The War on Usury

YOU ARE VISITING THE OLD MALKIN(S)WATCH. THAT'S FANTASTIC. PLEASE VISIT THE NEW MALKIN(S)WATCH WHEN YOU GET A CHANCE.

On Thursday, Malkin led with this lurid headline:

COMING TO AMERICA: MUSLIM-ONLY BANKS?

In a word, no. Surprised? Well, we'll get to that in a minute. What's Malkin's complaint, anyway?

Check this out:

A bank that has been offering special services for Muslims for two years has now formed a subsidiary to focus solely on the religious group.

The Ann Arbor-based University Bank has created University Islamic Financial Corp. to offer Muslims home financing, deposit accounts and Islamic mutual fund shares.

"The formation of the subsidiary allows us to have a financial institution which is 100 percent in compliance with the Muslim Shariah, the legal code of the Islamic religion," bank President and Chairman Stephen Lange Ranzini told The Ann Arbor News for a Saturday story.

Make no mistake; Malkin may be Instapundit-like in terseness here but this is a complaint. The headline says it all.

Because the headline is as false as false can be. I e-mailed University Bank:

Are Sharia'a-compliant products available to non-Muslims who might like their features regardless of faith?

Answering was none other than Stephen Lange Ranzini, President:

The answer is yes! But since the products, due to their legal complexity and higher cost to deliver, are more expensive than traditional products, it’s unlikely that they would appeal to anyone other than a Muslim or observant Jew who were concerned about usury for ethical reasons. Both traditions have an absolute ban on all interest whereas Christians observe a ban on excessive interest and believe that reasonable interest is okay. In Michigan this is the usury law: you can charge up to 25% but not more.

So, not only are those wacky Muslims not the only religion to attempt to set up religion-specific lending practices, but apparently Christians have made their lending traditions the law of the land.

Raise your hand if you're surprised.

Frankly, maybe we should spend less time worrying about the Muslims wanting some sort of special rights and listen a little more to religions - all religions - about what the Catholics call "exploit[ing] the passions or necessities of other men by compelling them to submit to ruinous conditions."

Update: John Lombard reviews some of the right's other, even more histrionic reactions to this story.