Financial Jihad In America--"walking The Plank To A Dhimmi Nation"--chapter 4

4 Financial Jihad in America Shari’ah-compliant finance plays a significant role in denying the freedoms of Democracy and the integration of Muslim immigrants into Western host countries. Legitimizing and enabling Shari’ah law in the West coerces Muslim individuals and groups to live under Islamic law yet many U.S. banks have opened Shariah compliant financial departments and are catering to an Islamic agenda. When there were not any Shari’ah-compliant banks in the West, devout Muslims were allowed to use the conventional “infidel” institutions of their Western host countries under a Shari’ah doctrine of “extreme necessity,” but Western banks started catering to Muslim demands and Shari’ah-compliant financial (SCF) departments came into to existence. As SCF institutions become available, Muslims will patronize them exclusively. Allowing the spread of Shari’ah finance in the West and the U.S. also pushes Americans toward Shari’ah.1 Shari’ah Law is the totalitarian legal system that Islamists believe should govern every aspect of humanity in a global theocracy. Theoretically upon establishment of an Islamic oneworld government, Shari’ah would be the basis of all law. Leading Islamic scholars and practitioners explicitly acknowledge Shari’ah financing as complementary to violent jihad, with the main purpose to promote Shari’ah law. For this reason, Islamists see Shari’ah finance as “financial jihad.” Advocates of Islam define the Islamic agenda as a complete socio-political system encompassing both personal and private life that for Americans, would mean the loss of many freedoms we enjoy today. Sheik Qaradawi, a terrorist banned from entering the United States and Great Britain, who leads international Islamic Finance agencies describes Shari’ah finance as: “I like to call it Jihad with money, because God has ordered us to fight enemies with our lives and our money.”2 1

2

Shari’ah Finance Watch; http://www.Shari’ahhfinancewatch.org/blog/category/frequently-asked-questions/

Gabriel, Brigitte; “U.S. Treasury Department to Host Islamic Finance 101 Forum!,” November 1, 2008, http://www.actforamerica.org/index.php/learn/email-archives/494-us-treasury-department-to-host-shariahcompliant-financing-forum

Conventional banking has been widespread for years in the Islamic world, however, in the past decade a stricter interpretation of Shari’ah is gaining ground and drives the growth of fundamental no-interest Islamic finance, misleadingly promoted in the West as “ethically and socially responsible.” Ethically and socially responsibility in an Islamic context, it enables the oppressive governance and bondage of Islamic laws. University of Southern California professor Timur Kuran, who holds the King Faisal Chair in Islamic Thought, concurred “Islamic banking defies the separation between economics and religion.” Shari’ah requires those who cannot participate in Jihad physically, to support it financially. Driven by power, and to appease radical Islamists who might otherwise overthrow the Saudi regime, members of the Wahhabist Saudi oligarchy willingly fund radical Islamists organizations. Shari’ah compliant financing (SCF), originally created to be a terrorist tool, seduces proponents who buy in to the hype that interest is always usury. While the Koran prohibits usury, it does not actually prohibit interest, only such rates that border on loan sharking. But given the hypothesis that interest is forbidden, SCF uses terms and features like “fees,” and “zakat,” where fees take the place of interest, and zakat is an Islamic religious tax requiring that alms be given to Islamic charities in compliance with the third pillar of Islam. Ironically or hypocritically, Shari’ah financial funds can be invested in companies that earn a profit from interest or otherwise un-Islamic activities, as long as the returns on investment are purified by donating 2.5% to 20% of the annual earnings, with percentages dependent on the source, to charities of Islamic scholarly determination. This laundering process supposedly purifies the money and makes it socially responsible and clean regardless of its source. Islamic “scholars” on Shari’ah finance boards at the individual organizations determine which charities will receive the donations. The decisions are based on Islamic law and are void of further oversight and no claims or attempts at transparency. SCF non-transparency and “complexity” is what makes them difficult to trace and such excellent terrorist funding tools. Rabidly expanding in the West as a way to cash in on petrodollars, SCF products are counterproductive to human rights as well as Western values. Proponents of SCF are promoting a seditious agenda with risks of racketeering and violation of security & anti-trust laws while enabling consumer fraud.

