February 8, 2012, - 1:21 pm

Mosque & State: City of Minneapolis Now in Sharia Loan Biz

By Debbie Schlussel

For those who say fears of sharia (Islamic law) being practiced by U.S. governmental bodies are unfounded, here’s yet another exampled that those fears are spot on:  the City of Minneapolis is now in the sharia-loan business to accommodate Muslims seeking loans that don’t charge interest.  So much for the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution that prohibits government from establishing any religion or doing anything to favor any religion.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, there is no “separation between mosque and state” and in America, only a separation between church and state and synagogue and state.  And this latest Minneapolis practice is Exhibit A.

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Minneapolis Gives Abdi Adem a Sharia-Compliant Loan

In 2005, Afrik Grocery and Halal Meat on Cedar Avenue needed to expand. Owner Abdi Adem, who operates his business under Sharia law, needed to find a loan that funded the expansion and complied with his religious beliefs.

Finding the loan was easier than he expected.

Since December 2006, the city of Minneapolis, in partnership with the African Development Center, has given out 54 loans in a way that is compliant with Islamic law by using a fixed rate in place of a variable interest rate, which some considered sinful.


Instead of charging interest, the city and the ADC estimate how long it will take the business to pay off the loan and totals what the interest would be. That amount is added as a lump sum to the total cost of the loan.

“It feels like, looks like and acts like a loan, but it’s just a different way of looking at it,” said Hussein Samatar, executive director of the ADC.

Abdulwahid Qalinle, an adjunct associate professor of Islamic law at the University of Minnesota, said interest rates can be considered sinful under Sharia law.

“Islam has specific guidelines where people can acquire wealth and how to spend their wealth,” Qalinle said.

Yup, here are the “guidelines”: credit card fraud, mortgage fraud, bank fraud, real estate fraud, and Medicaid/Medicare fraud are A-OK. That’s “halal money,” because it’s obtained by defrauding the infidels. And as for Islamic guidelines on how to spend it, here’s what’s also halal (permitted): funding rockets and bombs against Israel, and boxcutters to hijack planes to fly into buildings in New York and Washington, DC to mass murder 3,000 Americans, shooting up soldiers at Texas Army bases, etc.

Through the Alternative Financing Program, small lenders — usually the ADC — will offer a loan and the city will match it up to $50,000. Business owners will then pay back the lender and the city. . . .

Through the loan, Adem borrowed $42,000 and was able to move his business down the street, expand his halal meat section and purchase new equipment, which he said helped attract new customers.

Adem paid off his loan in 2009.

“I benefited very much from the loan. The customers liked the new store and we liked it,” said Adem. . . .

“I don’t want to go to the bank and get charged for interest,” he said. “If I need more funds, I can use [the program] again, not now, but if I need it I can go and get it.”

For the record, the Islamic practice of not paying interest was–like much of Islam–stolen from Judaism (almost all of Islam is a rip-off of either Judaism or Christianity, as adapted by the moongod cult of Mohammed to attract followers who weren’t otherwise forcibly converted). But we Jews modernized and the sages and rabbis did away, centuries ago, with the prohibition against Jews taking out loans from others that involve paying interest. We live in the modern world, not the Seventh Century, unlike the religion of barbarism that seeks to both emulate and destroy us while developing new methods of murder and explosive devices.

For those of us who need to borrow money interest-free, there are private Jewish organizations who lend money interest-free. But Jews have never insisted that the U.S. government (or even American banks) engage in Jewish practices. We know this is a Christian country with a secular government, and we want it to stay that way.

As we all know, Muslims want America to become a Muslim country with the Koran as the Constitution, as HAMAS CAIR leaders have openly and repeatedly said.

With Minneapolis’ actions, looks like they are well on their way.

And, as I’ve noted several times over the years, the way these sharia loans are structured is fraudulent and BS, anyway. As indicated in the excerpt above, they are like land contracts, in which the borrower ends up paying interest, which is built into the loan. They just don’t call it interest, but it’s there and they’re paying it. It’s more of the phoniness that pervades Islam.




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23 Responses

This like an infestation of roaches in a home, it starts with a few & then grows & grows!“I don’t want to go to the bank and get charged for interest,” he said. Well, sorry buddy, this isn’t the Middle East, it’s America & this is how we do things. I wish I could get a break!!!!!

Hollywood on February 8, 2012 at 1:45 pm

Not surprising since Twin Cities and surrounding suburbs heavily bow to this violent, religious entity. Very wrong and a very absurd slap-in-the-face to hard working people! I used to say “welcome to Minnesoviet,” but will have to think of a new greeting to cover this islamic takeover.

