Prominent leaders of the global Muslim Brotherhood have been using the current economic crisis as an opportunity to call for the replacement of the Western economic system with Islamic finance. An Egyptian newspaper cites these remarks of Sheikh Youssef Qaradawi, one of the most important leaders of the global Brotherhood:
Muslims should take advantage of the global financial crisis to build an economic system compatible with Islamic principles, influential Sunni cleric Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi said on Sunday. “The collapse of the capitalist system based on usury and paper and not on goods traded on the market is proof that it is in crisis and shows that Islamic economic philosophy is holding up,” said the Egyptian-born, Qatar-based cleric. “The Western system has collapsed and we have a complete economic philosophy as well as spiritual strength,” he said at Sunday’s opening of a conference on Jerusalem. “All riches are ours… the Islamic nation has all or nearly all the oil and we have an economic philosophy that no one else has,” Qaradawi said. He urged Muslims to “profit from the crisis to bring about the triumph of the (Islamic) nation, which holds the spiritual and material resources for victory.
A Kashmir publication reports on similar opinions expressed by Prof Khursheed Ahmad (aka Khurshid Ahmad), an economist associated with the Pakistani Islamist political party Jamaat-e-Islami, closely allied with the global Muslim Brotherhood. At a recent conference held in the Kashmiri capital:
Prof Khursheed Ahmad said that capitalistic economic system is in deep crisis at present due to current credit crunch which has given rise to a debate the world over. Prof Khurshhed said that there is a need towards having a look towards the Islamic economic order as well as an alternative for the capitalistic economic system. Calling the Islamic system as most ideal one, Prof Khurseed said that there is need to educate people about this system which he said preaches socio–economic justice as well.
Reuters reports that the leader of Hamas, intimately related to the Muslim Brotherhood, has said that the economic crisis is a punishment from God resulting from the actions of Israel and the U.S. According to the report:
The leader of the Palestinian Islamic group Hamas said on Friday that the global financial meltdown was God’s way of punishing the United States for its support of Israel and its occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan. “We see it as God’s punishment for the criminals (U.S. and its Western allies). Nothing is more unjust than occupying an Islamic state. Nothing is more unjust than keeping the Palestinian people under occupation for over 60 years,” Ismail Haniyeh told worshippers before Friday prayers in the Gaza Strip. A financial crisis has hit markets across the world, forcing governments to mount bank bail-outs and fanning fears of recession, especially in the West……”They deprived our people of money and now God has deprived them of money. They besieged our people and now they are besieged by the punishment of God,” Haniyeh said.