Dow Jones, Wall Street Journal, and Islamist Financing


Author: Jeffrey Imm

Date Published: 2007-11-14


Dow Jones, Wall Street Journal, and Islamist Financing

By Jeffrey Imm

 

On November 18, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), published by Dow Jones, is sponsoring a conference in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on "Islamic and Ethical Finance" to "examine the huge opportunities presented by this high-growth sector".  The Wall Street Journal's "Chief Shariah Officer" for this November 18 conference is Shaykh Yusuf Talal DeLorenzo, who has worked for the pro-Wahhabist International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT) organization and who was secretary of the Fiqh Council of North America (FCNA) beginning in 1989.  IIIT was named in a May 1991 Muslim Brotherhood memorandum as one of the Muslim Brotherhood's like-minded "organizations of our friends."  The Investigative Project has linked members of the FCNA to Islamist extremism and terrorism.

 

 

The Dow Jones Company provides a Dow Jones Islamic Market and a Dow Jones Islamic Fund (IMANX).  The Dow Jones Islamic Fund is managed by Allied Asset Advisors, a subsidiary of the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT).  NAIT is a venture of HLF trial unindicted co-conspirator Islamic Society of North America (ISNA).  Regarding NAIT, Newsweek has reported that "authorities say NAIT has long been a funnel for Saudi and other gulf money seeking to spread an often anti-American brand of Islamic fundamentalism in American mosques from southern California to South Carolina -- a little-noted movement financed by Saudi billions over the past 40 years."

 

 

Among the Dow Jones' "Shari'ah Supervisory Board" is Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani, who has been recently reported in the London Times as supporting aggressive Jihad against non-Muslim nations, where the London Times summarized his views as "[o]ur followers 'must live in peace until strong enough to wage jihad'".  Dow Jones' advisor Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani's support of Jihad is not new.   His book "Islam aur Jidat Pasandi (Islam and Modernism)" has been widely read among Islamists for years, and Chapter 11 of this book, "Aggressive and Defensive Jehad", clearly demonstrates this Dow Jones' advisor's support for aggressive Jihad.  Per the London Times, Dow Jones' advisor Mufti Usmani is a Deobandi cleric and a former shariah judge from Pakistan.  The Wall Street Journal's Chief Shariah Advisor Yusuf Talal Delorenzo also has experience with the Pakistan government, and was former Advisor on Islamic Affairs to the Government of Pakistan.

 

 

While the Wall Street Journal has recently published articles with criticism of politicians who link Islam to terrorism, the Wall Street Journal's financial reporting on Shariah finance seems to show no understanding of the political ideology of Islamism.  An August 9, 2007 Wall Street Journal article clearly states WSJ's view of Shariah as "Islamic law" which "stems from the Quran and subsequent interpretations by scholars".  Neither the Wall Street Journal nor Dow Jones addresses the role of Shariah as part of the Islamist political ideology, or the role of Islamist political ideology in promoting Jihad.  The WSJ and Dow Jones efforts are effectively legitimizing the political Islamist ideology by defining Shariah as "Islamic law" and developing financial vehicles based on that ideology -- one that is not shared by Muslims that view Shariah law as neither "Islamic" nor compatible with the norms of modern society.

 

 

Alex Alexiev, Vice President of Research at the Center for Security Policy, points out that Shariah law is not "Islamic law", except as interpreted by Islamists.  In his article "Islamic Finance or Financing Islam?", Alex Alexiev states "shariah is mostly a post-Quranic, man-made medieval doctrine that is almost completely at odds with modern norms of human rights, political freedoms and international relations... and [s]hariah doctrine, though claiming to be derived from the Quran, is thus a politicized interpretation of the Muslim scriptures and other non-revealed sources" [Alexiev article, page 3].  Alex Alexiev further points out that "the word shariah is mentioned only once in the Quran, and not at all as a system of jurisprudence, but in its traditional meaning of the 'right path'" [Alexiev article, page 3]. 

