Bailing Out Shariah Law
In bailing out AIG, Uncle Sam may have taken on more than he bargained for, including a constitutional fight over the promotion of religion.
Earlier this month, as the New York-based insurance giant benefited from $153 billion in tax-supported bailout funds, it launched a business unit offering Shariah-compliant insurance products in the U.S.
For the first time, homeowners’ insurance policies “compliant with key Islamic finance tenets” will be marketed to Muslims in America.
“We are pleased to offer socially responsible solutions to this segment of the domestic market,” the near-bankrupt AIG announced in a press release, explaining that the Islamic market represents “an important and emerging growth opportunity for AIG.”
But there’s little that is “socially responsible” about Shariah law, which regulates the “takaful” insurance AIG is selling, along with other Islamic finance.
Shariah law authorizes horrific human-rights abuses, including the kind of violence and oppression against women, homosexuals, apostates and non-Muslims seen in Saudi Arabia and earlier under the Taliban in Afghanistan.
To fully comply with Shariah code, AIG has hired a “Shariah Supervisory Board” composed of “Shariah scholars.” Who are these so-called scholars?
One, according to its press release, is Muhammad Imran Usmani, who happens to be the son of Sheik Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani, who supports violent jihad against Westerners. The elder Usmani is so radical that Dow Jones & Co. recently removed him from the board of its Islamic market index.
At a minimum, AIG has to do better due diligence if it’s going to use taxpayer money for such a controversial enterprise. But what’s the responsibility of the U.S. government here?