Ground Zero Mega-Mosque To Get Sharia-compliant Financing?

From Creeping Sharia:

Sharia-compliant loans at Ground Zero mosque?


Posted on September 2, 2010 by creeping

More on the possible public, tax-exempt financing of the Zero Tolerance Ground Zero mosque, from Jack Kemp at American Thinker:



This is a proposed $70 million, tax exempt loan to a house of worship that also would pay no taxes to the City of New York, to finance a structure opposed by a majority of New Yorkers. The city’s officials find no problem with this, apparently.



This proposal appears to a normal bond situation with bonds paying interest from monies paid by the borrower. However, Muslim teachings forbid the paying of interest. This applies to government as well as private company loans.



Robert Spencer’s book “Stealth Jihad,” on pages 185-186, tells of Chicago Imam Abdul Malik Mujahid giving examples of Muslims enforcing Sharia compliance against interest payments, starting with a Muslim who refused to pay Internal Revenue Service penalty interest — and won his case. The Muslim’s secretary (a non-Muslim) pointed out the section of the Qu’ran that forbid this and the IRS supervisor allowed this waiving of interest on religious grounds.



Imam Mujahid also gives the example of “a Muslim physician who was ‘charged interest on a construction job because he inadvertently delayed payment of the bill for one month. He wrote to apologize for the delay and informed the authorities that Islam did not allow him to pay or receive interest on any transaction. Not only were interest charges removed, but an opportunity for Dawa came up’ – that is, Islamic proselytizing.”



So Sharia rules have even made the IRS back down, setting legal precedents. It would appear that the only way that a mosque could have the interest paid on its construction bonds would be if the taxpayers of New York City paid the interest to the bondholders — on a religious property that pays no real estate taxes. This would be, in effect, a government subsidy to a religion.



The owner of the proposed Ground Zero mosque, Sharif el-Gamal, is already personally over $224,270.77 in arrears on his property tax payments to New York City.

One might speculate: what happens if the former waiter el-Gamal were to not make his principal payments on such a bond loan? Would the City of New York seize his property? They haven’t seized it as of now for a tax bill of nearly a quarter of a million dollars. What makes you think they would enforce tax law payment requirements at a later time? After all, there appears to be a real sense of entitlement here. And the imam of this proposed mosque, Imam Rauf, is also a landlord in New Jersey who allegedly doesn’t make repairs to his tenants apartments, according to the NY Post.



…Mayor Bloomberg and Comptroller Liu could explain to the citizens of New York: who exactly would be paying the interest on these bonds when the actual recipient considers it against their faith to pay any interest?