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Dear Fellow Australians,
A show on SBS television aroused my curiosity
about how Muslims might lend money because, apparently, trade is fundamental to
their culture.
I phoned the Muslim Community Co-Operative
(Australia) Ltd and was sent some literature on the Muslim Community Credit
Union Ltd. Their booklet says "Transactions involving interest are
completely excluded.".
This ties in with a search of the Holy Quran on
Yahoo for the word "usury" which says that "God hath permitted
trade and forbidden usury" and those "who repeat (The Offence) are
companions of the Fire: They will abide therein (for ever)"
etc.
A book entitled "Lightning Over the
Treasury Building" (author escapes me), Chapter II, says "For
centuries, in England, the christians were taught, and believed, that it was
contrary to Christian ethics to loan money at usury, or interest. During those
centuries the Church and the State saw eye to eye, for they were practically one
and the same. It was, therefore, not only un-Christian, but illegal to loan
money at interest. The laws of King Alfred, in the Tenth Century, provided
that the effects and lands of those who loaned money upon interest should be
forfeited to the crown and the lender should not be buried in consecrated
ground." etc.
We, dumb Christians, seem to have "lost the
plot" and let the banks become our masters, financially, politically,
socially and morally. Those banks think we are so completely stupid that
they, not only impose usury on us, but create the money they lend us "out
of thin air" and reap returns which we cannot begin to
calculate.
If this were a Harold Robbins' novel, it would
be ridiculed as unbelievable nonsense - a fantasy to end all
fantasies.
Will we Christians ever wake up?
Yours sincerely,
John Wilson..
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