 

 

One does not expect ideological issues to be the strong point of financial reporters working for the Wall Street Journal or financial analysts working for the Dow Jones Company.  But one could hardly imagine the Wall Street Journal in 1967 holding a conference on "Communist Finance" vehicles, because without a doubt, the financial world and the American public understood Communism to be a political ideology. Moreover, it was understood as an enemy ideology inimical to the United States. In 2007, however, Wall Street has been persuaded by Wahhabists and Islamists that political Islamism is a religion, not a political ideology.

 

 

As previously discussed, this is where the failure of an agreed-upon policy on Jihad and Islamism continues to weaken the United States' national security.  While the 9/11 Commission acknowledged in a footnote that Islamism provided a basis for Islamist terrorism, it failed to recommend any analysis or policy in determining an approach regarding political Islamism, and no policy has ever been created on Islamism.  Without a policy on the ideology of Islamism, the America is handicapped in: (a) having a coherent war strategy, (b) preventing infiltration of sensitive agencies, (c) preventing use of our media by foreign propagandists, (d) protecting our national financial security, and (e) defending our major financial organizations from being used as pawns by Islamists.

 

 

Per Alex Alexiev's article, "far from being an innocent venture in free market capitalism, Islamic finance was conceived and is practiced as one of the key instruments of the militant Islamist movement in its struggle against the West." [Alexiev article, page 2]   As Mr. Alexiev points out, a key objective in Shariah finance is to gain the acceptance of Shariah as legitimate "Islamic law" in the West, as a stepping stone to making Shariah a part of Western community law in areas such as family law, with the goal of creating parallel Islamist societies in Western nations.

The role of promoting Islamism as an objective in "Islamic finance" is also addressed in the book "The Politics of Islamic Finance", relating the "Islamic finance movement" as a party to "a broader Islamist agenda" to "transform the present state of the world" (page 2 of referenced book).  And just how will Shariah finance and its Islamist supporters seek to transform the world?

 

 

Just as Islamists use Shariah to attempt to create parallel legal systems and societies in the West, the Islamist efforts with Shariah finance are an attempt to create a parallel financial system as well.  A critical analysis of Shariah financial systems reveals that indeed there is very little "Shariah" about them, with the use of bogus techniques such as murabaha where instead of charging "interest", banks add a "service charge", with the transaction being "legitimate" per Shariah law because the bank will "own" the goods for a second.  Alex Alexiev states "[t]o those that pursue the objectives of the radical Islamist agenda, all the ruses and deceptive ploys of Islamic banking are well worth the progress they have made in promoting shariah extremism by means of Islamic finance." [Alexiev article, page 9]

 

 

Another aspect of Shariah finance market is the sheer volume of the estimated $800 billion Shariah finance market and its impact on Western capital markets.  As Douglas Farah states in his article "A Massive and Dangerous Shift", petrodollar liquidity continues to massively redistribute wealth on the order of $700 billion to other parts of the world, including Saudi Arabia, Iran, Sudan, and others.  Per Douglas Farah, one example of the results of the avalanche of petrodollars in nations like Saudi Arabia will be a boost in Wahhabist theology efforts around the world: "[t]hat means mosques that spew hate, text books that promote intolerance and millions of dollars more through zakat money to charities that often align with terrorists."   Alex Alexiev expresses the concern that "[i]t is thus not unrealistic to be concerned that if allowed to continue unabated, Islamic finance could not only acquire enough critical mass to start undermining Western capital markets, but is certain to create a massive, legitimate and institutionalized financial and political underpinning to Islamic extremism that has the stated objective of destroying Western civilization." [Alexiev article, page 10]

 

 

With this massive volume in Shariah finance, the ability to use Shariah zakat or "alms giving" based on 2.5 per cent per year takes on a different dimension.  It has been reported that while the first tier of zakat recipients is to be for the poor, needy, and those heavily indebted, the next tier of recipients of zakat includes those supporting Islamist proselytism and Jihad.  Per Alex Alexiev, "[e]very bank offering Islamic products appears required to donate 2.5% of revenue generated from them to zakat and with some 400 banks in 75 countries and a trillion dollars in Islamic financing currently the potential zakat sums are staggering." [Alexiev article pages 9, 10]. 

