Should America Bail Out Sharia Finance?
FAMILY SECURITY MATTERS: On September 17, 2008, the U.S. News and World Report magazine reported on how the "Federal Reserve extended an $85 billion loan to American International Group to be paid back as AIG sells off some business in the biggest government takeover so far in the ongoing credit crisis." What the American public hasn't seen yet is what AIG is going to sell off in terms of its business. According to the September 16, 2008 press release by the Federal Reserve on this bailout, the "U.S. government will receive a 79.9 percent equity interest in AIG and has the right to veto the payment of dividends to common and preferred shareholders."

But while the U.S. taxpayers are loaning money to AIG and the U.S. holds a nearly 80% equity interest in AIG, no one in the government seems concerned that AIG is continuing to expand its Sharia finance business. Less than a week after the government bailout of AIG, Reuters reported on how AIG's unit American International Assurance Co (AIA) was awarded an "international takaful (Islamic insurance) license" by the Malaysian government. AIG's American International has been selling Sharia-based "Islamic insurance" for at least two years, through its AIG Takaful division, since its October 1, 2006 announcement, with a stated goal to sell such Sharia financial instruments in the United States. AIG SunAmerica, AIG Financial Services Corp, and other divisions of AIG also are dealers in Sharia mutual trusts. 



The AIG bailout came two days before Congressman Tancredo's introduction of the "Jihad Prevention Act" (H.R. 6975), which "would deny U.S. visas to advocates of 'Sharia" law, and expel Islamists already here." This House bill has been referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary. Yet as the AIG bailout shows, the challenge of Sharia is more than an immigration problem, and the U.S. federal government is not yet taking any action on Sharia finance. While we should be concerned about "Islamists" coming to the U.S. to promote Sharia, shouldn't we be really concerned that the U.S. taxpayers own a nearly 80% equity interest in a company promoting Sharia finance today? Shouldn't the first assets that AIG should have sold two weeks ago have been their Sharia finance businesses? Should America Bail Out Sharia Finance? >>> Jeffrey Imm | October 6, 2008

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All to Be Found on Capitol Hill: Lame Ducks, Dead Ducks, Crap Sandwiches, and Bums!
THE GUARDIAN: The controversy over the failure of the Bush administration's unpopular financial bail-out is infecting every aspect of government and the presidential election campaign.

Eminent reputations lie in ruins; the august institutions of Congress, the treasury, the Federal Reserve tremble; the presidency itself is shaken. In America's year of living dangerously, few will emerge unscathed.

The consensus view, if there is one in so divided a nation, is that the US has suffered a calamitous, across-the-board failure of leadership. The bankruptcy is political as well as economic. This conclusion is widely held among both supporters and opponents of the bail-out.

"Monday's crash and burn of the Paulson plan on Capitol Hill reveals a Washington elite that has earned every bit of the disdain that Americans have for it. This crowd can't even make sausage," snarled a Wall Street Journal editorial yesterday. Black Monday's shambles marked a "historic abdication".

Republicans and Democrats in the House of Representatives were excoriated for political cowardice, childish disputatiousness, and a selfish desire to get re-elected next month at any cost. It's clear, whatever they do next, the public simply does not trust them to do it right.

"A political establishment held in higher regard may have been able to hold together some kind of coalition of the willing," wrote Joel Achenbach in the Washington Post. "But distrust of the nation's leaders, from the leaders of Congress to the president, foreclosed that possibility." Congress Approval Rating Just 10% as Bush Goes from 'Lame to Dead Duck' >>> Simon Tisdall in Washington | October 1, 2008

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’Toxic’ Wall Street $700 Billion Bailout Rejected
THE TELEGRAPH: Congressional leaders and the White House have rejected an unprecedented, $700 billion rescue plan designed to ease the flow of credit and restore confidence in the world’s biggest economy.

The lower House of Representatives has defeated the Emergency Economic Stabilisation Act throwing efforts to calm the financial crisis rocking global markets into turmoil.

The vote must now move to the Senate for final approval.

News of the massive bailout package had done nothing to improve sentiment in markets opening ahead of the United States.

As well as the Stock Exchange, the main indices in Japan, Germany and France all fell by between 1.3 and 2.9 per cent.

Despite a 7.30am statement by George W Bush praising the bill as “strong and decisive legislation” that “will help restart the flow of credit”, Wall Street, the target of the bailout, was fearful that the government’s plan to buy bad debt wouldn’t be sufficient to resuscitate nearly frozen credit markets. US Economy: 'Toxic' Wall Street $700 Billion Bailout Rejected >>> By Alex Spillius in Washington | September 29, 2008

THE NEW YORK TIMES:
House Rejects Bailout Package, 228-205; Stocks Plunge: WASHINGTON — In a moment of historic import in the Capitol and on Wall Street, the House of Representatives voted on Monday to reject a $700 billion rescue of the financial industry. The vote came in stunning defiance of President Bush and Congressional leaders of both parties, who said the bailout was needed to prevent a widespread financial collapse. >>> By Carl Hulse and David M Herszenhorn | September 29, 2008

THE NEW YORK TIMES:
Dow Falls Nearly 700 Points >>> By Michael M Grynbaum | September 29, 2008

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Financial Crisis: Republicans and Democrats Agree £380 Billion Bail-out Deal
THE TELEGRAPH: A £380 billion deal to save the world's economy has been struck in the US after Republicans and Democrats reached a "fundamental agreement" to bolster America's banks.

Standing alongside his Republican counterpart, Senator Chris Dodd, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, said a deal on a set of principles to be voted on by Congress would be to be passed within the "next few days".

The bill represents a dramatic attempt to prevent the global economy plunging into a deep recession.

The outline deal came as President George W. Bush, the two candidates vying to replace him and congressional leaders were preparing a crisis summit at the White House to hammer out final details.

Representative Barney Frank, Democratic chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said he would tell Mr Bush there "really is not much of a deadlock to break" because a skeleton package had been agreed by both parties in Congress.

Dana Perino, Mr Bush's press secretary, said that "significant progress" had been made.

"We have a framework that we can try to close on and we hope that we can get it done quickly."

She would not, however, outline specifics about provisions the Bush administration saw as deal breakers. "We have made a few steps forward and they've come a few steps our way. So we're reaching a consensus and we're going to try to drive that to a conclusion today."

The summit came after Mr Bush issued a portentous warning that "America could slip into a final panic", triggering a deep recession in which "millions of Americans could lose their jobs" without "immediate action" by Congress.

Mr Bush's proposed bailout plan involved the federal government buying up the assets of tottering financial companies, an intervention designed to keep credit markets open and heading off economic disaster on the scale of the Great Depression of the 1930s. Financial Crisis: Republicans and Democrats Agree £380 Billion Bail-out Deal >>> By Toby Harnden in Washington | September 25, 2008

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