Not above taking advantage of an established Western market, and with a means to purify the ill-gotten money to aid jihadi efforts, affluent individual Muslims are active investors in U.S. and European financial institutions. European nations like the UK and France, foolishly promote Islamic Shari’ah products with SCF bonds, SCF car insurance, SCF credit cards, and SCF mortgages in an effort to expand product lines. Wall Street, American financial institutions, and the media know that Sharia banking is a major source of terror funding, but still buy into them. In an April 3, 2008 article titled “Jihad Comes to Wall Street,” Alex Alexiev, The Security Council Vice President wrote that dozens of Western banks promote Shari’ah products today, and described Shari’ah finance: “… as a massive subversion campaign by radical Islam designed to legitimize Shari’ah in the West, to undermine our markets, and ultimately to imperil our free-enterprise system and national security — all the while exposing banks to financial risks that make the sub-prime fiasco look like a walk in the park.” 3 The U.S. Treasury Department is aware that SCF institutions have participated in financially supporting terrorism yet on November 6, 2008 the U.S. Treasury Department and the Islamic Finance Project of the Harvard Law School, hosted a forum entitled “Islamic Finance 101.” Presented only two days after the 2008 Presidential Election and in the midst of the 2008 financial crisis, the forum was an effort to train government employees on Shari’ah-compliant finance (SCF). Its purpose was to introduce and educate the Treasury Department staff, U.S. banking regulatory agencies, Congress, Department of Treasury, and other parts of the Executive Branch on Shari’ah finance. According to a press release, the forum was “designed to help inform the policy community about Islamic financial services, which are an increasingly important part of the global financial industry.” Two SCF banks registered in the Bahamas; Bank Al-Taqwa and Akida Bank, laundered money to terrorists, and were run out of Italy and Switzerland. Bank Al-Taqwa transferred tens of millions of dollars to HAMAS, Al Qaeda, the PLO, and others from 1988 until November 2001, when it was designated a terrorist entity by the U.S. government and the UN. 3

Alexiev, Alex; “Jihad Comes to Wall Street,” April 3, 2008 http://article.nationalreview.com/? q=ZjBhMTM5MTlmN2YzNzE0MmFkOTg2OGYxNWM2MGNiNTQ=

Al Qaeda was initially funded with approximately $30 million per year, by diversion of the charity money that strategically placed financial facilitators collect from both knowing and unknowing donors. The funds are then diverted to terrorist groups. Both Bank Al-Taqwa and Akida Bank used charities in the U.S., Europe, and the Middle East to funnel money to terrorist groups.4 An SCF investment company based in Seacaucus, New Jersey called Bait u Mal al Islami (BMI), promoted itself as an Islamic alternative to conventional investments and solicited funds for real estate development. It was referred to by U.S. federal prosecutors as the “U.S. banker for the Muslim Brotherhood.” In testimony before a U.S. Senate committee, former White House counter terrorism advisor Richard Clarke said that BMI’s financial services were little more than a cover “to conceal terrorist support,” and its investor list “read like a who’s who of designated terrorists and Islamic extremists.” BMI worked closely with the Akida Bank and Bank Al-Taqwa in networking millions of dollars to terrorist groups. Iran’s largest bank, Bank Melli, was named in the November 2007 edition of The Banker as the largest Shari’ah-compliant bank in the world. It was sanctioned by both the U.S. government and the European Union for its role in financing Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs. According to terrorist and Shari’ah financing expert, Rachael Ehrenfeld, Sharia’h proponents lure U.S. and Western investors into high-rate sukuk or al-ijara Islamic bonds, which she describes as “some of the most complex ever created,” claiming “alternative” instruments that do not pay or earn interest, however use Western structured finance tools. Ehrenfeld explains in an April 2008 article, “America for Sale,” that Shari’ah instruments convert liquid, traceable cash flows from interest-bearing debt into illiquid assets. Ehrenfeld wrote that the Shari’ah instruments “…resemble ‘portfolio insurance’ that caused the 1987 crash, and the mortgage-backed bonds behind the 1994 bond-market bust that eviscerated $1 trillion…and then some 10% of the U.S. bond market.

