Shaad 38:88 Dan sesungguhnya *kamu akan mengetahui (kebenaran) berita Al Qur'an setelah beberapa waktu lagi.*
Ath Thalaaq 65:12 Allah-lah yang menciptakan tujuh langit dan seperti itu pula bumi. Perintah Allah berlaku padanya, agar kamu mengetahui bahwasanya Allah Maha Kuasa atas segala sesuatu, dan sesungguhnya *Allah, ilmu-Nya benar-benar meliputi segala sesuatu.* Al Maa-idah 5:82 Sesungguhnya kamu dapati orang-orang yang paling keras permusuhannya terhadap orang-orang yang beriman ialah orang-orang Yahudi dan orang-orang musyrik. Dan sesungguhnya kamu dapati* yang paling dekat persabahatannya *dengan orang-orang yang beriman ialah orang-orang yang berkata: "Sesungguhnya *kami ini orang Nasrani*." Yang demikian itu disebabkan karena di antara mereka itu (orang-orang Nasrani) terdapat pendeta-pendeta dan rahib-rahib, (juga) karena sesungguhnya mereka tidak menyombongkan diri. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601092&sid=aOsOLE8uiNOg&refer=italy Vatican Says Islamic Finance May Help Western Banks in Crisis By Lorenzo Totaro March 4 (Bloomberg) -- The Vatican said banks should look at the rules of Islamic finance to restore confidence amongst their clients at a time of global economic crisis. “The ethical principles on which Islamic finance is based may bring banks closer to their clients and to the true spirit which should mark every financial service,” the Vatican’s official newspaper Osservatore Romano said in an article <http://www.vatican.va/news_services/or/or_quo/text.html> in its latest issue late yesterday. Author Loretta Napoleoni and Abaxbank Spa fixed income strategist, Claudia Segre, say in the article that “Western banks could use tools such as the Islamic bonds, known as sukuk, as collateral”. Sukuk may be used to fund the “‘car industry or the next Olympic Games in London,” they say. Pope Benedict XVI in an Oct. 7 speech reflected on crashing financial markets saying<http://212.77.1.245/news_services/bulletin/news/22714.php?index=22714&po_date=06.10.2008&lang=it>that “money vanishes, it is nothing” and concluded that “the only solid reality is the word of God.” The Vatican has been paying attention to the global financial meltdown and ran articles in its official newspaper that criticize the free-market model for having “grown too much and badly in the past two decades.” The Osservatore’s editor, Giovanni Maria Vian, said that “the great religions have always had a common attention to the human dimension of the economy,” Corriere della Sera reported today. To contact the reporter on this story: Lorenzo Totaro in Rome at [email protected] *Last Updated: March 4, 2009 03:33 EST* http://www.worldbulletin.net/news_detail.php?id=37814 *Vatican** offers Islamic finance system to Western Banks * The Vatican says Islamic finance system may help Western banks in crisis as alternative to capitalistm. Friday, 06 March 2009 15:10 *World Bulletin / News Desk * The Vatican offered Islamic finance principles to Western banks as a solution for worldwide economic crisis. Daily Vatican newspaper, 'L'Osservatore Romano, reported that Islamic banking system may help to overcome global crisis, Turkish media reported. The Vatican said banks should look at the ethical rules of Islamic finance to restore confidence amongst their clients at a time of global economic crisis. "The ethical principles on which Islamic finance is based may bring banks closer to their clients and to the true spirit which should mark every financial service," the Vatican's official newspaper Osservatore Romano said in an article in its latest issue late yesterday. Author Loretta Napoleoni and Abaxbank Spa fixed income strategist, Claudia Segre, say in the article that "Western banks could use tools such as the Islamic bonds, known as sukuk, as collateral". Sukuk may be used to fund the "'car industry or the next Olympic Games in London," they said. They also said that profit share, gained from sukuk, may be an alternative to the interest. They underlined that sukuk system could help automotive sector and support investments in infrastructure area. Islamic sukuk system is similar to bonos of capitalist system. But in sukuk, money is invested concrete projects and profit share is distributed to clients instead of interest earned. Pope Benedict XVI in an Oct. 7 speech reflected on crashing financial markets saying that "money vanishes, it is nothing" and concluded that "the only solid reality is the word of God." The Vatican has been paying attention to the global financial meltdown and ran articles in its official newspaper that criticize the free-market model for having "grown too much and badly in the past two decades." The Osservatore's editor, Giovanni Maria Vian, said that "the great religions have always had a common attention to the human dimension of the economy," Corriere della Sera reported today. http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/3819 Vatican Paper Supports Islamic Finance. France Wants Its Share of Sharia Banking >From the desk of Tiberge <http://www.brusselsjournal.com/tiberge> on Thu, 2009-03-12 10:52 In yet another act of conciliation on the part of Western religions towards Islam, the Vatican newspaper *Osservatore Romano* has voiced its approval<http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601092&sid=aOsOLE8uiNOg&refer=italy>of Islamic finance. The Vatican paper wrote that banks should look at the rules of Islamic finance to restore confidence amongst their clients at a time of global economic crisis. “The ethical principles on which Islamic