Zawahiri: Financial Meltdown Can Be Overcome... By Embracing Islam

One-stop shopping for all that ails you, plus barbarism, primitivism, and murder free of charge.

Now how much would you pay?

He also suggests that the financial meltdown is partly due to 9/11 -- which, of course, it is. Greenspan increased the money supply an awful lot after 9/11 to avert a meltdown; then he kept money very loose to avert recessions. He seems to have delayed, not prevented, a meltdown, as a lot of that money wound up fundng bad mortgages and being invested in bad mortgage derivatives.

Al-Qaida's No. 2 leader appeared in a new video posted Friday calling on Americans to embrace Islam to overcome the financial meltdown, which he said was a consequence of the Sept. 11 attacks and militant strikes in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Ayman al-Zawahri, whose 80-minute recording touched on a number of subjects, also lashed out at Afghanistan's government and said any U.S. gains in Iraq will be temporary.

Zawahri's new recording came in the form of a question-and-answer session with an off-camera interviewer.

Appearing in a white turban and robe, Zawahri discussed the roots of the U.S. economic crisis. He said it was a repercussion of the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States, and that the crisis would continue "as long as the foolish American policy of wading in Muslim blood continues."

"The American economy was afflicted by a downturn and loss of investor confidence in the market following the events of Sept. 11," he said.

"The modern economy has been destroyed by the strikes of the mujahedeen (in Iraq and Afghanistan) and usury," he said, using the Arabic term for holy warriors.

Under Islamic Sharia law, usury, like drinking alcohol, is among the grand sins.

Zawahri then called on the American people to "embrace Islam to live a life free of greed, exploitation and forbidden wealth."

We could only but dream of matching the innovation, vibrancy, and prosperity of the Islamic world economy. The same economy, incidentally, we are frequently told produces terrorism in the first place.

posted by Ace at 03:41 PM

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