4

Roth, John; Greenburg, Douglas; Wille, Serena; National Commission On Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, “Staff Report to the Commission”

Those collapses damaged many huge pension funds, municipalities and institutional investors, and killed off several hedge funds.”5 Nearly $33 billion of Islamic bonds were issued in 2007, up from $5.5 billion in 2001 and are already available in the US, Britain and Japan.6 The sukuk bonds are asset-backed bonds that comply with Shari’ah no interest. Corporate sukuk issuance rose from $0.4 billion in 2000 to $4.5 billion in 2006 according to the International Islamic Financial Market (IIFM). With growth topping 122% in 2006, Islamic finance is not a niche market any longer, but is increasingly becoming a mainstream component of the global banking system.7 ACT for America Founder and terrorism expert, Brigitte Gabriel, asks pertinent questions about SCFs such as: “What will happen to our courts and our laws when our largest financial institutions and our Treasury Department are deeply indebted to SCF compliant money? Do our financial and policy experts believe SCF dollars will come without ultimatums, bribery, and strings? What kind of pressures will eventually be brought to bear on government and financial leaders by those Islamist leaders of Shari’ah-compliant finance who call SCF “jihad with money?” Gabriel concedes that there is much that the U.S. government can and should do to regulate Shari’ah finance to ensure that it is not promoted in the United States. Citing SCF as seditious, Gabriel warns it is dangerous to the West because it is an effort to legitimize and institutionalize Shari’ah law, advancing a religious and criminal conspiracy with the main purpose of overthrowing the United States Constitution and government in favor of Islamic rule.8 5

Ehrenfeld, Dr. Rachel, & Lappen, Alyssa A.; “America for Sale, “ Posted 04/01/2008, http://www.actforamerica92253.org/2008/05/23/america-for-sale-a-must-read/ 6

“Second Islamic Bank in Switzerland,” March 31, 2008, http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite? c=Article_C&pagename=Zone-English-News/NWELayout&cid=1203758570498 7

Watts, Christopher; “Is Islamic Finance at Tipping Point,” http://www.economist.com/sponsor/qfc/index.cfm? pageid=article104 8

Gabriel, Brigitte; “What Opportunities Lie Ahead,” http://www.actforamerica.org/index.php/learn/emailarchives/570-what-opportunities-lie-ahead-

An Islamic mortgage is similar to a lease-to-own deal where the bank, not the borrower, buys the house. The borrower makes installment payments to the bank for a number of years, at the end of which time title to the house is obtained. In this respect, the bank’s profit technically comes from renting the house and its attached fee, not by lending the money.9 Borrowers and investors trust the experts who determine the rates and custom terms of the loans. In SCF, the experts are required to be Shari’ah legal and religious authorities, or Islamic “scholars” who oversee qualifications of the investments. In September 2008, the American public became aware that American International Group (AIG) was falling into a financial black hole. The world’s biggest insurer by market value, AIG launched a Shari’ah compliant Islamic insurance subsidiary on October 1, 2006 in Bahrain called AIG Takaful Enaya in an effort to win a share of an estimated $2.5 billion a year Islamic insurance market that is growing, and began with an initial capital of $15 million. AIG Takaful Enaya plans were to provide Shari’ah compliant insurance to the world’s 1.2 billion Muslims. AIG Takaful Enaya, headquartered and licensed by the Central Bank of Bahrain, also promotes Shari’ah finance and Shari’ah mutual trusts. AIG Sun America, AIG Financial Services Corp, and other divisions of AIG also have Shari’ah mutual trusts as part of their portfolios. The AIG Takaful insurance coverage listed on the AIG website, www.aigmemsa.com, include personal lines, financial lines, management liability, professional liability, fidelity, accident and health, crisis management, small business solutions, property, energy, casualty, and marine policies What is outrageous about Islamic insurance is that the Muslim community has traditionally not even had an insurance market. The commercial market necessitates selling the basic concept of insurance to Muslims. Regardless of the disputable demand for Islamic insurance policies, AIG’s promotion strategies include explaining why Shari’ah compliant insurance should make sense to Muslims, explaining, “that Muslims can feel comfortable buying the AIG Takaful products because they are after all, Shari’ah compliant.” AIG Takaful Enaya’s initial plans included expansion from the Middle East, to South East Asia in 2007, then to the UK and North America, with expectations of writing premiums of $10 million in the first 18 months.

