Investor’s Business Daily issues a strong warning against The Risky Business Of Islamic Finance.

The bottom line:

These funds offer little transparency. They fail to disclose either the radical ties of the scholars who are advising and running them or the tenets that dictate the structuring of the investments. The prospectuses explain simply that the investments are “ethical” or “socially acceptable,” when in fact they’re grounded in a religious doctrine that threatens America and the West.

The main purpose of Shariah law is to promote Islam as the only legitimate governing system and to help establish its rule worldwide. Shariah-compliant finance is a means to that end.

Ignoring in a time of war the moral hazards associated with such financial products, and treating them as if they were as benign and secular as any other, may be the height of corporate recklessness.