Halal Banks in UK
Filed under: Europe
We already have the Islamic Bank of Britain (2004) and more will follow soon. Al-Sharq Al-Awsat reported yesterday that the British banking group Lloyds TSB (one of UK's leading banks) has introduced a new service for Islamic banking for Islamic-owned companies. Apparently other banks will introduce such services in the next two to three years. Sharia prohibits the interest and investment in businesses that are morally deviant (eg alcohol)
If we were to live under Sharia law the tax, jizyah, would have to be paid only by non-Muslims male. Women and children don't have to pay the tax. And men would pay only 0.5% of their yearly earnings. Economically that doesn't sound bad, if it weren't for the other steps of Islamic rule, 1) dawah, primary invitation to Islam followed by intellectual debates, 2) paying the jizya and 3) preparation for an offensive Jihad.
The discourse about an Islamic Caliphate in UK now includes, among others, the economic benefits. Too wild? Not really, if we check the demography statistics of the old continent.
The Muslims advantages are: "fervor and conviction, which in most Western countries are either weak or lacking. They are self-assured of the rightness of their cause, whereas we spend most of our time in self-denigration and self-abasement. They have loyalty and discipline, and perhaps most important of all, they have demography, the combination of natural increase and migration producing major population changes, which could lead within the foreseeable future to significant majorities in at least some European cities or even countries." (Bernard Lewis, 2007)
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