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Beskrivelse
Islamic finance replicates usury by structuring sukuk to replicate interest-bearing bonds. To regain authenticity, Islamic finance must discard "profit" and capital guarantees. For these guarantees in effect transform profit into usury. It gets worse. For replication of interest-based financing also replicates problems traceable to usury: rising disparities in wealth, escalating prices, falling employment and stagnating growth. Governments need to resist pressure from the financial sector to affect public policies. The law should enable businesses to make sales on an instalment basis without forcing people to engage expensive lenders that increase costs without adding value. Developers should be allowed end encouraged to sell property on an instalment basis at zero interest, the way IKEA and Apple corporation already do. The reduction in prices resulting from the abolition of interest will spur demand, increase sales, and clear the backlog of unsold properties in the real estate sector. Higher sales will also enhance government tax revenues. There is no justification for the perpetuation of exploitative financing entailed by interest-based lending. When Islamic finance was reinvented in the 1990s, expectations were high. It was hoped that Islamic finance would provide a better alternative to the conventional system, based on usury and characterised by roller-coaster cycles of boom and bust. Islamic finance would avoid the pitfalls of conventional finance, among them the rise of large and growing levels of debt - public and private. Yet what actually transpired differed from what was expected. A few enterprises - such as Dubai World - ended up with unexpected levels of debt, as well as a glut of infrastructure (residential and commercial property) for which there appeared to be insufficient demand. The surplus of property was proving difficult to sell and rent as the financial crisis of 2008 went into full swing. A few sukuk defaulted. A few - as those issued by Dubai World - nearly defaulted. Since the defaults and the near defaults, it has become evident that sukuk defaulted not just because of reduced profits due to the financial crisis. The sukuk also defaulted or almost defaulted because were designed to replicate bonds, which exposed them to the risk of default.
