Jizya: Minneapolis Uses Taxpayer Dollars so that Muslim businesses follow Sharia law

What happened to the separation of mosque and state? Why are infidel taxpayer dollars (jizya) being used for a religious purpose (financial or not)?

Further, it's a ruse. They are charging interest on these loans, but repackaging them sans the term interest. Puhleeze. This is more adherence to Islamic supremacism, imposing Islam on the secular marketplace.

The cost of interest is factored into the loan, so how can that be an interest-free loan? What rubbish.

In any case, a lawsuit should be filed immediately against the use of taxpayer dollars for religious purposes. Every taxpayer in Minneapolis has standing. Let's sue. Don't miss our event at CPAC, Islamic Law in America, 3:30 pm, February 10th, in the McKinley room at the Marriot Wardman Park in Washington, DC.

Minneapolis helps Muslim businesses follow Sharia law MN Daily (hat tip Jack)

Loans that collect interest are considered by some to be sinful under Sharia law.

Owner Abdi Adem makes a transaction Monday morning at Afrik Grocery and Halal Meat on Cedar Avenue. Adem was able to expand his business through the city of Minneapolis' Alternative Financing Program.

 Marisa Wojcik

In 2005, Afrik Grocery and Halal Meat on Cedar Avenue needed to expand. Owner Abdi Adem, who operates his business under Sharia law, needed to find a loan that funded the expansion and complied with his religious beliefs.

Finding the loan was easier than he expected.

Since December 2006, the city of Minneapolis, in partnership with the African Development Center, has given out 54 loans in a way that is compliant with Islamic law by using a fixed rate in place of a variable interest rate, which some considered sinful. 

Instead of charging interest, the city and the ADC estimate how long it will take the business to pay off the loan and totals what the interest would be. That amount is added as a lump sum to the total cost of the loan.

“It feels like, looks like and acts like a loan, but it’s just a different way of looking at it,” said Hussein Samatar, executive director of the ADC.

Abdulwahid Qalinle, an adjunct associate professor of Islamic law at the University of Minnesota, said interest rates can be considered sinful under Sharia law.

“Islam has specific guidelines where people can acquire wealth and how to spend their wealth,” Qalinle said.

Through the Alternative Financing Program, small lenders — usually the ADC — will offer a loan and the city will match it up to $50,000. Business owners will then pay back the lender and the city.

The loans can be used for buying equipment or making renovations.

Becky Shaw, an economic development specialist with the city, said most loans are around $5,000 to $10,000 and are paid off within three years.

Shaw added that although the loans are targeted toward Muslims, any business owner can apply for a similar loan with an interest rate that has a similar effect as the Sharia law loans. The city also offers a handful of other business assistance programs.

Of the 54 loans the city and the ADC has given, only one has gone into default.

According to a 2009 report from the Small Business Administration, the national default rates are around 12 percent.

“This really, truly has been one of the phenomenal success stories of Minneapolis,” Samatar said.

Through the loan, Adem borrowed $42,000 and was able to move his business down the street, expand his halal meat section and purchase new equipment, which he said helped attract new customers.

Adem paid off his loan in 2009.

“I benefited very much from the loan. The customers liked the new store and we liked it,” said Adem. 

Although he has no immediate plans to expand his business, Adem said it’s nice to know the loans are available to him.

“I don’t want to go to the bank and get charged for interest,” he said. “If I need more funds, I can use [the program] again, not now, but if I need it I can go and get it.”

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AuntieMadder

12 years ago

The same libturds who demand plaques bearing the Ten Commandments be removed from courthouses and capitol buildings across the nation will defend the shit out of these loans.

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prestigio

12 years ago

also
insurance is the same as gambling
ergo prohibited
this is how the
moose-lambs
will enjoy all the benefits
of o’bamacare
but NOT be required to pay for it

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Bohemond_1096

12 years ago

What happened? Obama.
He forces Chriztian organizations to provide abortions and birth control and allows his muslim brothers to bring in 5 wives and deplete our resources by paying them welfare as jizya. Out breed the Infidels and achieve numerical supremacy by muslims is part of their plan.
Why are the agnostic Jewish lawyers of the ACLU not protesting this? Who is paying them off?

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u hurd me

12 years ago

“The cost of interest is factored into the loan, so how can that be an interest-free loan?”
its knida like that civil union CRAP – that’s not a “real” marriage
What rubbish.

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herdzcatz

12 years ago

And yet Catholics and evangelicals are mandated to pay for day-after pills in our healthcare insurance.

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Richard

12 years ago

I think the bigger issue may be lost in this article. It is pointed out that the sum of the fixed payments amount to the same amount as if interest had been paid outright. But what the fundamental fault of sharia compliant financing is is that a portion of the payments are required to go to Islamic charity. And we all know how that money is spent.