9

Morais, Richard C.; “International Investing Guide-- Don’t Call it Interest,” July 23, 2009, http://www.sirajcapital.com/international.html

In November 10, 2008, author Jeffrey Immon wrote an article referencing AIG, titled America Must not Own a Shari’ah based Financial Business. Immon outlined a plan calling on Americans to stop harboring Islamic Supremism through Shari’ah finance in America. On September 16, 2008, the Federal Reserve provided an $85 billion loan to AIG, in exchange for a U.S. Government share of 79.9 percent equity interest in AIG and less than a week later AIG’s Shari’ah-based business announced further expansion. On November 10, 2008, the Federal Reserve announced that it would purchase $40 billion of newly issued AIG preferred shares, “giving taxpayers an ownership stake in the company.”10 The AIG expansion announced two months earlier in September, may have come to fruition on December 1, 2008, when Risk Specialties, Inc., a subsidiary of AIG Commercial Insurance, announced a new AIG Takaful Homeowners Policy as “…the first installment in Lexington Takaful Solutions, a series of Shari’ah-compliant (Takaful) product offerings in the U.S. The newly announced Takaful products are compliant with key Islamic finance tenets and based on the concept of mutual insurance.” 11 Under the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, the Government sanctioned bailout purchase of AIG stock grew to over $160 billion by March 2009, with more promised. The fact that the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act had just become law, allocating $700 billion to U.S. banks that have Shari’ah divisions and products, calls in the possibility of extortion and massive non-transparency. It is shocking that the Federal Reserve would authorize loans to a company that was in the process of expanding its Shari’ah portfolio at the time. It is both terrifying and telling that that the U.S. Treasury Department would ally itself to SCF activity by hosting an Islamic Finance 101 Forum in the midst of the bailout, only two days after the election. Speakers at the forum were scheduled to include Neel Kashkari, the newly appointed Assistant Treasury Secretary; Rushdi Siddiqui, the Founder and Director of the Dow Jones 10

Immon, Jeffrey; “America Must Not Own a Shari’ah-Based Financial Business,” November 10, 2008, http://antijihad.org/blog/2008/11/stopShari’ahnow/ 11

“Risk Specialists Companies Announces First Takaful Homeowners Products for U.S.,” December 1, 2008, http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/permalink/? ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20081201005672&newsLang=en

Islamic Market Index Group; Talal DeLorenzo, Shari’ah advisor; and Jamia Uloom, product of a radical jihadist school in Pakistan. It is shocking that Talal DeLorenzo was the Director of Education at the Islamic Saudi Academy. The Islamic Saudi Academy is a school that was the focus of report by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom in early 2008, which documented material in the Academy’s textbooks calling for ‘the killing of apostates’ from Islam and the approved killing of ‘polytheists,’ and was allowed to expand in 2009. Frank J. Gaffney, Jr., Founder, President, and CEO of The Center for Security Policy wrote an article two days before the Islamic Finance 101. Gaffney, who was the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security, and the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear Forces and Arms Control Policy during the Reagan administration wrote: “Regardless of who wins the election, ‘The U.S. Treasury Department is submitting to Shari’ah. That the seditious religio-political-legal code, authoritative Islam, seeks to impose worldwide under a global theocracy.” Gaffney also wrote: “Shari’ah-Compliant Finance serves as a leading edge of the spear for those seeking to insinuate Shari’ah into Western societies…Thus far, we in this country may not have reached the point where evidence of this sort of creeping Shari’ah is so manifest. But (the U.S.) Treasury’s accommodation to SCF demonstrates that we are on the same trajectory – the one ordained and demanded by the promoters of Shari’ah, one to which we serially accommodate ourselves at our extreme peril. After all, the object of Shari’ah is the supplanting of our government and Constitution, through violent means if possible and, until then, through stealthy ones.”12 Devon Bank on Chicago’s North Side is one of the largest Islamic lenders in the country. According to David Loundy, Devon’s vice president, Devon Bank’s SCFs account for 75% of

