Muslim Woman

Imams and religious leaders emphasize the importance of Zakat explaining that the economic problems of Muslims would be solved if we start practicing, in earnest, this much-neglected pillar of Islam. Most religious Muslims on the other hand conceive of Zakat as charity. They are content with implementing the religious Shariah and Fiqh that was developed by religious leaders and jurists (Imams and Fuqahaa) more than a thousand years ago. Even with the reality of global economics, many religious Muslims not only do not understand the complexities and underlying dynamics of the Western economic system, but also do not deem it worthwhile or necessary to study and know it in depth. Although many religious Muslims express displeasure with the Western economic system, blaming it for sucking Muslims’ wealth, they themselves do not shy away from trying to profit from it. Many Muslims are heavily involved with stocks, bonds, and other investment instruments offered by this purely capitalistic system, but they continue to expound the benefits of the Shariah.  They hold conferences on Islamic economics in such bastions of capitalism as Harvard University, but fail to see the contradiction.  They twist the Shariah to suit the interests of the rich and the powerful in the name of adaptation to “our times.” They give fatwa's about halal (allowed) and haram (forbidden), identifying halal stocks on Wall Street as opposed to haram interest in banks. One wonders if they really fail to understand that the very interest, which they consider haram, is, in fact, the foundation of capitalism on which stands Wall Street. How can the branch of a tree be halal if its root is haram ?