For many Minnesota Muslims, it’s been virtually impossible to buy a home, because Islamic law forbids the paying or charging of interest. To help close the home ownership gap among Muslim immigrants, the state’s housing agency has launched a new program offering Islamic mortgages.
Islamic law does make exceptions to the ban on interest, if one’s family is at stake. But the exceptions are open to interpretation and for many observant Muslims, conventional mortgages are strictly taboo.
Nawawi Sheikh is one of them. The Somali-American said he and his wife just couldn’t go against their beliefs, even if it meant giving up their dream of owning a home. Still, he grew tired of moving from one rented apartment to another.
“One thing I hated was moving. I don’t like to move all the time,” he said.
……Here’s how the mortgage, known as Murabaha financing or “cost plus sale,” works:
The state buys a home and resells it to the buyer at a higher price. The down payment and monthly installments are agreed to up front at current mortgage rates.
The deal is identical to a thirty-year fixed-rate loan, except there’s no additional interest, because the higher up front price factors in payments that would have been made over the life of a traditional mortgage.
……Chicago-based Devon Bank is underwriting the loans for the New Markets program. Devon is one of the largest Islamic lenders in the country. Corporate Counsel David Loundy said he expects the demand for Islamic financing to grow as more Muslims make their home in the U.S. Loundy said Muslims tend to be good risks.
http://wcco.com/local/islamic.mortgages.minnesota.2.952805.html
I fired this off to the Minnessota State Housing Agency: (mn.housing@state.mn.us)
Whatever happened to separation of church and state? Or does that just apply to Christians and Jews? To give muslims—who incidentally have a large contingent of terrorist/Islamofascist jihadists who want us dead—a break on housing when you wouldn’t do that for Christians, Jews, or even atheists, is discrimination.
Pandering to extremists in the name of “diversity” is part and parcel to liberal ideology.
If you’re going to give muslims special treatment because their (oppressive) Sharia Law forbids “paying or charging of interest”, give the same offer to others. I don’t believe in paying interest, either. It’s gouging in its worst form.
Let me come to Minnessota and get the same deal.