Who is afraid of an Islamic bank?
In a country with a Muslim population of only two percent, Islamic banking system has existed for close to two decades. It amazes me to see the noise being made about Islamic banking coming to Nigeria. Over sixty percent of Nigerians are Muslims, but even among Nigerian Muslims, only those interested in it will subscribe […]
In a country with a Muslim population of only two percent, Islamic banking system has existed for close to two decades. It amazes me to see the noise being made about Islamic banking coming to Nigeria. Over sixty percent of Nigerians are Muslims, but even among Nigerian Muslims, only those interested in it will subscribe to it. It is not mandatory on anyone to either invest in or deposit money with the bank. So why are some Nigerians raising hell over a non-issue? I say a non-issue because a system that has been accepted in the developed countries of Europe and America, where Christianity and Judaism are the dominant spiritual anchors there, cannot possibly be of harm in Nigeria.
The other day, when I saw the responses of different chairmen of the Christian Association of Nigeria, to the Islamic Banking debate, I couldn’t help thinking that if a South African were to visit Nigeria and read about their emotional outbursts, he will definitely go with the impression that we have a lot of highly-placed Nigerians who are totally misinformed about simple, everyday issues. This South African will be amazed that a system which did not succeed in Islamising his country after all this time can generate so much heat here.
Indeed what might amaze him most will be that his country, which has a strong and influential Jewish community did not see a threat in allowing an Islamic bank to be floated. The richest tycoons in South Africa are the Jews and we all know that conventional banking system is a Jewish creation, yet they looked the other way when that minority Muslim population set up a bank they desired. The Oppenheimer’s, owners of the centuries-old Anglo-American mining corporation, the Ackermans, owners of the largest retail store in the country ‘Pick and Pay’ chain, and the Woolworth heirs, owners of the multinational departmental store chain, all did not utter a word when Islamic banking was being registered in South Africa. He will now compare it with the hue and cry in Nigeria and say no wonder this country always has religious crisis, there are people who will try to shout everybody down in all matters, even when they are ignorant of their import.
Imagine the Chairman of Abia state chapter of CAN, Bishop Goddy Okafor, cautioning Nigerians on the intentions of Sanusi Lamido and the ‘ugly effect it will have on the entire citizenry’. He said in a secular state there should be freedom of worship and so Islamic Banking should be restricted to a purely Islamic state. Is Britain an Islamic state or is South Africa? Yet he concluded with. ‘I call on the government not to back the Islamic Banking project as it is capable of dividing the country. It is only a particular group of people, from a particular part of the country that can practice that type of banking.’
Another surprising reaction to the debate came from Bishop David Bakare, chairman of the Pentecostal fellowship of Nigeria Kaduna chapter who said CBN Governor Sanusi Lamido must resign from office before he can advocate the introduction of an Islamic bank. Elder Saidu Dogo of Kaduna CAN follows this up by saying the federal government must revisit the steps being taken by Sanusi Lamido before they get out of hand. And that if Sanusi ‘fails to correct it he should be removed from office as governor.’
The chairman of the Plateau chapter of CAN Reverend Phillips Dafes also said that Islamic banking ‘portends grave danger in the country.’ It is amazing how any reasonable person can think this way. I mean a system that ensures that the poor are not exploited and taken advantage of portends grave danger just because it is the brainchild of another faith? And who is it that even says non-interest financial transaction is based purely on Islam? The Bible itself condemns usury and one would expect these Christian leaders to know. So why are they acting out of such blind hatred that they couldn’t see that Islamic banking is actually in their holy book?
It is unfortunate that, in this country Islamaphobia has grown to such extreme measures that everything is seen in terms of its identity not it’s substance. This needless overreaction is reminiscent of the extreme opposition Nigerian Christians showed to Nigeria’s membership of the Organisation of Islamic Countries OIC, over two decades ago. The fact that numerous African countries, with negligible Muslim population were already in the OIC did deter this opposition voices. Indeed when Muslims reminded them that Nigeria has had an ambassador at the Vatican since the Yakubu Gowon regime, it didn’t pacify them. To them Nigeria being in the OIC is a worse sin than having full diplomatic ties with the world’s only purely (Christian) theocratic state.
Someone should tell these Christian leaders that their insulting and insensitive remarks about Islamic banking and the person of the CBN governor only serve to portray them negatively. They display crass ignorance, violent hatred and are unduly heating up the polity with their sentimental outbursts. If Jews in the Western world, whose sole lifeline is the conventional banking can be tolerant of Islamic banking, I don’t see why Nigerian Christians should cry more than the bereaved. Yes, lots of Nigerians are shareholders in conventional banks, and they probably fear it will affect their profit margin if they allowed the competition to take off but surely if Islamic banks have the capacity to bring down the western system, wouldn’t this have manifested a long time ago?
Some western countries have practiced Islamic financial instruments since the 1970s, if they had a negative impact on their socio-economy, wouldn’t it have shown decades ago? Yet when the economic meltdown finally occurred two years ago, it was a result of their time-tested, interest-backed Jewish model, is there no lesson here for us?
I was disappointed to read the Guardian’s editorial of June 8th 2011 titled ‘CBN and non-interest financial institutions.’ While the respected paper can’t find fault with the banking system itself, it zeroed in on the names of the various financial instruments which all had the Islamic tag attached. Thus it advised the CBN to change terms like ‘sharia compliant’, sharia governance’ sharia advisory’ ‘Islamic jurisprudence’, ‘Islamic bond’ etc from the guidelines contained in the Banks and Other financial institutions Act. One would have expected the Guardian, having understood the harmless nature of the banking system, to be in the forefront of assuring non-Muslim Nigerians that they have nothing to fear in non-interest banking.
In the final analysis, if Nigerian Christians want to establish banks that go with their ‘no usury’ Christian principle, then by all means they should apply to the CBN to register their ‘Christian bank’. For now they are only raising hell over the ‘Jewish bank’, and amazingly the Jews aren’t complaining.