Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, December 10, 2007

British financial institutions hiring imams

The first ever Shari’ah compliant exchange traded funds (ETFs) have been listed on the London Stock Exchange’s main market. The three funds launched by iShares enhance the range of Shari’ah compliant products available in London, underlining the City’s emerging role as an important centre for Islamic finance.

The three funds are the iShares MSCI World Islamic, the iShares MSCI USA Islamic and the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Islamic. The funds track indices which screen out companies whose business activities involve earning interest, alcohol, arms manufacturing, tobacco, pork-related products, gaming and certain other forms of entertainment prohibited under Islamic law. The funds’ compliance with Shari’ah requirements will be reviewed annually by a Shari’ah Panel.

Barclays Global Investors BGI said the panel has issued a fatwah (edict) on the three new ETFs, which will track MSCI indexes of Shariah-compliant companies.

These are the iShares MSCI World Islamic, which consists of 793 stocks; the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Islamic, tracking an index of 306 stocks; and the iShares MSCI USA Islamic, with 276 stocks.

The panel, which comprises Islamic scholars Dr Mohammed Elgari, Sheikh Nizam Yacuby and Dr Abu Ghuddah, will certify that products are Shariah-compliant, provide advice on fund operations and investment methods, and carry out overall supervision of funds' compliance with Shariah principles.

The ethics involved in directly employing people to certify that you are fulfilling a religious duty should be pretty clear.

But beyond that, it is not far-fatched that one day, as Sharia compliant funds grow into a more significant percentage of the global financial business, that these scholars could threaten to withhold their approval unless Barclay's as a whole changes its general investment style to be more submissive to Islamic law. Given a choice of losing billions of pounds or slowly reducing investments in, say, alcohol and pork could become a no-brainer.

This is not the same as a "green" fund or other ethical investment options. This is a purely religious endeavor. It is increasingly dangerous for major financial institutions to depend on Islamic religious clerics for any portion of their business.

And the problem is only going to get bigger. Check out this flyer from a recent Sharia financial conference in Dubai, especially the "Master class" in Sukuk - effectively a day-long seminar on Islamic financial law meant for Europeans.

British spies slam American assessment of Iranian nukes

It is not only Israel that has severe doubts over the recent NIE report. From the Telegraph (UK):

British spy chiefs have grave doubts that Iran has mothballed its nuclear weapons programme, as a US intelligence report claimed last week, and believe the CIA has been hoodwinked by Teheran.
A senior British official delivered a withering assessment of US intelligence-gathering abilities in the Middle East and revealed that British spies shared the concerns of Israeli defence chiefs that Iran was still pursuing nuclear weapons.
The source said British analysts believed that Iranian nuclear staff, knowing their phones were tapped, deliberately gave misinformation. "We are sceptical. We want to know what the basis of it is, where did it come from? Was it on the basis of the defector? Was it on the basis of the intercept material? They say things on the phone because they know we are up on the phones. They say black is white. They will say anything to throw us off.
"It's not as if the American intelligence agencies are regarded as brilliant performers in that region. They got badly burned over Iraq."
A US intelligence source has revealed that some American spies share the concerns of the British and the Israelis. "Many middle- ranking CIA veterans believe Iran is still committed to producing nuclear weapons and are concerned that the agency lost a number of its best sources in Iran in 2004," the official said.

(h/t Yid with Lid)

Neo-Andalusia?

The Tehran Times has an illuminating article:

There is a general reawakening taking place in the Islamic world.

A number of groups are associated with this reawakening and one of them is the Neo-Andalucian movement, which is a progressive pan-Islamic movement.

They use the appellation Neo-Andalucian because Muslim Andalucia was a center of learning and, at least for a time, a very tolerant place where Muslims, Christians, and Jews lived in peace and harmony for the most part.

Islam teaches Muslims to seek out knowledge and to be tolerant toward non-Muslims who are not at war with Islam.

Also, the fall of Andalucia in 1492 marked the beginning of the 500-year decline of the Islamic world.

The Neo-Andalucians want to start an Islamic revival to end this 500-year decline, hence the identification with Andalucia.

The Neo-Andalucians are seeking to start a new Islamic Renaissance, unite the Islamic world, and uplift the oppressed Muslim masses.

There are many interpretations of Islam, but there is only one Islam since there is only one Holy Quran, one qibla (direction of prayer), one hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, and one Friday prayers ceremony.

These factors unite the Muslims, despite their differences.

