Fiat Money Is “Riba,” Which Islam Forbids

This chapter describes another fundamental criticism of the Western economic system – that from Islamic economics. This is included not because the authors are advocating for Islamic economics, but because Islamic economists generally have a clearer understanding of the fundamental dishonesty of the Western monetary system than mainstream Western economists, who almost entirely ignore this glaring flaw at the heart of the Western economic system. Having forbidden interest-bearing loans, like Islam, for its first 1600 years, Christianity relaxed its rules, and thereby lowered its guard against the “money power,” which is now running rampant in what was once “Christendom.” Recent collaboration between Islamic economists and “dissident” Western economists is very promising.