Shari'ah Compliant Finance

This monograph discusses the relevant components of the Islamic financial sector, otherwise known as Shari'ah Compliant Finance, in order to gain a better understanding of an industry quickly spreading around the globe and the greater implications for the system's reliance on Shari'ah law. The analysis divided the Shari'ah financial system into its three main components: the underlying components of the financial system and associated definitions; the financial system's foundations on Shari'ah law; and finally the legal justification for the system as a method of economic jihad. This is important because United States financial institutions are involved in Shari'ah financing. Some of the largest financial organizations in the US offer Shari'ah compliant investment vehicles including Citigroup, American International Group (AIG), Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. None of these corporations offer any information about Shari'ah law to investors other than a statement of conformance to ethical principles. Nowhere in the advertising literature do these companies discuss the other material facts of Shari'ah compliance as required by the 1933 and 1934 Securities Acts defining disclosure requirements. The triadic argument plainly demonstrates that Shari'ah Compliant Financing is economic jihad, a methodology effectively establishing a foothold of acceptance for Shari'ah law under the guise of an ethical banking structure. Once Shari'ah law gains acceptance in this seemingly benign realm, those supporting the "settlement" of the West may push for Shari'ah law acceptance in other facets of the legal system.