Originally posted by Ushgarak
This is simple hysteria. Nowhere is there talk of making some special Muslim-only law or offer. Instead the idea is to look for, promote and create packages that those bound by such laws would be able to use. There'd be nothing to stop anyone else using the same service- but I imagine others would not want to because I doubt they would be as good value as a simple mortgage.Note how one option being considered is tying loans to an investment in a physical property and the payment coming out the profits of the property rather than interest. Anyone can do that- it just happens to be ok under Sharia as well.
Right.
Value-wise, I imagine that the way 'interest' is handled is calculating what the interest is likely to be, probably with some mild rounding up, and then charging a fee of that much.
That's how banks in strongly Muslim countries do it. It's less precise and thus, slightly less efficient than just doing interest directly, but it still functions.
Incidentally, Christians did not have to do anything, nor was any principle of value abandoned- Christian civilisation realised that usury laws were stupid.
Yea, our ancient religious forebearers were, it turns out, crappy economists.