...To uphold the banner of Islam and defend the faith, to start the new Islamic Renaissance, unite the Islamic world, and uplift the oppressed Muslim masses, we must strengthen our faith, dedicate ourselves to the cause of Islam, and struggle hard for the cause of Allah.

One doesn't have to read very far between the lines to see what the intent of this article is. The current regime in Iran has always tried to position itself as the leader of the Islamic world, with its Shi'ite leaders publicly playing up the similarities with Sunni Islam while privately bitterly fighting it. Iran's purpose is to create a pan-Islamic caliphate, controlling the entire Middle East, dominating Europe and acting as the Islamic superpower opposing the US.

One of the interesting parts of this article that betrays its real agenda is its description of the ideal state: "a very tolerant place where Muslims, Christians, and Jews lived in peace and harmony for the most part." Does such a place exist today?

Ahmad Jum’a, a 25-year-old student, has been to the kingdom six times for the ‘Umra, the minor pilgrimage. A member of the Nazareth-based Salam Association for Hajj and ‘Umra, he is also qualified to guide groups from Israel during their pilgrimages to Saudi Arabia.

Jum’a was born in Sullam, an Arab village in northern Israel. He is an Arab Muslim and has Israeli citizenship....

Once he has fulfilled his religious obligations of the pilgrimage, Jum’a spends the rest of his time mingling with the crowds and talking to Muslim pilgrims about life in Israel.

Explaining that he is a Muslim Arab with Israeli citizenship often leaves his audience gobsmacked.

“The Arab media always shows negative things about Israel and as a Muslim Arab living inside Israel I want to show a positive side of the country. I tell them there are good things in Israel and that we live side by side with the Jews. There are problems sometimes but the relations with our Jewish neighbors are generally good.”

The Muslims in Israel have freedom and passports, he tells them. They have a good economic situation and good jobs; they get along with their Jewish neighbors and they benefit from Israel’s services.

On a separate occasion he was talking with a Syrian pilgrim who, it transpired, had been a commander in the Syrian army in the 1967 War (Six Day War). Upon hearing that Jum’a was from Israel, the officer attacked him verbally and expressed support for Hizbullah.

Jum’a, a student of Middle Eastern studies, retaliated with a detailed review of Syria’s history, poor economic situation, its lack of freedom and the persecution of dissidents.

The Syrian officer was stunned by Jum’a’s knowledge, and astonished when he learned this was being taught in Israeli universities by Jewish lecturers.

“When I’ve completed the ritual, I talk politics,” Jum’a says. “I feel that I’m an envoy and wherever I go I need to explain the good things and bad things about Israel.”

Jum’a is not alone in this conviction.

Sheikh ‘Ali Bakr, 47, an imam from northern Israel who works for the Israeli Interior Ministry, has been to Saudi Arabia 24 times on pilgrimages. Bakr does not feel a contradiction in holding Israeli citizenship and attending the Hajj.

“On the contrary, I feel we’re a bridge between Israel and the Arab countries. We can bring people closer together,” he says. “Some think that Israeli Arabs are neglected and underprivileged, so we tell them that’s not the case, that we live here as equal citizens and that we fit well into the Jewish social fabric.”

If you accept the Iranian description of an ideal state for Muslims, Israel sounds like the place! (And certainly most Western nations.)

Obviously, the intent of "neo-Andalusia" isn't a place where all peoples live together with equal rights; it is an Islamic-dominated 'umma - that likely would extend to the real Andalusia - where non-Muslims are tolerated as second-class citizens and dissent is brutally crushed.

Bilin lies continue

Pro-terrorist Palestinian Arab supporters (like the ISM) routinely refer to the weekly Palarab protests at Bilin as being "peaceful" and "nonviolent." And every once in a while, although only a few times a year, wire-service photographers show exactly how peaceful the protest is.

A Palestinian uses a slingshot to hurl a stone at Israeli border policemen, not seen, during a demonstration at the construction site of Israel's separation barrier in the village of Bilin, near the West Bank town of Ramallah, Friday Dec. 7, 2007

Airport blogging

A couple of links while I wait for my (delayed) plane....

Ayaan Hirsi Ali on Islamic "moderates." (h/t EBoZ)

Judeosphere presents the Zionist Conspiracy-o-Matic.

And, of course, you must check out edition CXLIV of Haveil Havalim over at Jack's Shack.

More as I see them....

* Review of "The Siege of Mecca", a book about a little known but incredibly important event from 1979.

