Making Sense of Jihad

Context is Everything

Crossroads Arabia recently linked to a Chicago Tribune report on the economic boom in the Persian Gulf:

Saudi Arabia, the most populous Gulf country, has been one of the most aggressive in pushing industry development that can help diversify the kingdom’s revenue away from natural resources and provide jobs for a large youth population that the government worries could be pushed toward radicalization.

Saudi King Abdullah has championed a plan to build six new cities around the country that the government hopes will add $150 billion to its economy by 2020 and create over a million new jobs.

An (Islamic) Bank for Kazakhstan

Via MEMRIBlog

Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB), the country’s fourth-largest bank by market value, said it had agreed to establish a new unit in Kazakhstan as part of plans to expand outside its home market....QIB is seeking to get a license for Islamic activities in Turkey and is considering purchasing a bank in Egypt in the next year, a company spokesman told Reuters in March

All the (Government) Analysts Money Can Buy

Arab News reports that le tres riches Prince (Alwaleed bin Talal) continues his spending spree at U.S. universities (via Crossroads Arabia).

Mo' Money

Abe Greenwald at Contentions posted today news that Prince al Walid's money is targeting other key educational institutions for influence, this time in the UK. 

England’s Cambridge University and Edinburgh University have accepted a £16 million endowment from Saudi Prince Al-Walid to create Islamic study centers that “aim to carry out research and public engagements designed to increase understanding between the Muslim world and the West.”

The prince is a very smart man.

Understanding the Scale

Crossroads Arabia linked to the current Economist cover story on the Gulf economies, including some context and scale to Saudi Arabia's efforts to building new "cities:"

Another response is to foster new industries other than oil, which employs too few, and construction, which pays too little. Saudi Arabia has made progress privatising telecoms, liberalising airlines and opening up financial services. It is also pinning great hopes on its economic cities, of which KAEC is but one of six. The others include a Knowledge City near the holy city of Medina; a city based on steel, copper, aluminium and other heavy industries in Jizan; and a fourth that will nurture agri-business in Hail, which produces 90% of the country's corn and a third of its potatoes. All told, the cities are supposed to create 1.3m jobs by 2020.

Real Estate

Coming soon to a new (low-income) community near you...the dar al Islam.

Mohammad al-‘Abbar, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Emaar Real Estate, the largest real estate development firm in the Middle East, stressed that the company is mulling over opportunities in the US market, considering that prices have become attractive but lacking urgency. He advised patience, not for fear of investment in that tempting market, but because a more attractive price configuration might be at hand. What was worth $100, he intoned, could now be obtained for $10 and may be even for $5 down the road. He disclosed Emaar’s plan to focus on the middle and low-income segments in the US market, by building thousands of homes at low costs.

That's Trillion with a "T"

According to MEED:

The economies of Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, and three other oil producing countries (Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman) are growing rapidly thanks to a five-fold rise in crude oil prices since 2002. These states are investing their oil revenue windfalls to develop their infrastructure and power. MEED, which tracks project announcements in the construction, industry, oil and gas, petrochemicals, power, and water and waste sectors, said the total estimate costs of projects in the Gulf now exceed $2 trillion, a 40% increase compared with a year earlier.

Also,

Qatar Approves 2008-2009 Budget with $2 Billion Surplus
The Arab Market Worth $1.4 Trillion

Money, Money, Money

Lots of money news today.  The folks at MEMRI's Economic blog were busy today, here's only three (two from MEMRI):

Gulf Lenders Plan Islamic Bank and Exchange
Islamic Economics Can Solve World Problems: Al-Jeraisy
Qatar: Conference to highlight role of knowledge in development

Bahrain to Launch Largest Islamic Bank

Bahrain plans to launch before the end of the year the largest Islamic bank, referred to as a mega-bank, in terms of capital and diversity of service.

It is expected that the bank’s capital will be about $4 billion.

In recent years, Bahrain has become the center of Islamic banking with assets growing from $100 million to $40 billion.

Al-Sharq, Qatar, March 25, 2008

From Memri Economic Blog

Sometimes the most important organizations in the world...

...have the longest nonsensical names (when translated into English).  In this case it's the

...Association of Fatwa and Legitimacy Control of Dubai Financial Market announced yesterday in Dubai the issuance of the legal standard to own and trade shares of companies listed in Dubai Financial Market, making it the world’s first Islamic market. This comes following the January 16, 2007 approval of the general assembly of the Dubai Financial Market to shift to an Islamic financial market.

The legal standards includes among other thing, definitions, regulations in dealing with companies’ stocks, rules for companies that do not comply with legitimacy controls, and regulations for excluding forbidden income (according to Islamic law).

A Billion Here, A Trillion There

I think I'll use this post to dedicate a new Category, "Where Will All the Money Go." 

I'm inspired in part by the excellent work at the MEMRI Economic Blog.  The purpose of the new category will be to collect news items on the (very) quickly burgeoning industry of Islamic banking.  Why?   Because the long term latent effects are still unknown, and unfortunately unstudied.  The petrodollars pouring into the Persian Gulf -- by the hundreds of billions of dollars annually -- has to go somewhere.  Money being what it is, this is the kind of cash that can buy a lot of influence and possibly a lot more (radical) Islam across the global.

For example, two recent reports:

Islamic Financial Industry to Reach More than $2 Trillion in 2013

Saudi Telecom considers more Islamic funding. (Middle East Economic Digest)

Saudi Telecom is considering raising a sharia-compliant loan to fund its $2.7bn acquisition of a stake in Oger Telecom