Bali Millis Preview and Information: [bali-bali] Re: Eassi Renungan Lebaran 2008

Minggu, 28 September 2008

[bali-bali] Re: Eassi Renungan Lebaran 2008

Pilihan tema yang tepat Bang. Tks.

Salam hormat utk seluruh keluarga, dan juga kepada seluruh semeton
muslim, selamat merayakan Hari Raya Idul Fitri.

Kepada seluruh semeton bali-bali, satu kesempatan baik buat saya utk
meminta maaf atas semua kesalahan yang sengaja maupun tidak, sempat
terucap saat berkomentar di milis ini.

Happy Holiday.

Salam,
Lia

--- In bali-bali@yahoogroups.com, Ikranagara <ikra_twin@...> wrote:
>
> Bergembiralah
>
>
> Selamat
>
>
> Hari Raya Lebaran
>
>
> 2008
>
>
>
>
> Maafkan segala kesalahan kami
>
>
> Salam ta'zim kami,
> Ikranagara & Kay Ikranagara
> Innosanto Nagara & Kristi Laughlin
> Rakrian Biko Nagara & Meghan Lisisich
>
> ==========
>
>
> Essai Renungan Lebaran 2008
> dari Counterpunch (America's best political newsletter):
>
> http://www.counterpunch.com/khan09272008.html
>
>
> An Islamic Perspective
> Meltdown in American Markets
> By: LIAQUAT ALI KHAN
>
> Call it the consequences of irresponsible American invasions, call
it the irrational exuberance of short sellers, call it the
catastrophe of subprime lending, call it the mismanagement of
leveraged products, blame it as you may, American markets are facing
unprecedented meltdown and doomsayers see little promise in the
federal bailout package. Ironically, the Wall Street has noticed that
Shariah-compliant investments--which avoid speculative risk and debt-
ridden greed--have fared much better in these troubled markets. In
the past few years, Shariah-compliant investments in Western markets
have grown to more than half a trillion dollars.
>
> Islamic financing is attracting huge academic curiosity. Many
experts participating in the 8th Harvard University Forum on Islamic
Finance held this past April wondered if Islamic financing could have
prevented the meltdown that American markets are facing primarily due
to mortgage debt and mortgage-backed securities—now known as "toxic
investments." This legal commentary highlights the two fundamental
principles of Islamic financing that I presented at the Forum.
>
> High Risk Investments
>
> The Quran prohibits al-Maysir or speculative risk, warning the
faithful to avoid games of chance in which the probability of loss in
is much higher than the probability of gain (2:219). Shariah-
compliant investments, therefore, avoid speculative risk, including
interest rate options, naked equity options, futures, derivative and
numerous leveraged products purportedly designed to hedge
investments. Many of these financial products attract speculators in
hopes of making quick money. When trusted fund managers, under
institutional pressures to show profit, resort to speculative risk,
hedge investments turn into suicidal strategies for financial
destruction.
>
> In pursuit of greed and thrill, straightforward investments in
companies engaged in socially useful activity has become
unattractive, even boring, because of their presumably lower rate of
return—frequently a self-fulfilling prophecy. Billions of dollars
are dumped into companies that promise huge profits but produce
nothing. While Islam would allow risking investments in socially
beneficial research projects, it prohibits investments in companies
peddling alcohol, tobacco, pornography, debt, and weapons—products
that undermine our health and safety.
>
> Some investment strategies rampant in the markets are not only
morally corrupt but socially harmful. Short sellers, for example,
make money when companies collapse and close. Turning the
conventional logic of investment on its head, short sellers wish
companies to crash rather than prosper for they make most money when
companies go bankrupt, workers and employees lose jobs, and pension
funds evaporate through declining company stock. Such cynical
investments, touted as useful forces that balance the market, are
contrary to Islamic law.
>
> Interest-Bearing Debt
>
> In addition to prohibiting high risk investments, the Quran also
prohibits no risk investments. The prohibition against riba, interest
on loans, is strictly forbidden. Islam does not prohibit passive
investments. Nor does it prohibit giving interest-free loans. Debt is
not contrary to Islamic law. Charging interest is. Although some
experts argue that usury, and not interest, is prohibited under
Islamic law. Most Muslim scholars agree, however, that interest on
loans is contrary to the Shariah.
>
> Refuting arguments that money has time value or that interest is
analogous to profit, the Quran offers a categorical principle that
"trade is permitted but interest is not." (2:275). The prohibition
against interest was revealed not only to save the poor from
unscrupulous lenders but also to deter investors who demand a set
return on their investments and decline to take the risk of engaging
in useful trade.
>
> Contrary to Islamic principles, lending in general and subprime
lending in particular was predestined to harm American financial
markets for two distinct
> Ali Khan is Professor of Law at Washburn University in Topeka,
Kansas.
>