Karen from Minnesoviet… or should I say MinneArabia?

Karen on February 8, 2012 at 2:37 pm

    @ Karen- New greeting suggestion: Karen from Minnesota, the Golden ‘Gofer’ Sharia Bait State.
    Gulp

    lee, of the lower case "l" on February 8, 2012 at 3:21 pm

BTW, this has upset me to the point that I may change my TV viewing tonight. I don’t know if I want to watch
Hillbilly Handfishin’
Bayou Billionaires
Swamp People
Jersey Shore
Cajun’ Pawnstars
South Park
Kim Kardashian ( & whoever she’s with this week) or
3 year olds whose mom’s dress them like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman!!!! :o)

Hollywood on February 8, 2012 at 2:50 pm

Yup. Islamic banks charge interest… they just call it by another name. No one is really fooled.

Islam refuses to embrace the realities of modern life and that is why Islamic economies are stagnant.

Forcing the rest of us to embrace their nuttiness will not be good for American prosperity.

NormanF on February 8, 2012 at 3:15 pm

But how is the interest on these loans calculated? What is the effective interest rate? I’ll bet those computations aren’t being made public, and that the effective rate charged to the Muslims is extremely low, lower than they could get from a commercial bank. More Government handouts.

Little Al on February 8, 2012 at 3:25 pm

LA, the interest in their Sharia-compliant loan is no different from the interest charged on infidel up-front interest loans.

Its just buried in the fine print. Muslims want you to believe they don’t have usury in their religion. That’s as hypocritical as the rest of their beliefs.

“Halal loan,” indeed. Its pure bunkum!

NormanF on February 8, 2012 at 3:45 pm

“the city and the ADC estimate how long it will take the business to pay off the loan and totals what the interest would be. That amount is added as a lump sum to the total cost of the loan.”

This is bogus. If they are wrong, and the error favors the person taking the loan, this is a religious subsidy. If they are correct, than this is a loan with appropriate interest no matter what anyone says.

As it is the whole thing is one big lie. Businesses that make these loans report them just as they would any other interest based loan on their financial statements.

I_AM_ME on February 8, 2012 at 4:31 pm

A sharia-compliant loan is much much worse than a normal loan, because the interest is ‘capitalized’ into the loan.

Let’s say you want to buy a $100,000 house at 5% interest for 30 years. You make the deal with the bank, who lends you $100,000, and you agree to make a monthly payment for 30 years. If you do so, you will have paid about $193,000.

In a sharia-compliant loan, the bank claims to loan you $193,000 and you agree to repay that $193,000, with no interest, over 30 years.

It’s only the same if you actually make steady payments over 30 years, however. What if you need to sell the house after a year and move? Under Sharia-compliant finance, you sell the house for about $100,000, what it’s worth, and you still owe $93,000 on the loan. You are toast.

Similarly, you can’t refinance your loan at a lower rate for the same reason – you are already paying 0%, supposedly. If the real-world rate goes down, you can’t exchange your loan in any way.

It turns out that sharia-compliant finance is actually a method of social control. It’s a way to sucker people into owing you money that can’t be paid back.. and once that happens, you own them. It locks people into their locations, where they have to work the ‘company store’ and take what you give them. It’s the old sheik’s game.

luagha on February 8, 2012 at 5:14 pm

NF, maybe I didn’t make myself clear. I realize that interest is tucked away in the fine print, similar to the way it is done on some types of more conventional loans.

My comment was addressing the actual rate of interest, not the loan mechanism by which it is applied. For example, if the principal of the loan is $1,000, and the loan is for a year, if effective interest is 1%, the principal of the loan for the Muslim would be about $1,010; if the effective rate was 2%, it would be approximately $1,020, and so on.

What I was saying is that the effective rate, and the calculations supporting this rate are very unlikely to be disclosed publicly, and that the rate (as opposed to the structure of the loan and the wording pertaining to interest embedded in the fine print) is likely to be substantially below market; another example of favoritism to Muslims.

Little Al on February 8, 2012 at 6:13 pm

And in answer to luagha, it is almost certain that if politically-favored Muslims default, they will get Obama FHA subsidies (or whatever the bailout agency of the month is at that time).

Little Al on February 8, 2012 at 6:14 pm

Well, Minneapolis has also exported Jihadis to Somalia, and the US State Department has also in the past done what it could to get their bodies back so that they could be happily buried in the US. With that track record, why is a Shariah loan biz surprising @ all?

