A perfect example of why I think religion is so silly

[TTChamp]

I stumbled on this while reading up on mortgages.

Source here is Wikipedia, but I have no reason to doubt it is true.

[ QUOTE ]
Islamic mortgages
The Sharia law of Islam prohibits the payment or receipt of interest, which means that practising Muslims cannot use conventional mortgages. However, real estate is far too expensive for most people to buy outright using cash: Islamic mortgages solve this problem by having the property change hands twice. In one variation, the bank will buy the house outright and then act as a landlord. The homebuyer, in addition to paying rent, will pay a contribution towards the purchase of the property. When the last payment is made, the property changes hands.

Typically, this may lead to a higher final price for the buyers. This is because in some countries (such as the United Kingdom and India) there is a Stamp Duty which is a tax charged by the government on a change of ownership. Because ownership changes twice in an Islamic mortgage, a stamp tax is charged twice.

An alternative scheme involves the bank reselling the property according to an installment plan, at a price higher than the original price.

All of these methods are still compensating the lender as if they were charging interest, but the loans are structured in a way that in name they are not.



[/ QUOTE ]

link

Would changing the wording on a legal document really make god/alla/whoever happy? What a joke.

[hmkpoker]

Muslims make America's religious whackos look sensible.

[DougShrapnel]

This same type of reasoning might help account for why Jews are typically more intelligent in financial transactions. It was against xtain law to change interest to anyone. But jews could charge interest to xtains. It's unfortunate for muslims that they often hate jews, because if they didn't they wouldn't have to worry about silly structures for mortages.

This is from about.com search usury
[ QUOTE ]
Usury is an older term for the idea of earning interest on money, and is prohibited or at least limited in Jewish, Christian and Muslim scriptures.

Thou shalt not lend upon usury to thy brother; usury of money, usury of victuals, usury of anything that is lent upon usury. (Deuteronomy 23:19).

Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchanges, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury. (Matthew 25:27).

The question of usury has long been a thorny issue for relationships between Christians and Jews because canon law forbade Christians from charging each other interest in 1179, but it said nothing about Jews charging interest from Christians. Jews, on the other hand, were permitted to charge interest from gentiles if no other means of survival was available.

Thus, Jews became the money-lenders of Europe, and much hated because of it. Jews also acquired the stereotype of bankers and greedy among Christians because of Christian laws which prevented them from doing much else. Had Christianity deigned to treat the Jews as equals, that might never have occurred.

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[Darryl_P]

At least there is no mistaking who owns the property. In America, most people with mortgages think they own the property when in fact they don't.

I guess Allah doesn't like trickery. Sounds reasonable to me.

[TTChamp]

[ QUOTE ]
But jews could charge interest to xtains. It's unfortunate for muslims that they often hate jews, because if they didn't they wouldn't have to worry about silly structures for mortages.


[/ QUOTE ]

This was the first thing I thought of too. But I think that the article is saying that Muslims aren't even allowed to PAY interest.

But calling it "rent" makes it ok.

[FortunaMaximus]

Like it's ok to call a 10% belief tax a tithe?

<shrugs>

[revots33]

Muslims don't have a monopoly on idiotic religious rules:

Cathechism of the Catholic Church:

"2352 By masturbation is to be understood the deliberate stimulation of the genital organs in order to derive sexual pleasure. Both the Magisterium of the Church, in the course of a constant tradition, and the moral sense of the faithful have been in no doubt and have firmly maintained that masturbation is an intrinsically and gravely disordered action."

[DougShrapnel]

Deleted
I didn't like my arguement

[FortunaMaximus]

[ QUOTE ]
and have firmly maintained that masturbation is an intrinsically and gravely disordered action.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, it's nice to see they aren't soft on the subject.

[Jasper109]

[ QUOTE ]
Muslims make America's religious whackos look sensible.

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't think sensible is a word that comes to mind when describing either group.