The 10 largest sharia banks in the world

The Lebanese-based Union of Arab Banks published a report last year naming the world’s ten biggest Islamic financial institutions:

Bank	Country	Assets
Al-Rajhi	Saudi Arabia	$49.2 billion
Kuwait Finance House	Kuwait	$43.7 billion
Dubai Islamic Bank	U.A.E.	$24.5 billion
Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank	U.A.E.	$20.5 billion
Al-Baraka Group	Bahrain	$15.8 billion
Qatar Islamic Bank	Qatar	$14.2 billion
Al-Rayyan	Qatar	$9.5 billion
Emirates Islamic Bank	U.A.E.	$8.9 billion
Al-Jazirah	Saudi Arabia	$8.8 billion
Al-Ahli United Bank	Kuwait	$8.5 billion

A few comments on the top three sharia banks:  1)  Al Rajhi Bank has been sued for financing the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and was highlighted for its facilitation of terrorist financial transactions in the book Funding Evil by Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld; 2) The Kuwait Finance House was a shareholder of Tadamon Bank, a financial institution that helped transfer funds for Osama bin Laden; and 3) BusinessWeek reported that “In 1999, U.S. intelligence agents reported that Dubai Islamic Bank in the United Arab Emirates was a conduit for bin Laden funds.”

Quite the group.

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Troubling links of Kuveyt Turk Bank

When German bank regulators allowed Kuveyt Turk Bank to launch sharia banking there last January, that was bad enough.

But now we learn from a write-up by Money Jihad’s friend, Puneet Madaan, that Kuveyt Turk’s shareholders include 1) the nefarious Islamic Development Bank and 2) the Kuwait Finance House, a shareholder of Tadamon Islamic Bank.  Osama Bin Laden has used Tadamon to help disburse terror funds.  For those of you with Facebook accounts, you can access Puneet’s full article here on “Puneet’s Notes.”

(Read previous coverage from Shariah Finance Watch on Islamic banking in Germany here.)