think of the process of financing (lending in a riba-based bank) as a process
of investing prudently with the customer. The RF bank employees, manage-
ment, board of directors and shareholders believe in the values of volunta-
rism and real service to all people in the community. They are willing to
forgo some of the short-term higher profits, higher salaries, and ‘‘perks’’ to
ensure the success of this new brand of banking. The RF bank staff mem-
bers are required by bank managementto approach their responsibilities
not as businesspeople who are interested in squeezing their customers for
more cash—by charging fees and other expenses to achieve higher profits.
They are trained to be dedicated and believing leaders in their communities
for the purpose of developing the community, touching peoples’ vision,
hearts, minds, and future. The dream of these RF bankers is to apply and
bring to life a working RF banking system, on a community level, as one of
the pillars of a worldwide RF bankingsystem—pioneered in the United
States—which operates according to Judeo-Christian-Islamic values and
principles. In this context, the real profits of the RF bank will not only be
measured in dollars and cents but also in the number of households served
and the extent of that service as it changes peoples’ lives and fortunes for the
better. The real profits will be the contributions of the bank to a better soci-
ety and a happier community by opening job opportunities through financ-
ing the community’s members and businesses. The net result would be more
economic activity, healthy economic growth, and an affluent community.
INVESTING IN AND OPERATING A RIBA-FREE
BANK IN THE UNITED STATES
Riba-free (Islamic) banking in North America (the United States and Can-
ada) was introduced in 1987 by LARIBA in the United States. So far, it has
focused mainly on providing the money needed by the community to invest
in home mortgages, commercial buildings, businesses, and automobile pur-
chases. We are privileged at LARIBA to have started this grassroots, purely
American movement in 1987 by offering, in a humble way, financing ser-
vices for the needs of the community in order to strengthen it financially,
get its members to live a full and active life in the United States as Americans
living by the Judeo-Christian-Islamic value system according to Shari’aa,
and to produce a new generation of community members who are qualified
bankers and who believe in RF banking.^1
It is believed that riba-free and gharar-free (ghararis deceptive mis-
representation and use of misleadingrepresentations) faith-based financ-
ing in the United States and Canada (in particular, in the United States,
with which I am more familiar) will present the financial capital markets
at large with one of the better banking and financing products and
Operating an RF Bank in the United States 317