[shinesw]

Clearly his detractors are misrepresenting him.

Maybe some of them do misrepresent him, but not everyone. I have seen quotes by the mufti where he admits some of the financial instruments used by 'Islamic banks' and certified as based on 'sunnah' are in fact trade patterns not financial instruments.

For instance in the time of the sahaba a type of selling included the seller informing the buyer the cost price of the product being sold, plus any transport and other costs incurred including the mark up or profit margin. The buyer could then decide to either buy or to refrain.

The above sunnah way has been converted today into the Islamic Bank practice of the borrower selecting a house to buy, the bank agreeing to buy it on their behalf, and then re-selling the house to the borrower at a much higher price. These are 2 contracts in 1, and such practices are not allowed. The bank buying it at a lower price and selling at a higher price on credit is not 1 contract it is 2, and this has very little resemblance to the practice by the sahaba. Is it halal, no, but Islamic bankers are selling it as 'halal'.

What should Muslims do? If they refuse to join in, they lose their wealth to bankers anyway. Maybe we should refuse to play by their rules and reject the whole fiat money banking system. We should get together and build our own halal economic way with real gold and silver currency. We should be able to do it if we get together and talk about it, spread the knowledge and do something about it.