c. 2006 Religion News Service
Bank to Offer Loans in Accordance With Islamic Law
ANN ARBOR, Mich. (RNS) More than two years after it began offering Islamic-friendly products, a bank has formed a subsidiary to focus solely on serving Muslims, with plans to expand nationwide.
University Islamic Financial Corp. raised $15.5 million in capital to get off the ground by selling 40,000 shares of private stock, said bank president and chairman Stephen Lange Ranzini.
University Bank owns 80 percent of its new subsidiary; the other 20 percent is held by Virtue Investors LLC, which Ranzini said was a group of private Grand Rapids investors.
“The formation of the subsidiary allows us to have a financial institution which is 100 percent in compliance with the Muslim Shariah, the legal code of the Islamic religion,” Ranzini said.
The other purpose of setting up the subsidiary was to expand the bank’s capital base, he said.
The subsidiary will initially focus on home financing, deposit accounts and selling Islamic mutual fund shares. All are products already offered by University Bank, which has been a local leader in Islamic banking.
What makes banking Islamic-friendly is mainly how products are structured: For example, Islamic law prohibits payment or receipt of interest. Traditional loans typically charge interest.
To facilitate Islamic loans, University Bank has offered mortgage-alternative loan transactions, dubbed MALTs, since July 2003. Essentially, these types of mortgages are structured without interest payments.
Similarly, deposit accounts are set up to share any profits rather than pay them into individual accounts as interest.
Ranzini said the bank plans to offer the mortgage products nationwide. Currently, it offers them statewide; 57 families have the home loans in southeastern Michigan.
There are more than 250 Islamic banks around the world, managing more than $200 billion, according to the London-based Institute of Islamic Banking & Insurance, an independent Islamic finance academic and research group.
Ranzini said turning the subsidiary _ which he says is the first of its kind in the United States _ into its own bank could be a possibility down the road.
_ Stefanie Murray
Religious Publishing House Hails Ruling on Book About Cults
(RNS) Calling it a victory for freedom in religion writing, an Oregon-based publishing house is praising a Texas court ruling that affirmed its right to include a California church in a book about cults.
“We hope this ruling will encourage other authors, publishers and broadcasters to stand strong in their convictions and to continue engaging in responsible dialogue concerning controversial books without fear of intimidating lawsuits,” said Bob Hawkins Jr., president of Harvest House Publishers, in Eugene, Ore.
The plaintiffs _ a loose-knit religious group known as The Local Church and Living Stream Ministry, its publishing arm _ say they will appeal the Jan. 5 ruling to the Texas Supreme Court, the state where the case was filed. The Local Church has about 300 U.S. churches with an estimated 25,000 members.
The libel suit sought $136 million in damages.
In a media statement issued Tuesday (Jan. 10), Chris Wilde with Living Stream Ministry in Anaheim, Calif., said the 1st District Court of Appeals, a state court in Houston, erred in its understanding of the case.
“We remain steadfast in our commitment to establishing the truth and protecting from defamatory accusations the legacy of a godly Christian ministry and the reputations of countless Christian churches and believers,” Wilde said.
The appeals court reversed a lower court’s decision and sided with Harvest House Publishers and its authors, John Ankerberg and John Weldon, who wrote a 700-page book titled “Encyclopedia of Cults and New Religions.”
The church claimed that the encyclopedia made defamatory statements against it by calling it a “cult” and including a chapter in the book on it.
But appeals court Chief Justice Sherry Radack, writing for a three-judge panel, said: “Nothing in the book singles out the church as having committed the `immoral, illegal and despicable’ actions alleged in its petition. Simply being included in a group with others who may have committed such `immoral, illegal and despicable’ actions does not give rise to a libel claim.”
_ Bobby Ross Jr.
Anglican Church Warns of Fraudulent E-mails from Nigeria
(RNS) The Anglican Church of Nigeria is warning foreigners to beware of e-mails from “fraudulent personalities” hoping to exploit “Christian love and the good name of the church.”
The trend to lure unsuspecting Christians into donating money to phony African causes grew to an alarming rate in 2005, according to a public “disclaimer” posted on the Anglican church’s Web site and dispatched to news outlets throughout the world.
“The church advises the general public to verify identities of people before sending money to fraudsters who have not the slightest belief in God, but are only trying to use church sentiments to lure people,” said the Rev. Canon AkinTunde Popoola, director of communications, in a statement.
The “fraudsters,” posing as Anglican ministers, evangelicals or missionaries, take part in spurious activities such as selling pets that “never get delivered” and collecting money for the sick and orphans with “seemingly convincing pictures.”
“We have even seen a situation where a supposed knight collects money to organize homosexual meetings that only take place on sponsored news reports,” the advisory says.
The false endorsement of homosexual activities is particularly offensive due to Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria’s outspoken opposition to homosexuality and condemnation of the Episcopal Church of the United States for ordaining an openly gay bishop.
Anglican ministers and church members in Nigeria, the world’s second largest Anglican province, would not send unsolicited mail seeking or offering money to strangers, the statement said. Recipients of such mail should alert the authorities or check the validity of the sender through “organized structures” within the church.
_ Jason Kane
Report: 104,000 New York Jews Live in `Near Poverty’
(RNS) More than 100,000 New York City-area Jews live in “near poverty,” according to a recent survey by the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty.
The survey found that 104,000 Jewish individuals living in 53,400 households find it extremely difficult to make ends meet every month.
An additional 244,000 New York Jews live below the government-defined poverty level, according to a previous report.
In all, a third of all Jews living in the five boroughs of New York, Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester counties find it difficult or impossible to pay their bills, said the Metropolitan Council, based in New York.
The Dec. 28 report noted that the households, which may include several family members, subsist on no more than $35,000 annually, barely enough to cover the cost of food, medicine and transportation. For many, synagogue membership, kosher food and Jewish school tuition are beyond their reach.
Those living near the poverty line were equally divided between Orthodox, Conservative, Reform and secular or unaffiliated Jews, the survey found. Nearly two-thirds completed high school, while 41 percent have a college degree. Fifty-six percent are women.
“The gap exists because so many Jewish `near poor’ have salaries that make them ineligible for most forms of means-tested governmental programs,” the report said.
“We have to face the fact that the near-poor need our assistance as much as or more than the poor,” William Rapfogel, the Met Council’s director, said at a press conference to mark the survey’s publication.
The survey urged the Jewish organizations to provide the near poor with greater assistance in the areas of job training, affordable housing and health care.
_ Michele Chabin
Quote of the Day: Roman Catholic Bishop Thomas Gumbleton
(RNS) “I don’t have any animosity for him. I hope he’s praying for me in heaven.”
_ Roman Catholic Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Gumbleton of Detroit, saying he harbors no ill feelings toward the priest, now dead, who molested him 60 years ago at a school in Detroit. Gumbleton was the first U.S. bishop to disclose that he had been the victim of a predatory priest. He was quoted by The Washington Post.
MO/JL END RNS
