Fighting Shariah Through the Law: An Interview with David Yerushalmi, Esq.

By Jerry Gordon

Shariah, Islamic law, has become increasingly visible in the debates concerning possible Islamization in the West. It is at the core of opposition to and debate about expansion of mosques in this country. Shariah is a total system that governs every aspect of the life of a Muslim including fulfillment of jihad against non-believers, whether through da'wa, persuasion, or ultimately violence. Shariah is a political, legal, social and military system that threatens basic constitutional liberties and freedoms that we take for granted in America. The lure of multi-billion dollar transactions has created Shariah-compliant international corporate finance markets with active participation by major commercial and investment banks and financial rating organizations. Shariah advisers to these eager financial institutions are proponents of violent jihad and Islamic antisemitism. One egregious example is Pakistani Federal Sharia Court Judge and Hanafi Scholar, Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani, who advised Dow Jones on creation of its Islamic Market Index. Egyptian-born Islamic scholar, Yusuf Qaradawi used the term 'financial jihad" to describe Sharia-compliant finance (SCF). As Andrew McCarthy noted in a National Review article, "American Taxpayer, Financial Jihadist", what Qaradawi meant.

Because sharia bars interest (although it permits "profits" that Islamic authorities, in their infinite wisdom, deem reasonable), SCF requires that investments be constantly monitored and that any interest payments be purged. This is done by skimming off a percentage that is then channeled - at the direction of the advisory board - to an Islamic "charity". Of course, as no one knows better than the Treasury Department, many such charities are merely fronts for the financing of terrorist organizations. This is not an accident. When Sheikh Qaradawi speaks of "financial jihad" as an Islamic obligation, he's not kidding: In Islamist ideology, funding those who "fight in Allah's cause" - e.g., Hamas - is one of the eight categories of permissible zakat, the Muslim obligation of almsgiving.

Shariah has entered our legal system through the backdoor of arbitration and mediation panels and even our court system.

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