Infidel on February 8, 2012 at 6:46 pm

ACLU on the case in 3..2..

Matt on February 8, 2012 at 8:53 pm

Karen, how about Minnesaudi?

pufftank on February 9, 2012 at 7:16 am

This alone would disqualify Islam as a religion.

Bob on February 9, 2012 at 9:02 am

I get it. It took several readings of this fine article, Debbie.

This store owner really got shafted. And incidentally broke Sharia Law. What will be his punishment? One finger, two fingers, stoning?

He should have insisted on a no interest loan,… really without any interest.

It must been those evil infidel bankers that got him to pay the interest hiding it in the loan like that.

Panhandle on February 9, 2012 at 11:33 am

If you think this is bad check out how much of our tax dollars are being doled out by the DOS to renovate mosques in Egypt and other middle east countries. What’s even better is how they try to disguise it….

IceNoMore on February 9, 2012 at 3:01 pm

Hi Debbie, in this case I don’t see a crime. In fact if mortgages were under this system (lets take the words “muslim” and “Sharia” out, there is one crisis that you know would not exist today.
As for the rest of Islam it can take a flying carpet jump into hell. Myself I took a “religious Jewish” loan years ago and regretted it as my brother the guarantor was called to browbeat me as I was late on the first week’s installment. Understandable when you have to wait until the merchendise is partially sold.
We Jews made a similar deal in the Italian ghettos with Christians who could not go to a fellow Christian because of the “usury” prohibition by the Vatican.
In this case, here is an opportunity to make a profit so why not take it. Also sounds similar to a land contract with a balloon payment at the end. What I would disagree with is the negotiable fee which could favor muslims over us kuffar if the lender knows who is muslim and who is not.
I would hope as a Jew or Christian anyone can get the same deal, otherwise it would be clearly unconscionable discrimination by the city, and government.

Ron Wolf on February 9, 2012 at 9:37 pm

The difference is a Sharia-compliant loan collects interest at the end of the loan’s life, rather throughout it as in a conventional loan. Its a really a loan with a “balloon-interest” payment when that is due.

There is no bank in the world that won’t make a profit off the borrower. They couldn’t survive if they simply lent out money and only collected back the principal amount.

As far as I can see is Islam is hypocritical about financial reality. Other religions have ditched altogether with the pretense that interest is sinful in modern market transactions.

NormanF on February 10, 2012 at 12:28 am

Regarding Judaism, this is completely and totally false. The extremely serious prohibition against Jews taking interest from each other is fully in force. When I do an informal loan to or from a co-religionist, I cannot pay or take any interest, not even to reimburse for credit card interest charged to my creditor.

There is a method of technically restructing a loan as an investment; this is called a Heter Iska. Every bank in Israel has one, as do a small number in the US. (Another method is for the (non-Jewish) bank to guarantee that all loans are in-house, so there is no interest between Jews.)

I believe that Moslem banks often do this by charging user fees. Interesting, user fees, not interest, is how Israeli banks make most of their money.

mzk on February 12, 2012 at 2:47 pm

True story: When I got to Israel, I found my landlord had left me with a few cents of interest on my gas bill. I asked the neighborhood rabbi, and he didn’t see a way out. I could not ask the landlord to deal with it, because I didn’t want to cause him to violate the prohibition either.

So finally I asked my Moslem boss if he would lose a buck as a favor to me. He paid the bill (no prohibition for him, at least from a Jewisg point of view) without the interest, and I paid him back.

However, one can pay a late fee charged to cover expenses, so generally I don’t have so much of an issue. But I try very hard to pay on time, so I don’t get caught by a question of being able to pay a few pennies.

P.S It is likely OK to pay interest to a government entity.
P.P.S. I understand that in parts of Russia, the Christians acted as moneylenders for the Moslems.

mzk on February 12, 2012 at 2:54 pm

    Sorry – I meant my boss paid the full bill, and I paid him back everything but the few pennies interest.

    mzk on February 12, 2012 at 2:57 pm

Look, I understand that a lot of these people support those who are trying to kill me – I live in Haifa; this is not theoretical – but change a few words of this article and it could have been published by any anti-semitic site.

I think DS does a wonderful job on the radio taking about the real dangers, but these blanket attacks on Islam are very dangerous, and can and have (see France) boomeranged against Jews trying to stay alive AND keep their religion.

mzk on February 12, 2012 at 3:06 pm

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