NOTHING, it seems, is acceptable in the West to that exotic species, devout Muslims, who have occupied our nests, and are now demanding that things be done their way.

And what we do in the face of these ever increasing demands? We meekly bend over backwards to accommodate their every whim.

Take for example, shariah banking. Not a month goes by, it seems, without one British financial institution or another gleefully announcing that it is now offering the Sons of the Prophet “sharia compliant products.”

Even the Government has got into the act, announcing last year that Britain would be the first in the West to issue sukuk, or shariah-compliant bonds.

The Financial Services Authority can see nothing wrong in religion elbowing its way into our banking system; on the contrary, it appears to be positively delighted.

The FSA welcomes the innovation that Islamic banking brings and the diversity it facilitates. The statutory principles under which we operate encourage us to maintain the strength and diversity of the UK’s financial landscape. 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.

Less ecstatic about the Government bonds was the Lawyer’s Christian Fellowship, a body with which we are rarely in agreement, but in this case makes a valid point

The government may be attracted by the prospect of money from Muslim investors, but it seems it has not considered the implications of using bonds that comply with shariah law. Shariah law does not simply prohibit interest and finance speculation, it stipulates that money must not be used for a purpose incompatible with Islam.

This could include any number of areas of the financial market, such as alcohol and cigarettes, clothing, food, media (which produces gossip), and animal welfare (which promotes the welfare of non-halal animals). It would also mean this money could not be used in the furtherance of many individual freedoms, or in the promotion of any idealistic or political worldview other than Islam (including secular democracy).

A much more forthright condemnation of this tend, now gaining ground in Canada, comes from Canadian commentator Tarek Fatah.

Writing this weekend in the Globe and Mail he quoted Muhammad Saleem, a former president and CEO of Park Avenue Bank in New York, as saying:

Islamic banks do not practise what they preach: they all charge interest, but disguised in Islamic garb. Thus they engage in deceptive and dishonest banking practises.

Saleem exposes these scams in his book, Islamic Banking — A $300 Billion Deception.

And in his book, Islam and Mammon: The Economic Predicaments of Islamism, Professor Timur Kuran writes that the effort to introduce sharia banking:

Has promoted the spread of anti-modern currents of thought all across the Islamic world. It has also fostered an environment conducive to Islamist militancy.

You can read Fatah’s comprehensive attack on shariah banking here. Also see our earlier shariah report here.