The report ‘Economic Warfare: Risks and Responses’ examines the possibility that financial terrorism and/or economic warfare played a part in the economic meltdown in 2008. The Washington Times and other media outlets have focused on findings in the 2009 report written by Kevin D. Freeman, CFA, of Cross Consulting and Services LLC.
Considering current unrest in the Middle East, it’s wise to pay particular attention to a section on Shariah finance.
Freeman sums up a possible scenario of three phases in the theoretical economic attack. In the second phase, there were bear raids against companies like Bear Stearns. The third phase would comprise a direct attack on the US dollar.
It’s the first phase that alludes to sharia finance, however.
Freeman cites the first phase as the increase in the price of oil that led to $2 trillion in excess wealth for oil-producing countries, “especially,” said Freeman, “those that follow shariah compliant finance.”
Freeman sources some information from a report ‘The Fifth Generation Warfare (5GW) Shariah Financing and the Coming Ummah’ by Rachel Ehrenfeld and Alyssa A. Lappen.
Ehrenfeld and Lappen credit Muslim Brotherhood Hassan al Banna with creating the idea of Islam-compliant finance as a tool for jihad in the 1920s. Ehrenfeld and Lappen wrote, “He (al Banna) desiogned political, economic, and financial foundations to enable Muslims to fulfill a key form of jihad mandated by the Quran — financial jihad. He viewed finance as a critical weapon to undermine the infidels and workd towards establishing an Islamic rule on earth.” [pg. 92]
Financial institutions often ignore the link between such financing and terrorism—Freeman draws from another report by David Yerushalmi, Esq. [Shariah’s Black Box]. Yerushalmi explains the lack of transparency in Shariah finance—an open door to money launderers because in many cases, there is no paper trail. The author also explains return on investment isn’t the top goal—jihad is.
In addition to those concerns, most are expected to donate 20 percent of profits to local mosques, hardly a comforting thought considering the rhetoric in many of those mosques.
Freeman provides an excerpt from Forbes about Iran and Shariah finance: “The other side of Iran’s economy belongs to the Islamic foundations, which account for 10% to 20% of the nation’s GDP–$115 billion last year. Known as bonyads, the best-known of these outfits were established from seized property and enterprises by order of Ayatollah Khomeini in the first weeks of his regime. Their mission was to redistribute to the impoverished masses the ‘illegitimate’ wealth accumulated before the revolution by ‘apostates’ and ‘blood-sucking capitalists.’ And, for a decade or so, the foundations shelled out money to build low-income housing and health clinics. But since Khomeini’s death in 1989 they have increasingly forsaken their social welfare functions for straightforward commercial activities.” [Pg. 93]
The US Report located in 2008 a news release issued by Freddie Mac touting expanding financing opportunities for Muslim homebuyers in January, 2005. The release said the “Islamic home financing…is sharia compliant.”
Freddie Mac was a key factor in the economic meltdown, saved only by a US taxpayer funded bailout of epic proportions—said bailout is not included in deficit projections, by the way. Freddie Mac and its sibling Fannie Mae have been popular Democrat Party policy. When Republicans attempted to rein in the risk, Democrats fought back viciously and succeeded in stopping any effort to address the government sponsored enterprises.
The US Report has questioned potential terrorist ties to the meltdown for several years. Every media outlet should have done this if for no other reason than the convenience of a meltdown in weeks prior to a general election. The meltdown was a blessing to leftwingers seeking control over the US government.
Shariah finance—in truth Shariah civil law as well—are mentioned by media and government, but rarely explained. Obviously the U.S. has been at a distinct disadvantage in determining risks to the financial system and the dollar in a world where repressive countries with hostiilty towards personal freedom would like nothing more than to see the United States of America become a footnote in world history.
Sources and Related Reading
Economic Warfare: Risks and Reponses: Read the entire report by Kevin D. Freeman at Scribd
The peculiar advantage of shariah financing in America: Column at The US Report
Financial terrorism suspected in 2008 economic crash: The Washington Times analyzes Freeman’s report