Browsing through Google Books I just found an interesting 1893 edition of R. Saadiah Gaon's translation and commentary of the Torah into Arabic, using Hebrew letters for the Arabic transliteration (click to enlarge):

PalArab fear of "normalization"

While I do not usually agree with everything Ray Hanania says, this article in Arab News should be read by every Palestinian Arab. Excerpts:

Palestinians I meet always point to the Israeli occupation as the main stumbling block preventing them from achieving independence and driving their oppressive lives. But I think far more obstacles exist that Palestinians are afraid to acknowledge, most that begin right in their own back yards.
Maybe because I was raised in America where tyranny is far more subtle and less violent than the real threats and physical dangers facing people in the Arab and Muslim Worlds. Or, maybe it is also because I am a realist, a state of mind that apparently continues to elude Palestinian society. Palestinians live in the past. Even when they emigrate to the Western countries, they may live physically in their adopted homelands, but they remain mentally imprisoned in “the balad. “The heaviest chains of this self-oppression may in fact be something Palestinians call “normalization.”
“Normalization” is a state of mind in which Palestinians prevent themselves from living in the present so they can dwell in the long lost past. Normalization is the act of refusing to accept reality, insisting that Palestinian existence is not in the present but in the past In this “unreality,” fading memories are more important than the clarity of the present.
Palestinian activists use “Normalization” as a bludgeon to keep Palestinians in line like sheep. Extremists pull the strings of suffering and frustration, throwing down the “normalization” card whenever a Palestinian tries to break free of the mental bondage and address the reality of the Israeli occupation.
...
I leave Palestine and Israel this trip recognizing that Palestinians are suffering from several layers of occupation, and a self-imposed oppression that has become the excuse for their failings. They say they want peace with Israel, but many deep down can’t accept the damage to their pride that compromise means accepting that their efforts over the past 60 years have been an utter failure caused by their own failed leadership.
While Palestinians are stifled in their aspirations, only miles away, Israelis are enjoying life, growing as a people and flourishing as a people. The ability of Palestinians to establish their own state continues to erode. That the people driving this erosion are Palestinians themselves is most troubling to me. Imprisoned in a wall of ignorance constructed by their own foolish failure to see through the rhetoric and the hatred of the past to the reality of today, Palestinians have only one option. They can either start living in the reality or they can disappear in the past.

He doesn't go far enough - Hanania, for all his candor, is not going to start blaming other Arab nations for their continuing contribution to PalArab misery, which can be remedied easily if the PalArabs were smart. But he is correct when pointing out that even "moderate" Pals have no ability to see things realistically as they wallow in self-pity and victimization - what seems to be a strategy on the part of their leadership, not a consequence of history.

Donkey prices soar in Gaza

From Ma'an (Arabic):

The blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip has caused prices of donkeys to increase by 60% since last June, following the reduction of fuel supplies to Israel sector resulting in difficulty in supplying water and other basic needs.

A trader named Saber Jabbur said he sold his car and that he now intends to buy a cart and donkey (autotranslation: "stupid") to be able to sell agricultural harvest cucumbers and onions and other vegetables traveling between the houses.

UK wants to be the leader in Sharia banking

From the Gulf Daily News:

MANAMA: The UK's strengths and capabilities as the leading international financial centre for Sharia-compliant financial services will be debated at the World Islamic Banking Conference.
The roundtable discussion is being organised and hosted by UK Trade & Investment and comprises experts from Islamic Bank of Britain, Bank of London and the Middle East, HSBC Amanah, ABC International and the London Stock Exchange.

Topics for discussion will include "Is the UK an obvious choice as a centre of Islamic finance" and "Are the ethical concepts of Islamic finance readily understood by the UK financial market?"

"As a leading centre for financial innovation where new Islamic structures are constantly being developed, the UK recognises the tremendous opportunities that Islamic Financial Services - worth over £250 billion has to offer," said British Trade Minister Digby Jones.

"Our goal is to position the UK as the international partner of choice for the provision of Islamic financial services, including developing strong partnerships with other centres of Islamic finance.

"We have a proven record of developing and delivering retail domestic and wholesale international investment Islamic financial services and products, and the necessary legal and financial skills and expertise to take full advantage of this."

"The debate will provide these leading companies with the perfect platform to showcase the skills and expertise the UK has to offer to those looking for a global partner in Islamic finance," said British Ambassador Jamie Bowden.

I have no problem with companies going after the Islamic market - it is just another market segment, after all. Adding Islamic credit cards or mutual funds as another option for customers seems reasonable. But things start to get sticky if the growing Islamic financial demands start to affect the mainstream practices of Western firms - if, in order to get a Sharia seal of approval, banks are requested to drop all investments in companies that sell alcohol or pork.

