Islamic Investment Opportunity - No Kidding!

Well the word Islam or Islamic never ceases to cause a sway of interests in the ordinary mortals like me. And just when you try to ignore propagandist remarks leading to separatist views for the denizens of this world, there comes a blow, right in your nose. I was scrambling through the market news, looking for a trace of the silver lining to this unfathomable dark cloud shrouding the Indian market, when I came across this link:

Can you beat it? Now there are guidelines on how you can invest in a Share Market if you are a practicing Muslim. Anything in the name of Islam! This is where I feel the whole Islamic view of condemning all that is haram begins to sound like a farcical thought. The link above is from the site MoneyControl.com. For all the readers that practice Islam, here is the link to the site http://iio.moneycontrol.com/

And there is nothing wrong in investing in the Share Market if you really now how to make a quick buck out of it. The share market functions on pure probabilities and speculations and doesn't offer any concessions to any religious sentiments observed by the investors. It could prove to be equally brutal or rewarding to a Hindu, Christian, Buddhist or a Muslim investor so there is no point in creating boundaries between human beings by setting up guidelines (that are baseless and futile) for a certain sect of people.

Take these for instance, borrowed from the site linked above,

Exclude companies if Total Debt divided by Trailing 12-Month Average Market Capitalization is greater than or equal to 33%. Exclude companies if the sum of Cash and Interest Bearing Securities divided by Trailing 12-Month Average Market Capitalization is greater than or equal to 33%. Exclude companies if Accounts Receivables divided by Total Assets is greater than or equal to 45%.

Is this is a joke really? Whether you practice Islam or not, why would you want to invest in a company that has Total Debt divided by Trailing 12-Month Average Market Capitalization greater than or equal to 33% anyway.

It gets more interesting when we read through the Principles ofShari'ah investment. Here they are http://iio.moneycontrol.com/principles.php .

For an educated mind this is the biggest farces ever created in the name of religion. To all of you who believe that Shari'ah investment is in anyway more Islamic than regular investment then what you need is a splash of cold water on your face, because you are not only confused about the share market, you don't even understand your belief system well.

A lesson to learn: A smart ass attempt on marketing ignoring the socio-cultural sensitivities can lead to a great disruption and segregation in society and this is an example of that.