The introduction of Islamic banking is a new measure announced in this year's budget. To my big surprise, there was no political reaction from the main political parties. I expected to hear words of praise from the Labour Party and expressions of dismay from the Nationalist Opposition. Nothing of this happened and for this reason, I smell a rat here. I bet that we will soon witness a repetition of the now infamous citizenship scheme, with the difference that this time, such a measure will be passed without any sign of controversy.
In principle, there should be no objection to having Islamic banking in Malta. Malta should not oppose Islamic banking because of the word Islam in it, as Malta should not oppose the Chinese from setting up a bank in Malta.
However setting up an Islamic bank in Malta is not a simple operation. Islamic banking requires specific tailor-made laws. It is here where I have a problem with this sort of banking. In other words, this goes beyond the present situation, where for example, a religious organization, as the Local Catholic Church, has opened its own Bank. This bank operates within an existing framework, which is the same that regulates all other banks in Malta. Islamic banking works differently.
Islamic banking, as the name itself implies, is a bank that is run according to the principles of the Islamic Sharia law. In other words, this sort of banking is not governed by the existing law of the land but by specific laws according to the Sharia law, that same law which governs the behaviour of Muslim believers.
It is here where I see the first problem for this sort of banking in Malta. One basic principle of Islamic banking is that this bank cannot enter into any transaction that is considered haram (that is wrong) for Islam, such as supporting business enterprise of alcohol or pork meat. There are even other halal activities in Islam, which such type of banking cannot support. For example, any sexual activity by persons of the same sex is halal in Islam. The Sharia law is clear. Both doer and the receiver should be slain. The same holds for the role of women. In various practices of Islam, women hold inferior status and are barred from any financial activity, unless accompanied by their husband, and if unmarried, by their father or brother or a close male relative.
Islamic banking prohibits the lending of money against interest, as was the case in Judaism and Christianity originally. Instead of interest, Islam introduced the principle of risk-sharing and risk-sharing is a component of trade. In simple words, this will be sending trading and financial practices in Malta to the Middle Ages, as such a system was created to accommodate mercantilism, an economic system that was disavowed by Adam Smith in his famous two books The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759), and An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776). Islamic banking works on the concepts of profit sharing and these are diametrically opposite to Smith's philosophical position. In Islamic banking, financial control is strongly religiously motivated.
Profit sharing means that banks are allowed to become a direct partner in the business venture that is going to be financed by the bank. In other words, the bank does not just become a simple financial agent as happens with conventional banking in Malta. Islamic banks risk becoming a direct competitor to conventional businesses. This also means that Islamic Banks can slowly take over the direct control of a state. They will start as co-owners in business ventures, but their exercise of control over the economy and a country's power will be even stronger that with conventional banks. This goes against the normal precept and banking codes of the Western Systems.
It is true that the Western banks are not top of the pops. Their track world record is pretty bad to say the least and wecannot blame the Arab world or Mohammed (Bless be his name) for all this. But the argument is different here.
Malta brands itself as a secular and European state. In this context, is it expected to have a bank operating in Malta, which needs particular laws, which go against the present Government's pledge of strengthening Malta'ssecular identity?
On one side, we have a country that is boasting to have embraced the ethical and legal values of the West. On the other, our government wants to create a niche for Oriental legal practices that discriminate against women, et al. One can argue that Malta being a democratic country of sorts, if one does not want to Bank with Islamic banking, one is not obliged to do so. But this is the type of argument that is exposing the fallacy of so-called Western civil rights.
I am afraid that this whole movement is now becoming queer in the real sense of the term. On one side, Western Secularism insists that the State should not discriminate against a section of its local population and all the citizens should share universal and equal values. On the other, the same Western World is shamelessly promoting and driving ideals that are specifically aimed to discriminate against what are normally considered in the West, vulnerable groups. Discrimination is being legitimized now for the sake of financial profits. Money returns always won over all types of cherished principles.
One can argue that our Government is doing as the rest of the western secular world did, that is taking financial advantage of the Arab countries and in the process is ready to accommodate Islam. This is where western secularism is failing and the fallacies of the Enlightenment come in. While secularism has no problems to demonize Christianity, it takes a rather different approach with regards to Islam. More often than not, it tries to accommodate it. Unfortunately, Malta has now undertaken the tendency of copying the bad habitsrather than having the guts to set example.
At least, there is one good news for the Christian believers here. All these contradictions in our western Secular system are leading to the rise of religion in the West. Unlike what sociologists predicted, religion has not died but is now going through a revival. Secular politicians have proved themselves to be a big delusion.
This explains why Secular Europe is now like a ship without a rudder. If you are a Catholic or a Christian, and try to show some opposition to the so-called civil liberties, you risk to be branded homophobic. But then, it is good to promote a banking system whose rules, if judged by this same western metric, arehomophobic. This situation only exposes Western hypocrisy and weak aptitude
If the West thinks that it can now replace homophobia with a new sort of homophony, it is making a big mistake.In music, homophony means two or more parts moving together in harmony. Few realize that this cannot happen with Islam. Islamic Banks are behind the financing of ISIS. Do we need a banking system in Malta that supports Islamic radicals?
It goes without saying that Islamic banking is funded and supported by those states and Muslim fundamentals,who are supporting the spread of radical Islam. Therealready fundamental Islamic states, albeit officially the West do not want to recognize this fact. For this reason, it is not casual, that the Wahhabis are one of the main promoters of this type of banking.
As rightly said by Pope Benedict XVI, the Western World is living in an age of the dictatorship of relativism.The term "relativism" was developed by a German historian at the turn of the twentieth century and became a way of thought after Albert Einstein's famous discovery in physics. Homophobia is now a relative term. If you are a Muslim,governments led by neo-Liberal principles will not only tolerate you, but assist you to set up a structure to promote discrimination based on religious principles and discrimination, but at the same time, if you are a Catholic or Christian, and refuse on principle, as is happening in the Anglo-American world, to bakea wedding cake for a gay couple, you are dragged to court, accused of discriminatory behaviour, shamed and declared an enemy of the nation.