Wednesday, October 10, 2012

The idiocy that is Shariah

Owing to being born in the North East of England and the son of a proud Newcastle United supporting fanatic for my sins I am and always will be a member of the Toon Army, despite the fact I now live far away in Kent and the club have more or less priced me out of the market for attending matches, not that the tend to win anything really major, but I live in hope.
That said, I never expected the Toon ever to be involved in a dispute with the muslim council of Britain over an issue involving Shariah...
Telegraph.
Newcastle United's Muslim players have been warned that wearing the club's shirt with the logo of new sponsors Wonga on the front could infringe Sharia law.
The Muslim Council of Britain's (MCB) intervention is the latest batch of criticism the club has received since signing a four-year £24 million sponsorship deal with the short-term loan company on Tuesday that will also see the club's ground revert to its long-standing title of St James' Park.
There is nothing illegal about Wonga’s enterprise, but the firm’s charge of 4,214 per cent APR on its internet-based payday loans has been criticised by local MPs, consumer groups and trade unions.
Newcastle's starting eleven against Manchester United contained four practising Muslims, Demba Ba, Papiss Cissé, Cheick Tioté and Hatem Ben Arfa.
Under Sharia law, a Muslim is not allowed to benefit from lending or receiving money from someone, which means that earning interest is not allowed. Muslims comply by interest not being paid on Islamic savings, current accounts or Islamic mortgages.
Once again we have the unelected loons of the MCB trying to stick their noses in where it doesn't belong, this is not an Islamic country and (supposedly) our laws apply though we've seen numerous examples in the past of our laws and traditions being shunted aside as the powers that be suck up to the islamo-barbarians.
How advertising a service breaches shariah law is beyond me, however making no sense whatsoever in order to promote an agenda is nothing new for muslims, or indeed many of the leftoids or political classes in general. But, no one is making Demba Ba, Papiss Cissé, Cheick Tioté and Hatem Ben Arfa take out the loans and I'd guess that advertising something that isn't particularly shariah isn't really covered by shariah law anyway. It's just another way for the MCB to annoy the rest of us and get some publicity for their lunacy.
As for Wonga? They provide a service, no-one actually makes you take out such a loan and yes the interest is high, but it's high because it is short term and anyone taking one out ought to be aware of the various caveats involved.
This ought to be a matter for the club and players, as ever though where muslims are concerned there's the whole do as we say or else attitude that they wear like a second skin. Personally I think Newcastle United ought to tell them where to go, but we all know how the 'minority special interest' arguments go these days.

 

7 annotations:

Anonymous said...

Statement from the "Non-Muslim Council of Britain (NMCB)"

Piss Off

STATEMENT ENDS

Anonymous said...

Easily solved. The footballers who don't want to wear the advertising will simply pay back the advertiser (proportionally) plus compensation to the club and the advertiser for the lost income, and of course, whatever is needed to cover all necessary legal fees.

You'll find that this will solve the problem, as if it had never existed.

Anonymous said...

Surely it all comes down to a matter or choice. Newcastle United have chosen to be sponsored by a firm which will help their wages bill, football fans will choose to think about the offers by Wonga, and will further choose whether to take up those offers or not. The problem with Islam is thay they can't choose (the name of their religin has been held to mean 'submit'). They don't have the opportunity of making a choice based on their own free will. Instead, they must 'submit' to the edicts of some bearded blokes who have a vested interest in their religion being listened to and complied with. Everyone, apart from the Muslim players, has a choice over this matter. The players will no doubt receive instructions from the Muslim Cpouincil, which they will comply with, on whether or not they can play for the club. If the instruction is in the negative then, in return, Newcastle can choose not to pay their wages and can also choose not to put them up for sale. It's all about choice.
Penseivat

Anonymous said...

Four muslims? Eighteen times over quota!

banned said...

"a Muslim is not allowed to benefit from lending or receiving money from someone"
Which they circumvent in many ways like the Arabs buying up chunks of Whitehall on a 20 year lease then renting it back to the UK Government, that rent being, in effect, interest.

When usury was regarded as unChristuan we got around it by borrowing from the Jews.

StourbridgeRantBoy said...

So none of them sign on eh? And all those taxi drivers declare all their fares?

Seriously - i do'nt think the club should enter into a sponsorship deal with this sort of enterprise particularly in such a financially depressed area.

But that's got fuck all to do with Sharia. This sort of issue is the thin end of the wedge. Try getting a response from some supermarkets on how much of their meat is halal?

Laurie -

Dan H. said...

If you want a laugh, try googling how Sharia-compliant finance really works. First off, though, you have to know how Islam actually works. Muslims don't really have any real hierarchy to their religion; there's Mo at the top but he doesn't say much on account of being dead. Along with him, there's lots of other dead blokes who said an awful lot (in both Arabic and Aramaic) but ain't talking now for the same reason.

In the world of the living, there's not really any such thing as an Islamic bishop, and there certainly ain't a pope. So, about the best you can do is get a senior cleric (read as "old codger who lost his marbles years ago") to pass comment on something, and there you have it, bona fide religious opinion Muslim style.

Sharia-compliant finance involves finding a wide-boy accountant who thinks up a load of bullshit that sounds really complicated, and avoids using words like "interest" and suchlike, then finding a cleric to rubber-stamp the scam as compliant.

Seeing as how one cleric is as good as any other cleric and seeing as quite a few of 'em are talentless geriatric immigrants subsisting on basic pension only, you are probably way ahead of what I'm about to say. So, to get the scheme approved, you either do the rounds of senior clerics until one agrees, or you have your own tame senior cleric on the staff, paid to approve stuff for you.

No approvals, no pay; these guys are on piece rate so generally nod along to pretty much anything going, as long as the hot-phrases don't come up.

The net effect is that Muslims get a wide choice of different ways to get swindled for mortgages that are dearer than bog-standard bank mortgages (the market for which is cut-throat these days) yet do essentially the same thing.