 

 

Islamists argue that such Shariah finance zukat can be rightly used for Jihad. As per Lt. Col. Jonathan D. Halevi's article "What Drives Saudi Arabia to Persist in Terrorist Financing?", Halevi states that "Dr. Ajeel Jassem al-Nashami, secretary general of the International Organization for Zakat (Islamic alms) in Kuwait, argued that donations made by Muslims for zakat should be funneled to finance jihad warfare in Palestine against Israel."  Halevi's article also quotes Saudi scholar Hamoud al-Oqala al-Shuaibi, stating "[i]n his Islamic edict on jihad in Chechnya, al-Shuaibi determined that the 'significance of financial jihad is not inferior to self-sacrificing jihad, being even more important.'"

Such pro-Jihad Shariah Finance zakat has supported Jihadist terrorist groups, Islamist madrassas, and supporting suicide bombers' families.  Per Alex Alexiev, "Zakat committees in Gaza have been a prime transfer mechanism of funds for Hamas, for instance, and the radical jihadist madrassas in Pakistan have been partly funded from zakat for decades."  Per Alyssa Lappen's article on "Shariah Finance", "[i]n 2006, UAE donated $100 million to house Palestinian Authority prisoners and families of suicide bombers--and honor UAE president Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Bin Sultan Al-Nahayan, whose late father, over 30 years contributed millions for PLO, Hamas and Islamic Jihad terror. On July 27, 2005, Hamas thanked Al-Nahayan's 'sisterly UAE' for its 'limitless [financial] support...,' and 'aid for our Mujahid,' in other words, Hamas jihadist 'charitable societies.' "

 

 

In addition to the growing size of the Shariah finance market, and the impact it could make in funding Jihad via zakat, another concern is a drive to consolidate global zakat funds for Islamist purposes.  Per the Arab News, Saudi Sheik Saleh Kamel has sought to develop a "World Zakah Fund to streamline the collection and distribution of Zakah".  The Arab News reported that proposed new "World Zakah Fund" "would have offices in all Islamic countires".  Per Alex Alexiev, as of September 2007, "this plan was approved by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and is about to become a reality." [Alexiev article, page 14]

 

 

The Arab News also reported that Sheik Kamel had the support of Sheik Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, chairman of the World Forum for Muslim Scholars who estimates that the fund could be $2 billion.  (Sheik Yusuf Al-Qaradawi has also been reported as a figure associated with the Muslim Brotherhood organization, and per the Investigative Project, is "known for his militant religious rulings and political commentary in support of acts of terrorism".)   On October 8, Rachel Ehrenfeld reported that "[i]n 1999, Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader Yousef al-Qaradawi decreed: 'Declaring holy war [and] fighting for such purposes is the way of Allah for which zakat must be spent.' "

 

 

Alex Alexiev also states that "World Zakah Fund" founder Sheik Kamel is "a Saudi multi-billionaire, owner of the oldest and largest Islamic banking group, Dallah al-Baraka, and an alleged terrorism financier widely considered the kingpin behind international Islamic finance".  [Alexiev article, page 14]   Victor Comras reported in December 2006 that US District Court Judge Casey had dismissed lawsuits against Sheik Kamel and Dallah al-Baraka, despite Kamel being one of the names prominently listed in the so-called Golden Chain, which purported to be a list of potential al Qaeda financiers.

 

 

Dallah al-Baraka also offers investment opportunities in the Dow Jones Islamic Index Fund, which is no doubt what the Wall Street Journal will be promoting during its November 18 conference in Dubai.

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FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Jeffrey Imm is Research Director of the Counterterrorism Blog. , was formerly with the FBI and also has his own counterterror research web site at UnitedStatesAction.com

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