From: "Chip Berlet" <cberlet at igc.org>
> So I figure that somehow you think that by studying "mainstream" or
"critical"
> Islamic political economy we will somehow better "understand any
possible
> motivations for what took place."
>
> OK, I don't get it.
>
> How will this help understand what took place, if what took place is
that the
> act was carried out by a relatively small network of totalitarian
Islamic
> supremacists who hate Saudi Arabia because it is too reformist?
>
> Honestly missing your point...
>
> -Chip
>
==================
Ok, I just spent the day looking up stuff on the PE of the Middle East and South Central Asia and believe me it'll make your head spin. The below is just a Friday night snippet of what I've found. Please be patient as I try to unpack the stuff in response to your concerns. I'm going to mix some assertions which I'm happy to be wrong about with what I dug up that may have some important bearings on what has OBL and other networks of dissidents that are pissed off not only at the great satan but at their own polities for complicity in manipulating what westerners call the sacred/secular binary.
It's easy to say OBL [walkin' around with an MBA and a degree in economics] and others see the House of Saud as a bunch of wankers, but when you delve into how wealth is managed via the financial institutions in SA, Egypt, Bahrain, UAE, Yemen, Iran etc, you can trace, from the oil price "crisis" of the 70's a huge concern over how all those petrodollars were going to be diffused and invested in the ME. From what I got from the sources I tracked [which I'll list below] this set off a major crisis of Al'Quran exegesis because there is quite a bit PE maxims that Mohammed wrote into his book [he was what we would call a proprietary capitalist who saw his society suffering from affluenza and the "fear of falling"]. The nearest guess I can think of is comparing the 70's in the ME to the intense struggles over Biblical exegesis leading up to and during the English revolution [Christopher Hill's "The World Turned Upside Down"]
Put simply, in addition to all those other aspects of ME states that don't live up to the ideals laid out in Al'Quran one could make the case that a very big beef that the ME networks of dissidents have is that the states listed above aren't measuring up when it comes to managing the wealth from oil when it comes to "Islamic finance." This, despite the fact that King Faisal was the one responsible for reviving the issue in the '70's. The first attempt at rapproachement on this issue took place in 1963 when Nasser worked with dissidents in Egypt to set up the first modern bank run on principles consistent with the Al'Quran. Pakistan is currently the most successful state in creating an Islamic financial architecture. I won't go into the 50billion$$ that left the ME during the Gulf War..................
Wellington Management, Goldman Sachs, Citi Islamic Investment Bank, Faisal Finance, United Gulf Management are among the many firms involved in rapproachment between the norms laid down in the Al'Quran and the prerogatives of finanzcapital. Prior to the present, the most successful case of Islamic finance was the country of Sudan, whose economics minister --Abdul Rahim Hamdi -- was/is a disciple of Milton Friedman. One of the first directives from the Chechnyan separatists was the establishment of Islamic banking. Same with the Kuwaiti government upon the cessation of hostilities of the Gulf War. Within 6 weeks of conflict cessation in the Philippines in '96, Islamic banks were applying for licenses.Suharto and Mahatir have worked closely with proponents of IF for years. Curiously enough, Islamic finance is used as a justification for privatization and deregulation. The geographical locus of these banks is London, Geneva and the Bahamas[I. Warde; Islamic Finance in the Global Economy, 2000]
One of the critical paradoxes IF faces at this stage in it's evolution is the grow or die dynamic of capitalism. It is a curious form of co-determination, with theological scholars/lawyers serving on boards of banks instead of labor and their function is to make sure that there are no transgressions of rabi [the charging of interest]. This affects not only finance but contract law; so one can easily see a burgeoning need for a bureaucracy deeply committed to upholding Islamic law in all economic matters for the simple economic survival of an institutional formation. This can't help but bump up against western contract law and arbitrage theory. Indeed the complexity of sustaining what is currently a greater than 100billion$$ market has committed a growing number of western economists and lawyers to understand just how to manage the issue, especially those in the British Treasury as London is the international "center" of IF activity.
Lest we dismiss this as just so much theological rigamarole, we should remember that Lockean theories of property and the ethical issues of desert were a *very* nuanced interpretation of various themes in the Bible. We too quickly forget the theological origins of lots of the aspects of capitalism we take for granted. the ME and SCA are still arguing over issues that were long settled in Euro-US political economy. Much of it has to do with "the oil multiplier." At the same time we should be cautious in applying western political concepts to interpret intra-ME conflicts.
We should not assume or infer that the attack on the WTC was, by any stretch of the imagination, a one shot attack; nor should we see the US as the main target in what, in all probability is a rather intricate strategy. Ramadan starts November 17. One can only gues what will happen between now and then. No wonder members of the Saudi "royal" family have left town.
Ian
"Islamic Finance in the Global Economy" Ibrahim Warde
"Islamic Law and Finance: Religion, Risk and Return" Frank Vogel & Samuel L. Hayes III
"Islamic Finance: Theory and Practice" Paul Mills & John Presley
The above texts are a treasure trove.........
"He hath not given this money upon usury; nor taken reward against the innocent. He that doeth these things: shall never fall." [Psalm 15]
"To a foreigner you may lend upon interest, but to your brother you shall not." [Deut. 23.19]
"Love your enemies and do good, lend, expect nothing in return." [Luke 6.35]
"O you who believe, fear Allah and give up what remains due to you of interest if you are indeed believers. And if you do not, then be warned of war (against you) by Allah and His messenger, while if you repent you shall have your capital. Do not do wrong and you shall not be wronged." [Al'Quran 2.278-279]
"Those who swallow usury cannot arise except as he arises whom the devil prostrates by his touch. That is because they say trading is like usury. And Allah has allowed trading and forbidden usury." [Al'Quran 2.275]