoning, and amputation.
In Islamic nations governed by Sharia law, women who are raped are often subsequently murdered by their own family members in so-called “honor killings.” Religious minorities and political dissidents routinely face discrimination or persecution. Basic due process protections Americans take for granted simply do not exist where Sharia law rules.
To be sure, not everyone who invokes Sharia law condones these extreme practices, and many Muslims explicitly condemn violence or discrimination against any group under the banner of Islam. But the fact remains that Sharia has an extensive and well-documented history of horrors associated with it, which makes any mention of it in official government policies especially concerning.
Moreover, the proliferation of Sharia-compliant loans is hardly the only recent example of the creeping influence of Islam in American life. Last week, Fox News reported that Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport would be installing Islamic “Wudu” foot-washing stations throughout Terminal D, joining other major airports like Chicago O’Hare. Following intense backlash, the airport scrapped the plan after Texas Governor Greg Abbott threatened to pull state grants for the airport.
“Government-owned airports cannot favor one religion over all others,” Abbott wrote on X. “DFW plans to install Islamic Wudu washing facilities are illegal. I've directed a review of all state grants to both airports for possible revocation, and referred DFW & IAH to USDOT for investigation.”
In another instance, Texas public school students were bussed to an Islamic center to “experience Islam firsthand.”
There is nothing inherently wrong with educating children about Islam – the world’s fastest-growing religion – or providing facilities for people to practice their faith. But the undeniable trend is that Islam is being treated as a unique and special religion; you can bet that there are no planned public-school trips to Christian churches, and there are no Catholic shrines at DFW airport.
The issue is not whether Muslims are free to practice their faith. They should enjoy the same religious liberty as every other American. The problem begins when government officials start reshaping public policy around the dictates of one religion, especially when doing so creates privileges or accommodations unavailable to everyone else.
In a nation governed by the U.S. Constitution and equal treatment under the law, no religious code – Islamic, Christian, or otherwise – should be allowed to supersede the civic rules and financial customs that all Americans must live by.
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