''The Hidden Costs of Egypt’s IMF Loan''

From URUKNET

"We still don’t know anything about the program under which Egypt will get the loan or the measures and steps that will be taken to cut government spending, reform fiscal policy and collect unpaid taxes," he said. With the amount to be borrowed now being put at $4.8 billion rather than the original $3.8 billion "we need to consider who will bear the burden of repayment."

Highly interesting is the fact that the FJP did not take issue with the loan on ideological grounds, given the Islamic prohibition on usury. Sawi argued that it is permissible to pay interest on loans under the expediency provisions of Islamic law, especially when alternative support from fellow Muslims is unavailable – "for example, when the wealth of the Gulf is spent on buying palaces in Paris rather than helping the poor on the Comoros Islands." Sawi added that he hoped it would one day become possible "to propose Islamic ways of providing finance to the international institutions."

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