In Knownothingness we Trust? United Sectarian States of the Middle East?………
Most Americans see Obama as illegitimate president. New CNN poll shows that only 42% of Americans polled believe president Obama was born in the United States. That means 58% believe he is lying about his American birth (almost 78% of Republicans believe that).
Is it just my imagination or is USA moving slowly toward a quasi- sectarian state, just like every state in the Middle East ?
Cheers
mhg
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I just ran across this article from Bloomberg. It brings me to question Is Islam a Religion? or is it a Political system. Should Americans stop thinking of Islam in terms like Christianity, Judaism and Hinduism. Maybe to recognize Islam in terms more like Capitalism, Communisms and Fascism would be more appropriate. If that is the case then there is less confusion. Are we in a religious war in Afghanistan and Iraq (and soon to be who knows where else)? Do we have to walk the narrow line drawn by American thinking that requires separation of church and state? Is Islam the State which means there can be no separation? It brings me to question is Islam a just another Religion?
LINK
http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/business/indonesian-central-bank-reviewing-shariah-lending-rules/391675
Jakarta. The central bank is considering easing restrictions on Islamic banks by allowing them to adjust loan terms and boost lending.
“Shariah banks have asked that loans that are still current be allowed to be restructured,” Mulya Siregar, director of Islamic banking at the central bank, said in an interview in Jakarta on Tuesday.
“We’re having intensive discussions and will make a decision by the fourth quarter at the latest.” Current regulations, issued in 2008, only permit terms to be altered once debt becomes non-performing, Mulya said.
Indonesia, home to 192 million Muslims, introduced a law two years ago allowing financial institutions to offer services that comply with Shariah principles, 25 years after Malaysia.
Islamic banking assets total $93 billion in Malaysia in 2009, or 20 percent of the total, compared with 2.9 percent in Indonesia, according to central bank data.
Islamic finance assets in Indonesia may increase 30 percent to Rp 97 trillion ($10.77 billion) by the end of 2010, up from Rp 75 trillion in 2009, Mulya said.
“Even with the late introduction of the laws, growth has been remarkable,” Mulya said. “We only had three Islamic banks in early 2008, now we have 10.” The 2008 law requires all lenders to spin off their Shariah divisions into separate units by 2023, he said.
Non-performing loans at Indonesia’s Islamic banks fell to 3.89 percent of total lending in June, down from 4.39 percent in the same month a year earlier, according to the central bank’s Web site.
That’s more than the 2.24 percent rate for troubled loans at secular commercial banks, down from 2.72 percent a year ago.
“Allowing banks to restructure early would help them focus on giving loans,” Teguh Hartanto, an analyst at state-owned Bahana Securities, said in an interview on Wednesday.
“Credit quality can deteriorate easily in a bad economic environment, forcing banks to curb lending as they have to maintain or even increase capital to support the higher NPL level.”
The non-performing loan rate could h
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