finance is based may bring banks closer to their clients and to the true spirit which should mark every financial service,” the *Osservatore Romano*said. “Western banks could use tools such as the Islamic bonds, known as sukuk, as collateral”. Sukuk may be used to fund the “‘car industry or the next Olympic Games in London,” the article says. The Vatican article is only one of many articles that have recently appeared on the acceptance by Western governments and bankers of an Islamic financing system. More than accepting it, they seem to be welcoming it, though they are certainly being pressured into this by unnamed forces bowing to the dictates of Islam. <http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_g--Q5Ya6yYE/SbSbYTEZ5tI/AAAAAAAADnI/I2LQ66kAD90/s1600-h/Islamic+finance.jpg>Last December, the French Senate looked at ways<http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Business/?id=3.0.2846242034>to eliminate legal hurdles, particularly levies, for Islamic financial services and products in France and the potential for listing companies on the Paris Stock Exchange. Senate sources said that this area of the financial market is worth from 500 to 600 billion dollars and could grow by an average 11 percent a year. French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde has announced France’s intention to make Paris “the capital of Islamic finance” and announced several Islamic banks would open branches in the French capital in 2009. This hearkens back to a video<http://www.dailymotion.com/video/k2wXiXPa8v9npYRb1q>from November 26, 2008 that was posted at many French websites showing Madame Lagarde announcing with (according to some bloggers) visible embarrassment the decision to allow Islamic financing in France. Whether or not this move is constitutional is apparently not even an issue, since European countries change their laws to accommodate Islam. If the “sacred” law separating Church and State can be violated, any law can. The video, with its very soft audio, shows the minister in a strange garb, and struggling to present a happy countenance. There is no way of knowing if this is merely the quality of the video, or an indication of her emotional state. An article from *Le Parisien*<http://www.leparisien.fr/economie/les-banques-islamiques-arrivent-en-france-27-11-2008-323377.php>dated November 27, 2008 provides the following information, in addition to the facts presented above: *A revolution in the banking world. After London, where the first Islamic bank opened its doors in September 2004, France could authorize banks respecting sharia law to open in 2009 (...) Hervé de Charette, president of the Franco-Arab Chamber of Commerce emphasizes that “importing Islamic banking into France would help the integration process”. The main obstacle: “Islamic banking arouses fear because it is associated, wrongly, with religious fundamentalism, even with the financing of terrorism,” deplores Elyès Jouini, professor of economics at the University of Paris. (...)* *The world economic crisis has changed the ball game. From New York to Hong Kong, all the financial centers on the planet are grabbing the billions of dollars amassed by the oil-rich monarchies of the Gulf. To tap into this manna (...) is the stated goal of Christine Lagarde. “We are determined to make of Paris a great center for Islamic finance,” declared the Finance Minister as she inaugurated the second French forum on Islamic banking.* For another longer English-language article, visit *Islam On Line*. This article<http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?c=Article_C&cid=1216207983648&pagename=Zone-English-News%2FNWELayout>goes back to July 2008, showing that even before the crisis, France had initiated a policy favoring Islamic banking. Vatican Suggests Islamic Finance the Cure For Crisis http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=e80_1236894823&c=1 Vatican Suggests: Islamic Finance the Cure For Crisis *CLOSE [X]* <javascript://> As world markets suffer under the weight of the ongoing global financial crisis, the Vatican has put forward a new suggestion, arguing that the principles of Islamic finance may represent a possible cure for ailing markets. The Vatican’s official newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, recently published an article titled “Islamic finance proposals and ideas for the West in crisis,” prepared b *More..* <javascript://>y Italian economists Loretta Napoleoni and Claudia Segre, in which it was suggested that the basic rules of Islamic finance could relieve suffering markets and particularly international financial systems. Noting that Islam prohibits “riba,” Arabic for the usurious loaning of money, the article argued that “sukuk bonds,” securities that comply with Islamic law, may be an alternative to interest. The article stressed that sukuk bonds are always real investments and never speculative. The article said that in this atmosphere of crisis banks should take Muslims as an example and that the Islamic finance system may pave the way for the establishment of new rules in the Western world. The Vatican has suggested that the current capitalist system has failed. Pope Benedict XVI recently harshly criticized the capitalist system and the greediness of bank owners in the West. In the meantime, the Vatican itself has been badly affected by the crisis. It had recorded an 18 billion euro budget surplus in 2007, but this number had declined to 6 billion euros by the end of 2008 and is expected to fall further in 2009. By HAKAN KALAYCI