12

Gaffney, Frank Jr; “U.S. Treasury Submits to Shari’ah,” November 5, 2008, http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.1677/pub_detail.asp

their mortgage portfolio and makes Shari’ah compliant loans in 36 U.S. states, catering mostly to Pakistani and Middle Eastern immigrants. In March 2001, Devon Bank announced its plan to begin selling Islamic home financing products to Freddie Mac in an effort to expand opportunities for Muslims in Illinois and nine other states. Freddie Mac, established by Congress in 1970, and a stockholder-owned corporation at that time, announced simultaneously that it had become the first major U.S. mortgage investor to contract the purchase of Islamic mortgages. Based in McLean, Va., Freddie Mac is one of the nations’ largest investors in mortgages and Islamic home financing products. In March 2001, Freddie Mac became the first major U.S. mortgage investor to contract to purchase Islamic homeownership products in conjunction with Chicago’s Devon Bank.13 Since 2003, Devon Bank’s Islamic financing programs have enabled Muslims throughout the Chicago area and other states to acquire homes and businesses with Islamic financing. Devon Bank’s services include residential and commercial real estate financing, financing for business equipment and trade goods, stand-by letters of credit and some construction financing.14 Minnesota Housing is the first state agency to offer Shari’ah mortgages, with Chicago’s Devon Bank underwriting for a New Markets program targeted at low-to-moderate income families. Hussein Samatar, director of the African Development Center in Minneapolis created the program with the presumption that Islamic financing will grow as more Muslims make their home in the U.S. Samatar said, “The process (SCF) is different, but the outcome will look the same.” Samatar believes that cooperation with the state of Minnesota is “a nod to the Muslim community’s growing economic power.” 15 SCFs are described as “flexible” in that they take a borrowers “situation” into account. They can be determined on a monthly or yearly basis, and terms can be “adjusted.” Adjustments and flexibility are not inherently benevolent terms controllable by the borrower, and are not necessarily just about rates. Regardless of wishful thinking, truth is not always self-evident, 13

“Devon Bank Freddie Mac Announce Expanding Opportunities for Muslim Homebuyers,” Profitwise: News and Views, Consumer and Community Affairs Division, Consumer and Community Affairs Division Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago,230 S. LaSalle Street, Chicago, IL 60604-1413 October 2005 14

15

http://www.DevonBank.com/Islamic/

Mador, Jessica; “New Islamic Mortgages Now Available in Minnesota,” March 1, 2009, http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/02/28/islamicfinancing/

especially in a religion that advocates “taqiyah”, (taqiyah is a concept that means that is permissible to lie or mislead in an effort to advance Islamic causes). The truth here is that flexibility could refer to a number of things from refinancing fees to coercion into stricter Islamic law. Subprime rates are comparable to prime rates in that prime rates are the best rates a loaning institution can charge, and subprime rates are less profitable for them. With no interest, SCF fees can fall into the subprime category because they can be either more or less than current market rates, depending on the “situation.” Unsuspecting Westerners do not realize that situations can involve a host of non-financial decisions. For example, the purpose of a loan, the dress of the applicant, and specifically the (apparent) religion of a loan recipient. In a case of “either-or,” it could be argued that “changeable” Shari’ah loan fees could produce a profit, say… if the recipient’s religion presents a “risk.” It is just as logical to deduce that Shari’ah-compliant institutions award zero to very low profit fees for low income Muslims, or others who are obviously Muslims who incidentally adhere to a host of personal requirements such as jewelry, clothing, fingernail and hair cutting guidelines, and are forbidden to drink alcohol or keep pets in their homes. Because SCF rates are determined individually and beholden to Islamic charities, they are as discriminatory as they are dangerous to the West. Even though one may argue that nonMuslims can obtain Shari’ah loans, remember that terms are “individually” decided. If a nonMuslim wishes, and initially qualifies to get a SCF loan, he must, as part of the future “changeable,” agreement acknowledging that a percentage of his “fees” will fund Islamic charities. He or she will also have a “flexible” fee amount that may be higher than a fee that a Muslim pays. In an article for The Washington Times on September 16, 2008, Frank Gaffney compared subprime loans with SCFs. Noting the effect that subprime loans had on the 2008 financial crisis, he wrote: “…they [subprime loans] are therefore an unsound business practice because they have just shown themselves to be inadequate in supporting the U.S. capital

market loaning

institutions.