Far more worrying is when a Western government is willing to bend over backwards to accommodate the demands of a religion. This isn't about Arab banking, it is about Islamic, Sharia-compliant banking, and the quotes above indicate that Great Britain is willing to do whatever it takes to get a piece of the action, no matter what ethical issues are involved. The dangers of such a policy are obvious and extreme.

BBC bias comes through again

Here's a classic example of how the BBC pretends to be objective but proves its bias, mostly by what it doesn't bother to mention:

Israel has protested to Egypt over the opening of a border crossing to allow Muslim pilgrims from Gaza to make their way through Egypt to Saudi Arabia.

The Israelis say they are concerned that militants may leave Gaza and go for training in Iran. ...

It is the first time Palestinians in Gaza have been allowed to cross directly into Egypt since June.

Now let's look at what the BBC didn't say:

* Israel is not only "concerned" that terrorists are crossing the border; they identified up to two dozen of them.

* While Egypt might not have allowed Gazans to leave before today, they did allow some 85 terrorists to re-enter Gaza in late September and 30 more in October. This is pretty relevant to the story rather than just saying that Israel is "concerned."

* By Egypt allowing Rafah to be opened, they are breaking existing agreements with Israel.

* Israel and the PA had created a mechanism for pilgrims to go to Hajj through Israel; the BBC implies that the Hajj pilgrims had no choice but to go through Rafah for their religious duties.

* Egypt's opening of Rafah legitimizes Hamas as the leader of Gaza Palestinians; they ignored the wishes of Abbas and the PA, let alone Israel.

* Rafah is only supposed to be opened by the PA in the presence of EU observers who have all but abdicated their responsibilities - and the EU Rafah observers include some from Britain.

All of these facts would have made the BBC piece more objective and accurate. By strange coincidence, they would also have made Israel's "concerns" look much more valid and Egypt's role much more insidious.

Abbas discards second stage of Roadmap

AP reports:

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Thursday he has rejected the concept of a provisional Palestinian state out of concern that the temporary borders of such an entity would become permanent.
Abbas told Palestinian lawmakers that during last week's Mideast summit in Annapolis, Md., the idea of a provisional state was brought up, but he turned it down — although it is a key part of the internationally backed "road map" formula for creating a Palestinian state.
The border issue is but one of the many hurdles facing negotiators to the talks, which are set to begin Dec. 12.
The second step of the three-stage road map calls for "creating an independent Palestinian state with provisional borders and attributes of sovereignty." Creating temporary borders would allow the Palestinians to have independence, while giving the sides more time to work out contentious issues like the final status of disputed Jerusalem.

Here is the beginning of the Roadmap's description of Phase II:

In the second phase, efforts are focused on the option of creating an independent Palestinian state with provisional borders and attributes of sovereignty, based on the new constitution, as a way station to a permanent status settlement. As has been noted, this goal can be achieved when the Palestinian people have a leadership acting decisively against terror, willing and able to build a practicing democracy based on tolerance and liberty. With such a leadership, reformed civil institutions and security structures, the Palestinians will have the active support of the Quartet and the broader international community in establishing an independent, viable, state.

Progress into Phase II will be based upon the consensus judgment of the Quartet of whether conditions are appropriate to proceed, taking into account performance of both parties.

Notice a pattern here? Abbas pretends to embrace the roadmap, but he utterly rejects any part of it where the PalArabs are asked to take any responsibility whatsoever. He knows that if the Palestinian Arabs need to pass any test whatsoever before reaching the next stage they will inevitably, invariably fail using any objective criteria. So this is why he insisted on skipping past Phase I and now phase II - he wants a state to be handed to his utterly incompetent, infantilized people on a silver platter.

They "deserve" it.

The funny thing that Annapolis advocates like to ignore is that there already is a "independent Palestinian state with provisional borders and attributes of sovereignty," namely, the Hamas government of Gaza. Look how successful that has been! Gaza is the most accurate indicator of what a "Palestine" in the West Bank would look like - perhaps not run by Hamas, but equally cynically dismissive of human rights and peaceful coexistence.

Red lines

Palestine Press Agency (Arabic, autotranslated) has a headline:

[ Tayeb Abdel-Rahim, Palestinian presidential secretary-general]said Jerusalem is a red line that can not be compromised and will be a top priority in the battle of the coming negotiations

It is not surprising to see statements like this from the PA leadership.

What is maddening is that there are no comparable statements coming from the leaders of the current Israeli government.

