Shariah-Compliant Finance: Benign or belligerent?

Center for Security Policy May 28, 2009
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As Shariah-compliant finance continues apace, professionals and policy specialists continue to ignore a fundamental danger: the lack of disclosure of all the material facts relevant to a post-9/11 investor. This presentation is intended as an in-depth analysis of this critical failure in the current regulatory framework.

The Law Offices of David Yerushalmi, P.C., has prepared this online presentation to assist legal professionals, policy specialists, SEC regulators, Treasury officials, and investors to understand that the Black Box of Shariah compliant finance (SCF) presents a real and present danger not just to our Western financial institutions built on disclosure and transparency, but to our very system of governance and our way of life.

This presentation is entitled Shariah-compliant Finance: Benign? or Belligerent? It is timely and important for two reasons: first, the interest and investment in Shariah-compliant finance in the West continues to grow, and second, the fragile state of our financial system of late is due to the catastrophic impact of toxic financial products designed as highly sophisticated black box solutions to undisclosed market risk.

The same black box phenomenon now permeates Shariah-compliant finance. Unfortunately, heretofore, none of the professional literature has examined the risks and problems associated with Shariah-compliant finance in any analytical or critical fashion. Instead, it appears more akin to a cheerleader chorus line singing the praises of this year’s new and improved profit center, much as we heard about sub-prime mortgage securitizations and credit default swaps in their heyday. This presentation is an effort to pry open this new and emerging Black Box.

This presentation is 60 minutes in length and has been organized to be accompanied by source materials available as downloadable PDF files linked below.

First, for lawyers and other professionals interested in an in-depth legal analysis of the risks and legal exposure financial institutions confront when they offer Shariah-compliant finance products, you can download a law review article authored by Mr. Yerushalmi entitled, “Shariah’s ‘Black Box’: Civil Liability and Criminal Exposure Surrounding Shariah-Compliant Finance, published in the Utah Law Review, Vol 2008, No. 3.

Second, we have linked to a PDF file of a monograph sponsored by the McCormick Foundation and the Center for Security Policy which delves into these matters in more detail as well.

Third, there are three separate handouts also linked as PDF files to which this presentation refers at specific points.

Finally, the presentation includes audio with a valuable narrative to explain the material presented both online and in the attached PDF files. This narrative has been transcribed and is also available for download as a PDF file.

This presentation is currently being prepared for Continuing Legal Education credits. If you are interested in an in-person presentation, conference or seminar, please contact Mr. Yerushalmi’s staff at www.davidyerushalmilaw.com.

 

Experts Comment on the Presentation

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr., former Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy in the Reagan administration, and president of the Center for Security Policy, a leading national security think tank in Washington, D.C., writes:

David Yerushalmi brings to his every assignment an extraordinarily in-depth command of the subject matter, a passion for its illumination and an articulateness that enables even knowledgeable audiences to learn new insights and attain an enhanced mastery of the topic.  These qualities are on marvelous display in his new CLE course on Shariah-Compliant Finance.

Stephen C. Coughlin, an attorney, holds the rank of Major in the United States Army (res.), and was formerly assigned to USCENTCOM, with a military intelligence specialty. Maj. Coughlin also served in a strategic communications role in CENTCOM-Doha. His U.S. assignments have included attachment to the Pentagon’s National Military Joint Intelligence Center, the National Security Council’s Interagency Perception Management Threat Panel, and culminating in his assignment to the intelligence staff of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He comments:

Mr. Yerushalmi’s analysis of Shari’a compliant finance (SCF) so clearly demonstrates its nexus to both Islamic law and hostile jihadi entities as to raise the question whether promotion or analysis of SCF without reference to this information constitutes malpractice. Simply a must for any person looking to enter the black box world of SCF.

Andrew C. McCarthy, a former senior U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, was the lead trial attorney in the successful prosecution of the “Blind Sheikh” in the first terror attack on the World Trade Center in 1993, he also contributed to the prosecutions of Islamic terrorists who bombed the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. He currently is a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and contributes to many prestigious publications on the intersection between law and the global jihad threat. He remarks:

David Yerushalmi is one of this country’s hidden treasures.  One of our most insightful and intellectually engaged critics of Islamic jurisprudence, he has become a singular authority on the burgeoning—and portentous—field of shariah compliant finance.  The CLE course he has designed on the subject will not only enrich students but fill in a critical deficit in our thinking about American national security … and the Trojan horses that threaten it.

Robert Spencer, director of Jihad Watch and author of the “New York Times Best Sellers” The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades) and The Truth About Muhammad, notes:

An extraordinarily illuminating and much-needed explanation of just what is wrong with Shariah-compliant finance, showing why financial institutions in the U.S. and elsewhere in the West are working against their own best interests when they institute Shariah-compliant programs. This should be required viewing on Wall Street.

 

 

Linked presentation materials

 

Instructions

First, download and save the handouts for review. Second, click on the embeded video player below. That will launch the video presentation. The presentation will run automatically (be certain your audio is on). You can click through each individual slide’s transition manually by clicking on the forward arrow on the video viewer. You can also click on the ‘full screen’ icon on the bottom right of the video viewer to watch the presentation in full screen mode.  If there are any technical problems with the downloads or the video, you may also go here for the same full presentation.

(Note: if you do not see the video viewer below, this probably means your computer is not equipped with the proper flash video software. You may download the free Adobe Flash video software here.)


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