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Politics : The Truth About Islam -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ichy Smith who wrote (7722)	5/26/2007 10:48:44 AM
From: DeplorableIrredeemableRedneck	Respond to of 20106

Banks give sharia a second look TAVIA GRANT From Friday's Globe and Mail May 25, 2007 at 6:03 AM EDT TORONTO — Bank of Nova Scotia and Toronto-Dominion Bank are quietly considering whether to start offering sharia-compliant products, as part of the big banks' strategy to reach out to a growing immigrant population. Representatives at Canada's second- and third-largest banks by market capitalization were among the 200 delegates at the Islamic Finance World conference in Toronto this week. "I can confirm it's something we're tentatively looking at," said Frank Switzer, Scotiabank's spokesman, without providing further detail. TD spokeswoman Kelly Hechler said "it's something we're looking at and we're interested in." That interest comes as Islamic financial services are growing in Canada and abroad. KPMG has estimated worldwide assets at more than $300-billion (U.S.), with global Islamic institutions growing at 15 per cent a year. What was considered fringe three decades ago has now become mainstream. Global banks, from HSBC to Deutsche Bank, are offering sharia-compliant financial services as petrodollars fuel demand from the Middle East. The Gulf region alone has as much as $2-trillion (U.S.) in investments, much of which is flowing abroad. "Every day we are told about the start of a new Islamic bank," Sheik Nizam Yaquby of Bahrain told the Toronto conference. Sharia-compliant products vary and there's little standardization in the sector, which is thought to be the fastest growing in financial services today. Generally, products can't have any explicit interest; transactions can't be in such areas such as gambling, alcohol, pork or pornography; and they can't be deemed as too high risk. Practitioners liken it to any other form of socially responsible investing and stress that it's open to all religions. Canada's been a bit late to the game, but momentum's building. Yesterday, iTrust Partners Inc. launched a $400-million (Canadian) sharia-compliant income fund for Middle Eastern and European investors that are interested in Canadian assets. BMO is the prime brokerage and CIBC is providing administrative services. Retail demand in Canada is still unclear and that may be why the Big Five banks are slow to jump on board. At present, though, services such as mortgages are more expensive. UM Financial Inc. has provided sharia-compliant mortgages to almost 500 homeowners in Ontario - even though it charges a deposit and costs about 0.60 percentage points more than a regular mortgage. Its homeowner mortgages tend to be structured like a rent-to-own system to avoid interest. Demand has been so great that UM Financial has stopped all marketing and has a 5,000-person waiting list of people who want to switch over from conventional mortgages to ones that are sharia-compliant, said Omar Kalair, the chief executive officer of UM Financial. UM wants to offer its mortgages at prices similar to what the banks offer - and to do so it says it's talking with one of the Big Five banks about financial backing. He estimates there are about 200,000 Muslim households in Canada and wants to capture 2.5 per cent of that market within a year or two. In Canada, lawyers from many of the big law firms were in attendance at this week's conference, scrambling to learn about the new, and potentially lucrative, field. "Every indicator we've seen, both statistical and anecdotal, has made it clear that the retail market in Canada is a multibillion-dollar market," said Walied Soliman, a lawyer at Ogilvy Renault LLP. The sector still faces multiple hurdles. Chief among them are a lack of regulation and transparency among many of the fledgling companies offering products. Standardization is another issue, with plenty of debate over what's allowed among the few sharia scholars qualified to approve new investment products. A global dearth of scholars also means long wait times in getting new products approved.

To: Ichy Smith who wrote (7722)	5/27/2007 4:11:02 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Respond to of 20106

Corpses Found In A Box: Dead Couple Victim Of Honour-Killing: Police (ROP ALERT) Daily Times ^ \| Saturday, May 26, 2007 \| Ali Waqar dailytimes.com.pk * Police suspects girl’s brother behind murder * Girl’s parents refuse to accept body By Ali Waqar LAHORE: Police have said that the two corpses found in a box near the Expo Centre at Johar Town last Monday were those of a couple in love, murdered by the girl’s brothers. Talking to Daily Times on Friday, police officials said that the prime suspect of what they called an honour killing was still at large. The bodies were found on Monday afternoon after local residents complained of a stinking box that possibly had a corpse in it. Identified as Umar, 29, son of Muhammad Iqbal, from Mian Hakam (a village in the Vehari disrict) and Jannat, 25, daughter of Ahmad Yar from Ghulam Bhatti Colony (in Kot Lakhpat), the couple in love were cousins. The bodies were not identified until Tuesday and were handed over to the relatives after autopsy. Umar’s father received his body, while Uzma’s parents did not receive her body. It was handed over to her maternal uncle. The first information report (number 415/ 07) was lodged on Tuesday. The complainant was a local resident, Muhammad Iqbal, police officials told Daily Times. Umar’s father, also named Muhammad Iqbal, contacted the police later on Tuesday and became a complainant. Police said Jannat’s brothers had killed the couple and put their dead bodies in a box, which they kept in their house for two days until it began to stink. They loaded it on a donkey-cart then, police said, and threw it in on the roadside in Johar Town. Some passers-by saw them, however, police said. They said the witnesses included the first complainant, Muhammad Iqbal. Sub Inspector Muhammad Ishaq, the investigation officer, told Daily Times police were carrying out raids to arrest the suspects. He hoped they would be arrested in two days. A monthly report by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) published recently in an Urdu magazine cites 36 honour killings in various parts of the country. Twenty-eight of the victims were women. The report gathers data from national newspapers.