There’s no link though. It’s just a coincidence.
Somalia’s “moderate Islamist” leader, Sheikh Sharif agreed to bring Islamic Sharia law to Somalia in a recent truce with non-moderates.
I’m outraged and frightened for the remaining moderate political refugees in the Horn of Africa. We Minnesotans need to rescue the entirety of the innocent population and bring them to the land of 10,000 lakes. Immediately.
And in completely unrelated news, MPR has a story about Minnesota’s first Islamic loan applicants, a Somali family who, “just couldn’t go against their beliefs, (paying interest) even if it meant giving up their dream of owning a home.”
If you’re wondering how the Koran-ok’d loans work, they follow a common pattern of Islam. Meaning they make little sense, don’t groove with our culture, and they demand brain contortions to be rationalized as proper behavior…
The deal is identical to a thirty-year fixed-rate loan, except there’s no additional interest, because the higher up front price factors in payments that would have been made over the life of a traditional mortgage.
UPDATE: Hot air is onto it.
UPDATE: Creeping Sharia points to Shariah Finance Watch. A blog that states the IRS does indeed allow an interest deduction on tax returns of sharia compliant murabaha loans that supposedly do not charge interest. To do so, the bank issuing the sharia loan must provide a statement to the home owner detailing interest paid. The homeowner then reports it to the IRS (possibly on IRS Form 1098).
UPDATE: John at Powerline, picks up what I was putting down..
So the interest is included in the sale price and paid over time according to a standard amortization schedule, thereby allowing the home purchaser the fiction that he is not paying interest. What is striking to me is how easily this particular Koranic stricture can be rationalized and circumvented. No such painless solutions have been apparent in the controversies over handling of bacon by sales clerks, transporting of taxicab customers who are carrying alcohol, the need to leave assembly lines for periodic prayers, and so on. One wonders whether a different set of motives is at work in those cases.
OutOfTheBlu 