Lawsuit Claims AIG Bailout Promotes Shariah Law

This is kind of an interesting topic if you look at the Biblical history of what is allowed and not allowed when it comes to lending money that runs contrary to the way most American's live their lives. It seems that AIG has had a special program for those who follow Shariah law called a takaful. Which is further described by Investopedia as:

Takaful insurance companies were introduced as an alternative to commercial insurance companies, which go against the riba (interest), al-maisir (gambling), and al-gharar (uncertainty) principles, that are outlawed in Sharia.

It seems the Thomas More Law Center has filed a lawsuit claiming that with AIG receiving federal bailout dollars that them continuing this program would violate federal laws. There appears to be some debate as to this being a real concern:

"The plaintiff is going to have a very hard time in showing they have standing under the establishment clause," said Robert Tuttle, who specializes in religion, law and the establishment clause of the Constitution at George Washington University. The establishment clause, part of the First Amendment, prohibits the establishment of a national faith.

"The question is whether the government has funded religion, not whether the religion is good or bad that the government has funded. Then the next question is whether the government is responsible for what AIG has done."

While the case raises interesting legal questions about the use of federal bailout money, Tuttle adds: "I can't imagine any court saying, under existing law, that the government will be responsible for what AIG does. And I think there's an interesting law professor question there."

It will be interesting to follow this case and with the story blogged about earlier that there appears to be no system in place to track the federal bailout dollars also raises questions as to how it could be proven federal dollars were used for this program.