PLEASE LEAVE OUR BANK ALONE!

BALA MUHAMMAD

The Hausa have a universal saying, ‘Gaskiya Daya Ce’, literally translated as ‘The Truth Is One’ or, more correctly, ‘Truth Is Constant’. How else could one explain Jews fighting on the side of Muslims? For that is exactly what is happening in the Netherlands this week. The Dutch Lower House of the Legislature earlier in the week passed a law outlawing religious slaughter of animals. In effect, there would no more Kosher meat for religious Jews, or Halal meat for Muslims. The Jews are doing the fighting, as Binyomin Jacobs, Netherlands Chief Rabbi, has equated the law to ‘Nazi persecution’ (www.metro.co.uk/news/867866).
Interestingly, there are less than 40,000 Jews in Holland, compared to about One Million Muslims. The Nigerian Christian clergy should please fight Rabbi Jacobs for fighting for Halal meat, which is part of the Shari’ah, like Non-Interest Banking.

Back in 2008, it was the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, who had advocated ‘for Islamic law in Britain’ (timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article3328024.ece). In a speech at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, the Archbishop had concluded: “, it seems that if we are to think intelligently about the relations between Islam and British law, we need a fair amount of ‘deconstruction’ of crude oppositions and mythologies, whether of the nature of sharia or the nature of the Enlightenment.

The Nigerian Christian clergy should please use their ‘crude oppositions and mythologies’ to fight the Archbishop of Canterbury for advocating for Islamic Law in Britain, the economic component of which is Non-Interest Banking.

Not too long ago again, it was the Vatican, no less, that put forward the idea that ‘the principles of Islamic finance may represent a possible cure for ailing markets’, in effect advocating for Islamic Banking, the topic of this week’s discourse.
In a report dated March 4, 2009 on Bloomberg (bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aOsOLE8uiNOg&refer=italy) by Lorenzo Totaro, and titled ‘Vatican Says Islamic Finance May Help Western Banks in Crisis’ it was said: “The Vatican said banks should look at the rules of Islamic finance to restore confidence amongst their clients at a time of global economic crisis. ‘The ethical principles on which Islamic finance is based may bring banks closer to their clients and to the true spirit which should mark every financial service,’ the Vatican’s official newspaper Osservatore Romano said in an article in its latest issue late yesterday.’ Pope Benedict XVI in an Oct. 7 speech reflected on crashing financial markets saying that ‘money vanishes, it is nothing’ and concluded that ‘the only solid reality is the word of God.’ The Vatican has been paying attention to the global financial meltdown and ran articles in its official newspaper that criticize the free-market model for having ‘grown too much and badly in the past two decades.’ The Osservatore’s editor, Giovanni Maria Vian, said that ‘the great religions have always had a common attention to the human dimension of the economy.’”
The Nigerian Christian clergy should please fight the Pope for directly advocating Islamic Banking.

Islamic banking services are available in more than 300 institutions spread over 51 countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom (the same UK of Archbishop of Canterbury and the Anglicans) and Italy (the same Italy of the Pope, the Vatican and Catholic). In the US, the Michigan-based University Bank (universityislamicfinancial.com) leads others in Islamic banking, as well as an additional 250 mutual funds that comply with Islamic principles. In the UK, there is the appropriately-named Islamic Bank of Britain (islamic-bank.com). Islamic Banking is growing at a rate of nearly 20% per year and with signs of consistent future growth. Islamic banking has almost One Trillion US Dollars under management. The UK’s Financial Services Authority, FSA (fsa.gov.uk) says it “welcomes the innovation that Islamic banking brings and the diversity it facilitates, Having access to Sharia-compliant banking products provides financial services to people whose faith prevents them from using the kind of products that are normally offered by UK financial institutions.”

The Nigerian Christian clergy should please fight the Americans and the British to force them to close down their respective Islamic banks.
In the Bible, the only account of Jesus using physical force in any of the Gospels was against usurers and money-changers in the Temple, as reported in John 2:15: “[Jesus] made a whip out of cords and went around driving everyone out, he scattered the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables.” Jesus was fulfilling God’s command in Exodus 22:25.

No one is holding ur bank