Shariah’s Black Box

[361] Dow Jones Indexes, Guide to the Dow Jones Islamic Market Indexes (2007), available at https://www.djindexes.com/mdsidx/downloads/imi_rulebook.pdf. This guide is described at the Dow Jones Internet site as a “Rule Book.” See Dow Jones Islamic Market Indexes Links and Downloads, https://www.djindexes.com/mdsidx/index.cfm?event=showIslamicLinks.

[362] Wikipedia Entry for Iranian Military Industry, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iranian_defense_industry#External_links (last visited Feb. 1, 2008) (linking to a variety of sources implicatingIran’s military industry).

[363] Usmani, supra note 343, at 36-38.

[364] Allied Asset Advisors, Inc., Statement of Additional Information 10 (2007), available at https://www.investaaa.com/pdfs/SAI10.06.pdf (last visited Feb. 1, 2008) [hereinafter Statement of Additional Information] (providing information on Allied Asset Advisors, Inc., the Dow Jones Islamic Fund’s Investment Advisor).

[365] Id; see also Allied Asset Advisors, Inc., Dow Jones Islamic Fund Prospectus 11 (2007), available at https://www.investaaa.com/pdfs/Prospectus10.06.pdf (last visited Feb. 1, 2008) [hereinafter DJIF Prospectus].

[366] North American Islamic Trust, https://www.nait.net/NAIT_about_%20us.htm (last visited Feb. 2, 2008). NAIT’s principle role as a waqf or religious trust is to acquire title to Islamic mosques and to preserve their Shariah compliance so that Muslim communities who become less Shariah-adherent will not later convert these mosques into something less than Shariah-compliant. As NAIT itself explains:

The fundamental motivation for entrusting the title of a center to NAIT is that the founders who establish Islamic centers, and the committed successors who perpetuate them, want to keep these centers true to the Islamic purpose for which they were established. Many Islamic centers founded in theU.S., Europe, andAustraliain the 19th and early 20th century became social clubs, or were lost through demographic changes, disrepair and property taxes. Placing a center in trust with NAIT ensures that a third party of national scope and stature is responsible for the preservation of the center for the Islamic aims for which it was founded. The trust document between the Islamic center and NAIT leaves the administration of the center to the local community, but requires NAIT to preserve it to serve the Muslim community in the cause of Islam.

NAIT Islamic Centers Waqf, https://www.nait.net/icw.htm (last visited Feb. 2, 2008). NAIT apparently takes its Shariah obligations seriously even to the extent that it is prepared to deceive Muslim communities into acquiring their properties and then refusing to deed them back. See, e.g., North Am. Islamic Trust, Inc. v. Muslim Ctr. of Miami, Inc., 771 So. 2d 1227, 1227 n.2 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 2000) (determining that trial court’s finding that NAIT took title to the Miami mosque property in trust for the community would not be overturned, and stating that “NAIT presented evidence that it holds property in trust for many Muslim organizations as ‘protector’ of the property. It contends that it is in a better position than MCM to ensure that the land will be used for the benefit of the Muslim community. We decline to engage in any such inquiry”).

[367] See supra note 271.

[368] The trial ended in a mistrial, but the govenment is preparing a retrial. For the government’s trial brief, see https://nefafoundation.org/miscellaneous/HLF/U.S._v_HLF_TrialBrief.pdf (last visited Feb. 15, 2008).

[369] See List of Unindicted Co-conspirators, U.S. v. Holy Land Found. for Relief and Dev., CR NO. 3:04-CR-240-G (N.D. Tex. 2007), available at https://www.nefafoundation.org/miscellaneous/HLF/US_v_HLF_Unindicted_Coconspirators.pdf (last visited Feb. 15, 2008).

[370] Supra note 368, at 8.