Islamic-safe finance grows in the West

It just goes to show you... whoever has the money calls the shots in this world. Those with an anti-Semitic bent might say that the Jewish community has "too much control" because they figured this out a long time ago. I say they have their act together and Muslims don't! Whose fault is that, I wonder??

Now, maybe we ARE getting our act together, at least a little... according to this article, businesses are starting to realize that there are a whole bunch of Muslims with money that they don't know where to invest. There's now a Dow Jones Islamic Index of halal businesses, and more businesses are jumping on the bandwagon by making sure their operations are halal.

When Caribou Coffee went public last year, sharp-eyed investors noticed some unusual promises in its prospectus. Caribou, the nation's second-largest coffeehouse chain, said it would never sell pork or porn. It wouldn't charge or receive interest, either.

By following financial rules that are part of the Islamic code called Shariah, Caribou is among a small but growing list of Western businesses looking to make themselves as attractive as possible to Muslim investors. Some, like Caribou, are motivated by principle, while others see Muslim investors as an attractive new source of money.

click here for full article

I have never heard of Caribou Coffee, since they don't have one here, so I looked it up on the internet. What I found was a bunch of websites demonizing Caribou Coffee for being Shariah compliant. Of course. And there's apparently a chain letter going around to that effect as well. Click here to read the facts about that.