This is the major problem. All the rest is commentary.

Hamas priorities

From Ma'an:

The Palestinian health ministry of the Ramallah-based caretaker government said on Thursday that "Hamas militias" have looted the fuel stores destined for hospital vehicles in the Gaza Strip.

A statement released by the health ministry said that fuel from the European hospital in the Gaza Strip had been stolen by the director of the hospital drivers to supply the Hamas-affiliated Executive Force.

The statement explained that the fuel reserve had been supplied by the ministry to enable the hospital to continue working for as long as possible.

While it is possible that the PA is lying, this seems to have a certain air of authenticity. Hamas loves seeing dead PalArabs that they can blame on Israel, so taking away hospital fuel is quite consistent with how they have acted in the past.

Vilifying Israel by counter-example

From AP:

The caption states:

Palestinian construction workers build a new housing development in an east Jerusalem neighborhood, Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2007.

In a move that could hamper the U.S. peace push, Israel on Tuesday announced plans to build more than 300 new homes in a disputed east Jerusalem neighborhood. Palestinians warned that the move will undermine the newly revived peace talks. The new housing would expand Har Homa, a Jewish neighborhood of about 4,000 residents in an area Palestinians claim as capital of a future state. Palestinian officials appealed to the U.S. to block the project.

So the only way that AP could illustrate the horror of Jews wanting to live in their holy city is by showing that they allow Arabs to build large housing complexes - in the Jewish holy city.

Similarly, from Reuters:

Malek, a two-and-a-half year old Palestinian girl from the West Bank village of Bidiya, undergoes heart surgery at an Israeli hospital in Holon, near Tel Aviv, October 21, 2007. Palestinians suffering serious illnesses have long traveled from Gaza to nearby Israeli hospitals for treatments unavailable at facilities in the territory, which is home to 1.5 million people and was occupied by Israel for 38 years until 2005. However Israel has tightened border restrictions since Hamas Islamists seized control of the coastal enclave in June.

This time the wire service cannot say with certainly that Israel doesn't allow people from Gaza to be treated in Israel - but it can imply it, playing the Hamas playbook.

The wire services try so hard to illustrate Israeli cruelty to the point that they will caption Israeli benevolence - that one would never see on the Arab side - as if it is cruelty.

Israel wakes up to the Rafah problem

From JPost:

Amid concerns that terrorists were allowed to leave Gaza and travel abroad for training in Iran, Israel has filed a complaint with Cairo after Egypt allowed 1,700 Palestinians to pass through the Rafah Crossing to make the haj pilgrimage to Mecca.

On Monday, for the first time since Hamas's violent takeover of Gaza in June, Egypt unilaterally opened the Rafah border terminal and allowed 700 Palestinians, who claimed to be religious pilgrims on their way to Mecca, to pass through. On Tuesday, another 1,000 crossed through the terminal.

"This is a clear breach of agreements we have made with the Egyptians," a senior diplomatic official said Wednesday, in reference to the November 2005 agreement under which the Rafah Crossing was opened. The official said the unilateral opening of the border had been preceded by another breach of agreements in October, when Egypt allowed 85 Hamas operatives to cross back into Gaza after cutting a hole in the border fence.

IDF intelligence estimates released Wednesday indicated that up to a couple of dozen Hamas terrorists were among the so-called pilgrims Egypt allowed out of the Gaza Strip. In recent years, hundreds of Hamas terrorists have traveled abroad to Iran and Lebanon for military training, and officials said it was possible that these terrorists would do the same.

In response to the increasing number of violations, the Foreign Ministry filed a harsh complaint with Cairo, and senior defense officials are scheduled to travel to Egypt in the coming week for talks about the recent events.

Too bad that Israel's Foreign Ministry doesn't read my blog, as I wrote that Hamas intended to illegally send the "pilgrims" through Rafah a week ago. That would have been the time to warn Egypt, not after the fact.

Work accident!

A Hamas terrorist blew himself up and two others were injured when an explosive they were planting detonated a bit earlier than they had expected.

I don't know whether incompetence gets rewarded with the 72 virgins, but I cannot claim to be an expert on the finer points of Islamic doctrine.

Our 2007 PalArab death count has now reached 587.

UPDATE: More details on an earlier death - the police found a note saying "we are from several families, and have executed Hassouna for violating honor."

How honorable!

UPDATE 2: Hard to figure out the details, but PalPress is reporting on a horrific death of a 14-year old boy, apparently decapitated after being abducted in Rafah. 588.

UPDATE 3: 22 year old shot and killed Friday night. 589.