Banks are robbing people: Top Saudi scholar

Saudi Arabia’s top Muslim scholar has launched a virulent attack on banks and investment companies, accusing them of robbing people through non-existent projects, newspapers in the Gulf kingdom reported on Sunday.

Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al Shaikh, the mufti (religious chief) of Saudi Arabia made the attack at Friday’s open prayers in Makkah, Islam’s holiest shrine, they said.

“Are you honest in what you are selling,” Al Shaikh asked, addressing banks, investment firms and equity dealers in the world’s top oil exporter. “Are you far from fraud, deception and treachery…several banks and investment companies have sought to deceive people and manipulate their funds…they have presented imaginary and non-existent projects and used the money raised from these projects in what God the Almighty has forbidden.”

The newspapers did not say what made Al Shaikh launch that unprecedented attack on banks and other investment firms but there have been reports of large losses by Saudi dealers in the country’s stock market. Hundreds of thousands of Saudis are also indebted to banks while others have suffered from losses because of failure of some projects funded by those banks.

“The stocks traders are trapping and manipulating people…in the end, the Saudi citizen is the only victim, who is swallowed by those powerful companies through their fraud operations, bad manipulation, treacheries, and lack of fairness…..I am wondering whether you (banks and investment firms) have carried out your real duty and I am now asking you to fear God and punish yourself,” he said.

“I call upon the citizens to reflect and think about the money they have collected, its source and origin and whether this money has come through legitimate trade or industry or through bad routes, cheating, betrayal, bribery or theft.”
 

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