Center for Security Policy Launches Anti-Shariah-Compliant Finance Campaign

WASHINGTON--(Business Wire)--
On Thursday, April 17, 2008, The Center for Security Policy will
announce the launch of a national campaign to warn the public that
"U.S. financial institutions and businesses engaged in
Shariah-Compliant finance may have criminal and civil exposure on the
grounds of: securities fraud, consumer fraud, racketeering, antitrust
violations, material support for terrorism and aiding and abetting
sedition," according to Center President Frank Gaffney. The Center
will present a letter to the Harvard Board of Governors, signed by a
broad coalition of interfaith and civic organizations, stating: "We
believe that Harvard has a civic and academic responsibility to
disclose fully all material information about Shariah. We also urge
you, in your official capacity with the University, to exercise due
diligence by ensuring that the Islamic Finance Project provides an
opportunity on April 19 or 20 for the presentation of a more complete
and critical treatment of SCF to the entire group of Forum
participants."

The Center's letter to the Board of Governors, sample materials
from the new national campaign to stop Shariah-Compliant Finance in
the U.S., and a lunchtime panel discussion on the crucial link between
Shariah-Compliant Finance and the authoritarian, anti-civil liberties
doctrine of Shariah Law will be presented on Thursday, April 17 from
12:00 - 1:00 PM in Pound Hall, Room 107, Harvard University, 1563
Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge. The press and public are invited to
attend. Refreshments will be provided.

Over the last two months, the Center for Security Policy has
briefed officials at the U.S. Treasury, Members of Congress and their
staff, the Securities and Exchange Commission, law enforcement
personnel, and finance industry executives on their in-depth legal
memorandum on Shariah-Compliant Finance: "Civil Liability and Criminal
Exposure for U.S. Financial Institutions and Businesses Engaged in
Shariah-Compliant Finance" (a shorter version of which will be
published in the Utah Law Review in Sept 2008). Copies of the Center's
legal memorandum, and a request to present at the Forum, were sent
last week to the Islamic Finance Project, the Harvard seven-member
governing board, and the thirty-member Board of Overseers. No
recipients have responded to date to the Center's request.

The Center is holding the panel discussion at Harvard on April 17,
because in the course of the coming weekend, the Islamic Finance
Project of Harvard University Law School's Islamic Legal Studies
Program will present the Eighth Harvard University Forum on Islamic
Finance. The Center for Security Policy has challenged Harvard on the
grounds that this Forum will provide NO information about the serious
risks that Shariah-Compliant Finance (SCF) poses for U.S. financial
institutions, ordinary post-9/11 investors and the national security
of the United States of America.

Speakers at the panel discussion will include Frank Gaffney,
President of the Center for Security Policy, Manda Ervin of the
Alliance of Iranian Women, members of the Harvard community and
others. It will also feature an audio statement recorded for the event
by psychiatrist Dr. Wafa Sultan, a courageous opponent of Shariah law
and Islamist extremism. Dr. Sultan has been forced into hiding in
America due to threats against her made by Sheikh Yusef al-Qaradawi,
head of the European Council on Fatwa and Research and a driving force
behind the 20th Century invention of Shariah-Compliant Finance. A
written copy of her statement will also be available at the event.

Gaffney notes that the Center's campaign has already seen some
success:

"It appears that the Center's briefings to U.S. government
officials and the legal memorandum are already leading to defensive
action by the Dow Jones Islamic Index, and the Dow Jones Islamic Fund
of the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT). NAIT was founded by the
Muslim Student Association and is affiliated with the Islamic Society
of North America (ISNA). NAIT and ISNA were both named as unindicted
co-conspirators in the 2007 Holy Land Foundation terrorism finance
case. On March 21, 2008, NAIT's Dow Jones Islamic Fund renamed itself
the Iman Fund, and the Fund's website has been removed. The Dow Jones
Islamic Fund also attempted to cleanse the Fund's public filing in a
variety of ways including removing key information on Shariah and the
Shariah advisors: "The section entitled 'More Information about the
Dow Jones Islamic Market Indexes SM' on pages 6-7 and the section
entitled 'Shari'ah Supervisory Board' on pages 7-8 are each removed in
their entirety." (Source: Supplement dated March 21, 2008 to the Dow
Jones SM Islamic Fund Prospectus dated September 28, 2007).

"In a similar effort, the Dow Jones Islamic Index has recently
removed all mention at their website of the extremist Shariah advisor
Sheikh Usmani, who had previously headed their advisory board,"
Gaffney added.

Gaffney also states, "Sheikh Usmani's legal rulings promoting
Jihad include the last chapter of his book Islam and Modernism,
published in English in 2006. It contains the following passage:
'Here, killing is to continue until the unbelievers pay Jizyah after
they are humbled or overpowered. If the purpose of killing was only to
acquire permission and freedom of preaching Islam, it would have been
said 'until they allow for preaching Islam.' But the obligation of
Jizyah and along with it the mention of their subordination is a clear
proof that the purpose is to smash their grandeur, so that the veils
of their domination should be raised and people get a free chance to
think over the blessings of Islam.'"

Gaffney adds, "Significant links exist between Usmani and Harvard
University. In June 2006, Roger Ferguson left the U.S. Federal Reserve
Board to join Swiss RE as chairman of Swiss RE America Holding. Mr.
Ferguson is also currently on the Harvard University Board of
Overseers and the President-elect of that Board for 2008-2009.
According to press reports, Sheikh Usmani was publicly announced as
Swiss RE Shariah Advisory Board Chairman in August, 2006, two months
after Ferguson joined Swiss RE. On October 3, 2006, Swiss RE announced
the appointment of Ferguson as Head of Financial Services and Member
of Swiss RE's Executive Committee, giving him oversight into Usmani's
activities. Usmani's book "Islam and Modernism," quoted above, was
also published in 2006."

Mr. Ferguson recently left Swiss RE to become President and CEO of
TIAA-CREF, starting April 14, 2008. TIAA-CREF is described at their
website as 'a Fortune 100 financial services company that is the
leading retirement system for people who work in the academic,
research, medical and cultural fields. With over $435 billion in
combined assets under management (12/31/07), TIAA-CREF serves 3.4
million active and retired employees of more than 15,000 institutions.

Gaffney further states: "Roger Ferguson, President-elect of the
Harvard University Board of Overseers and newly appointed President of
TIAA-CREF, as a top executive at Swiss RE, had corporate and
governance associations with a prominent jihadist. The Center calls on
Mr. Ferguson to renounce his prior association with pro-Jihadist
Sheikh Usmani. The Center also calls on Mr. Ferguson, in his capacity
as President of TIAA-CREF, to state clearly if he intends to invest in
any Shariah-Compliant products; and if so, how he intends to rectify
the investment in these products given the call for violent jihad by
Shariah advisors such as Sheikh Usmani with whom he has associated;
and how he proposes to track possible funds required by Shariah
tithing which may be diverted to terrorism-supporting charities."

Other organizations have informed the Center that they are
planning demonstrations in April and May, to protest conferences
occurring elsewhere around the United States that, like Harvard's
Islamic Finance Forum, promote Shariah-Compliant Finance. Center
resources for peaceful demonstrations protesting Shariah-Compliant
Finance include flyers, posters, websites, research and the backing of
a growing national coalition of Muslim, Christian, and Jewish
organizations and other citizen groups.

The Center for Security Policy is a Washington, D.C. based
non-profit, non-partisan national security organization that
specializes in identifying policies, actions, and resource needs that
are vital to American security and then ensures that such issues are
the subject of both focused, principled examination and effective
action by recognized policy experts, appropriate officials, opinion
leaders, and the general public.

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