Basing

loans

on

nontransparent bundles of subprime mortgage-backed securities was a violation of industry standards and government regulations with respect to

transparency,

disclosure,

due

diligence,

good

governance,

and

accountability.” Gaffney pointed out that SCF loans “bear all the hallmarks of the subprime market” with “a systematic failure to disclose.” This is exactly what makes them “great tools for terrorist funding.” David Yerushalmi, a litigator specializing in securities law and an expert on international policy produced a memorandum examining the civil and criminal exposure inherent in SCFs in 2008 and concluded that banks and investment houses offering SCF products may be enabling or engaging in racketeering, antitrust activities, securities fraud, consumer fraud, and material support for terror. Copies of Yerushalmi’s memorandum were sent to Wall Street firms and leading U.S.commercial banks. The Center for Security Policy sent the memorandum pointing out the similarities between subprime loans and SCFs. According to Gaffney’s article, only the former Merrill Lynch responded to the memorandum, but only with a note that curtly acknowledged its concern about terrorism. Gaffney describes SCFs as a tool to overthrow the U.S. Government: “What makes Shari’ah-Compliant Finance even more dangerous than subprime is that, in its effort to legitimize and institutionalize Shari’ah in America, it is advancing a criminal conspiracy whose purpose is the violent overthrow of the United States Constitution and government in favor of Islamic rule. That would make it sedition” 16 Gaffney wrote that Alex Alexiev, the Vice President of Center for Security Policy, describes Gulf state’s Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs), as “slush funds of the sovereigns… increasingly invested to promote Shari’ah law,” adding to what was in 2008 already estimated to be an $800 billion global industry. According to Alexiev, SCFs are:

16

Gaffney, Frank; “Wall Street: What’ Next,” September 16, 2008, http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/sep/16/into-the-fire/

“…a deliberate attempt to undermine Western markets and legitimize Shari’ah with practices that ‘imperil our free-enterprise system and national security -- all the while exposing banks to financial risks that make the sub-prime fiasco look like a walk in the park.” 17 Opponents of Shari’ah law believe that transparency and checks and balances are impossible when deference to religious “scholars” is policy. People in democratic nations do not realize they are unintentionally allowing seditious activity by promoting SCF. By not informing consumers and clients of the purpose of SCF, institutions are not providing accurate or transparent information from which a consumer can make a well-informed decision. Thus, it was also misleading for the U.S. Treasury to host a seminar on SCF without revealing its use as a tool in Islamic jihad. Instead of legitimizing Shari’ah in place of democratic constitutional values, the Treasury Department should have created regulations, oversight, and transparency mechanisms to eliminate the threat of Shari’ah compliant finance. Proponents of Shari’ah finance hope to see it move deeper into mainstream global finance. American opponents maintain that Shari’ah finance is unconstitutional because it promotes a religion, and funds terrorism lacking transparency and credibility. Shari’ah interpretation varies between institutions and regions and is deficient in regulatory oversight. SCF transactions are backed by a non-financial trade, rendering Shari’ah compliant products more complex than conventional transactions and lacking the likes of corporate treasury and derivatives products. Also there are a limited number of Islamic scholars to oversee the transactions and financial products for Shari’ah compliant financial products. With Deutsche Bank, Barclays Capital and BNP Paribas among the world’s top five issuers of sukuk, and the fact that the International Capital Market Association and the International Islamic Financial Market (IIFM) are planning to develop standard contracts for Islamic instruments, is telltale of who is controlling global financial infrastructure when global banks are putting their weight behind Islamic finance.18

17

Alexiev, Alex; “Jihad Comes to Wall Street,” April 3, 2008 http://article.nationalreview.com/? q=ZjBhMTM5MTlmN2YzNzE0MmFkOTg2OGYxNWM2MGNiNTQ= 18

Watts, Christopher; “Is Islamic Finance at Tipping Point,” http://www.economist.com/sponsor/qfc/index.cfm? pageid=article104

Americans should urge our Senate and House leaders to investigate financial corporations that sell Shari’ah products, and put an end the U.S. ownership of SCF businesses by boycotting Banks that offer them. We should demand that our leaders close all U.S. banks that offer Shari’ah compliant products regardless of standardization, and we should demand the resignation of those in the U.S. government responsible for enabling and purchasing banks that have Shari’ah products and products. The Center for Secure Policy and The McCormick Foundation have written a pamphlet that has specific steps and recommendations for ending Shari’ah compliant financial products. The pamphlet, “Shariah, Law and ‘Financial Jihad’: How Should America Respond?” can be downloaded at the McCormick Foundation Website and the Stop Shariah Now Project Website: http://www.mccormickfoundation.org/publications/JihadReport.pdf http://www.stopshariahnow.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=332&