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Richard

12 years ago

So if the city of Minneapolis is making these loans in partnership with the African Development Center, using taxpayer money – then taxes collected from US citizens are going directly to fund jihad. That is the greater issue – not just that this form of finance makes special accommodation for the Muslim borrower.

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J.D.

12 years ago

The interest-bearing loan is actually more equitable and fair than the Sharia loan. With an interest-bearing loan, you can typically pay it back ahead of time and thereby save on the interest payments, assuming it is structured to allow this. That way if your fortunes change, you can pay it off early. With a Sharia loan, you swallow the whole economic costs up front, and then can never pay it off early. Nor can you save by re-financing to take advantage of cheaper interest rates. Sharia Law loans thereby are more advantageous to the lender than to the borrower, and so are favored by Kings and other potentates who want to extract as much from their populations as possible.

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Michael Teuber

12 years ago

Perhaps the Catholic Church should ‘rediscover’ Thomism. St. Thomas Aquinas was of the opinion that charging any interest on loans should be forbidden. That would mean interest free loans for Catholics in Minneapolis, right? Or a huge non-discrimination lawsuit.
Imagine the profits to be realized. Borrow as a Catholic at zero interest, then invest the money at prevailing rates. It would almost be like being a friend of the Obama administration!
Cowardice, malice, stupidity and cupidity are still the prime movers in our post-reason world.

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Nothing_but_the_Truth

12 years ago

Question: What happened to the separation of mosque and State?
Answer: The Founders of original American Constitution said nothing about the separation of Church and State, let alone mosques and State.
Founders talked about not establishing a religion by the State, which had nothing to do with separation of anything.
Islam has been the de facto “State Religion” of America since the time President Ronald Wilson Reagan took over the Oval Office and also due to celebration of Islam in the White House by the subsequent U.S. presidents.
In Islam, mosques are part and parcel of a State, not separate from the State. Just look at Saudi Arabia — the birth place of Muhammad ibn Abd’Allah.
President Baraq Hussein, Jr. has just started reminding American Catholics that, if Muslims in America cannot practice their “Peaceful Religion” in the perfect way al-Quran and Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad delineated, such as the practices of polygamy by Muslim men, Islamic Banking/ Financial Transaction System, and mandatory eating of Islamic halal foods by all, etc., Catholics in America must change their view and practice of providing medical care related to birth control.
So, just to make my long story short, based on the current state of America in general, here’s my two predictions for those who tend to read my comments:
(1) Baraq Hussein, Jr. will be re-elected in November, 2012, election.
(2) In his second term, President Baraq Hussein will complete President Ronald Reagan’s unfinished job of mandating non-Muslims to adhere to Islamic customs, rules, and regulations based on al-Quran and Sunnah of Muhammad ibn Abd’Allah.

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Rainer

12 years ago

1) Interests are considered sinful by Islam and by medieval Christianity. But it is only sinful to cash in interest, it ain`t sinful to pay interest.
2) If there’s no interest, there’s no credit. You can only buy what you can afford. And that is somehow sensible.
It says above: “Afrik Grocery and Halal Meat on Cedar Avenue needed to expand. .. Abdi Adem .. needed to find a loan” Error. No business really needs to expand. Nobody really needs a loan. The loan and the expansion may be useful and advisable, but there is no need. If he can’t afford expansion on his own cost, he mustn’t expand. Just not-expanding would be sensible. There is no need for a sharia-compliant (or a Thomism-compliant) replacement of interest-based loans.

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Guy Macher

12 years ago

I do agree with Adem, I don’t like to go to the bank and get charged interest.
Pam, I like the boycott and sue tactic. Top that off with a resounding electoral defeat for anyone who aided or abetted this form of sharia.

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Shmooviyet

12 years ago

Could this possibly have something to do with why there seem to be new record numbers of Mpls. property inspectors driving through our neighborhoods and alleys, peering over our fences, and giving out enormously expensive tickets for things as small as not having the address numerals large enough on your garage? The City is finding all kinds of new ways to bilk the taxpayers. I guess someone has to put up the dollars for these interest-free loans… With record snowfall in the winter of 2011-12, our streets weren’t even plowed/salted satisfactorily. And thanks, Pamela, for alerting us to the fact that ex-Guv Pawlenty helped Sharia mortgages become a fact in this state. I urge anyone living in this city to ask their bank if they are Sharia-compliant. Abdi Adem could easily have found a larger building for his halal market- but the competition is getting mighty stiff here… We can’t get out soon enough! Stay Safe, Ms. Geller.

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Used Cars Minneapolis

12 years ago

There’s no problem with no interest laws if they were granted by an organization non-related to the city; like a private organization. However, I believe that government and any religion should always be separated so this does surprise me.

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Nissan Altima Rochester

12 years ago

I thought there was separation from state and church on all government levels? If they make an exception for one religion wouldn’t they start to make exceptions for other religious laws?

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