Islamic Finance and Economics

US Treasury Dept. Disrupts Islamist Terrorism with Indictments Against International Web of Hezbollah Financiers

April 19, 2023

The US Treasury Department‘s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) indicted multiple individuals and companies across nine countries for money laundering and sanctions evasion to support Hizballah (Hezbollah), disrupting a massive financing web that was supporting the Islamist extremist organization that has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union.
Iran-Saudi Rapproachment Will Strengthen OIC Capacity, Gulf Regional Economic Integration & Security Autonomy

April 17, 2023

Preparations for the prospective visit of Iran’s president to Saudi Arabia makes a key development in the rapprochement between the Islamic monarchical regimes of Saudis Arabia and Iran, with the reconciliation aiming to broaden and deepen economic and financial integration among Arabian/Persian Gulf Islamic regimes, to advance Iran’s Islamist agenda for regional security autonomy by expelling any Western security presence from the region, and to strengthen the capacity of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the 57-member-state entity whose sharia-based charter claims to represent all Muslims worldwide.
Cryptocurrency Arrests in South Korea Underscore Globalization of Jihadist Activities

March 21, 2023

Recent arrests by South Korean security authorities of Uzbek and Kazakh nationals who used cryptocurrency to fund an al-Qaeda-affiliated group in Syria underscored the globalization of complex jihadist activities that connect funding, radicalization, and violence, with the recent arrests figuring into a range of previous episodes that highlight Islamist extremists’ assessment of South Korea as a hospitable locus for terrorist financing.
Egypt Moves into Islamic Finance to Ease Country’s Economic Woes

March 09, 2023

Egypt, the most populous country in the Arab world, is moving actively into Islamic finance in an effort to ease the country‘s economic woes that include high external debt levels, racing inflation, and a serious currency crisis, so the country’s Financial Regulatory Authority has followed the inaugural sovereign sukuk (sharia-compliant bonds) issue with authorization to domestic companies to sell sharia-compliant bonds (sukuk).
Sharia Finance Shows Strong Growth Trends in Indonesia, World’s Largest Muslim Country

January 19, 2023

Capitalizing on its geographic position as the world’s largest Muslim majority country in order to archive the goal of becoming a global Islamic financial and economic hub, Indonesia’s government, along with the country’s Islamic Finance Committee, is moving actively to improve regulatory structures and transparency and to attract young fintech companies, already demonstrating positive trend lines in terms of both competitiveness and growth of a complex sharia financial ecosystem.
Qatar's Corruption Campaign for World Cup Exposes Broader Influence-Building by Gulf Islamist Regime

December 26, 2022

The expanding scandal regarding Qatar's influence-building effort to secure the just-completed World Cup event in Doha has laid bare the broader malign activities of the Gulf Islamist regime, which, for decades, has systematically used its wealth not only to provide material and financial support to jihadi groups worldwide, but also to accrue soft power in Western countries by shaping media narratives through Qatar's Al-Jazeera global network and by influencing ideas and leadership through investment in university programs and by capturing hard power through investment in key infrastructure sectors such as energy.
Islamist Cash Protection Rackets Will Be Targeted by Somali Government in Effort to Stop Jihadi Disruption

October 26, 2022

The al-Shabab Islamist extremist group waging a jihadist conflict in Somalia has financed its operations through extensive financial extortation as protection for businesses, and the Somali MInistry of Commerce and Industry is aiming to shut down those financing flows by bringing legal action against business and commercial interests who pay protection monies to al-Shabab.
French Cement Giant Pleads Guilty to Collusion with Jihadists

October 21, 2022

French company Lafarge pleaded guilty to providing material support to the Islamic State (IS) and al-Nusra Front (ANF) in Syria through Lafarge Cement in the form of a multi-million-dollar revenue sharing agreement and payoffs to the jihadist groups for permission for local operations in Syria, with US Justice Department officials heralding the massive fines imposed on Lafarge as a landmark prosecution of corporate material support for Islamist terrorism.
Iran-Turkey Economic Ties Highlight Islamist Regimes’ Recent History of Sanctions Busting

October 11, 2022

The declared commitments by leaders of the two Islamist regimes of Iran and Turkey to increase bilateral trade and to deepen economic relations is a reminder that, despite competing versions of Islamic governance and conflicting regional geopolitical interests, Tehran and Ankara have a recent history of cooperation on a massive scale of US sanctions evasion using fraud and money laundering.
Experts Agree Islamic Finance At Crossroads as Global Assets Hit $3.6 Trillion

October 10, 2022

Experts meeting at the recent Global Islamic Finance Forum 2022 held in Malaysia focused on how to strengthen the sharia-compatible/compliant finance industry’s global leadership position, with disagreement about how to grow the total assets of $3.6 trillion at end-2021 by either consolidating market share or radically breaking with the fractional reserve system and also moving towards a more robust Islamic philosophical approach to social impact.