via facebook: Thomas Hennessey

Minnesota State Agency Helps Muslims Buy Foreclosed Homes

It may be the worst of times for Minnesota residents who are pitched out of their homes, but it’s the best of times for Muslims who want to move in.

Something called the New Markets Mortgage Program has been devised to create sharia-compliant mortgages. Says the report in the Bismark Tribune, “The program is targeted at low-to-moderate income families.” Sound familiar?

The program is the brainchild of Hussein Samatar, director of the African Development Center in Minneapolis. “The process is different, but the outcome will look the same,” Samatar said. “We wanted to be as conventional as possible, while respecting the tenets of Islam.

Samatar, who used to work for Wells Fargo, tried for years to launch Islamic financing. He said the fact that Minnesota Housing has agreed to participate is a nod to the Muslim community’s growing economic power.

Devon is one of the largest Islamic lenders in the country. Corporate Counsel David Loundy said he expects the demand for Islamic financing to grow as more Muslims make their home in the U.S. The loans are underwritten by Devon Bank in Chicago. Using taxpayer bailout money.

The African Development Center’s Hussein Samatar said there are thousands of buyers out there. He said the New Markets Mortgage Program will help the Minnesota Muslims community put down strong roots.

“It is great news for the country, and it really sends a great signal that the United States is our country,” he said.

UPDATE:

For several months the FBI has been investigating about a dozen Somali-American men who disappeared from their homes in the Minneapolis area late last year and may have joined terrorist groups overseas. One of the men, 27-year-old Shirwa Ahmed, later blew himself up in Somalia. The FBI recently called him the first U.S. citizen to carry out a suicide bombing, and FBI Director Mueller said he was “radicalized in his hometown in Minnesota.”

They are always “moderate” Muslims until the day they become “extreme” Muslims. We can never sort them out in advance.
By: Thomas Hennessey