I'm glad that CMHC isn't going to insure this type of mortgage. When in Canada do as Canadians do. If your religion doesn't allow you to pay interest--don't buy a house or better yet--save up your money and buy it cash.

Islamic Financing is billion dollars of business in the US and UK and its good to see that its coming here in Canada. In the US companies like Guidance Financial have done close to $2 Billion in Islamic mortgages. In the end trade is permitted and the financing is on a trade basis to get around Islamic usury law. If we allow people to eat halal and kosher meat at products there should be no reason why they can't have compliant financing products.

Didn't all Abrahamic religions ban Usury? Jews don't charge interest to other jews, but can to a 'stranger', christians have 'jumped right in' and look at the mess it's caused to the entire financial system. Even the pope recognized Islamic Finance as a solution. Why is Islam still the only one to maintain its stance on social justice ? Where usury oppresses people into submission, a Profit/ Loss system spreads the risk to all parties. Let's do our homework and be better informed.

Small business is suppose to be the backbone of Canada but when it comes to commercial you are treated like a leaper, and so are all commercial customers, I sure hope some alternative funding comes for the commercial business, that is in anyway fair and reasonable

Why not? I believe in this time and age it is time for people to realize that they spend most of their lives working to pay off their mortgages because who ever invented the interest business is sitting on their butts collecting the profit from the poor and middle class people. Let us go for it, again it is a business but shared loss and gain business where all fall if the business doesn't do good, thus making people incharge of these funds work harder and carefully not to loose their saving. a house cost $300,000 is paid off in 25 years at a wopping interest total of $175,000 if not more making the house cost 475,000. Competition is good, go for it Canada.

I had an experience a few years ago when a Broker asked a question on a open forum mortgage system. The Broker wanted to know which Bank was changing the wording on Mortgage Documents to Conform with Shariah Law Islamic Financing. I was shocked when I found out what it was. "Just changing the words to Fees or some other word other than Interest to fool a Superior being is just wrong" Is this not misrepresentation? Maybe fooling one self but not the one who counts.

First of all, I'm not even slightly prejudice. Anyone that calls me so had better prove that anything I am about to say in this dialogue is technically incorrect. I'm a very well educated person who was born a 5th generation Canadian and have earned a degree in Political Science amongst other distinctions.

Please tell me - anyone, what religion has and/or has had anything to do with the Canadian Banking Industry? None since this country was founded almost 500 years ago. Has the Islamic banking world suddenly proven itself to be a superior industry in offering a more profitable and fairer method of world banking and financing? Please show me an example of an Islamic banking system anywhere in the world that has proven itself internationally to be superior to our own country.

Islamic governments borrow money on the International world stage - everyday. Can someone show and prove to me that when they borrow money they don't pay interest because it's "against their religion"?? Let's get serious here! You can call interest charges whatever you want. Who's kidding who? A service charge is still a charge as is interest. Let's not confuse the issue. It's not being truthful saying otherwise. Don't Muslim Canadians want to be truthful? Yes, it's ok for me to pay a service charge but don't call it "interest". Interest can be thought of as "rent of money". When money is deposited in a bank, interest is typically paid to the depositor as a percentage of the amount deposited; when money is borrowed, interest is typically paid to the lender as a percentage of the amount owed.

Are Canadian Muslims willing to accept an interest payment as income from an asset? I'll bet they are, but just don't call it interest. I assume it would have to be called a "reversed" service fee. Get real.

Not one of the other major religions in this entire world have ever crossed the line of lobbying this great country of ours and it's banking institutions on how it should lend money - until now. For almost 150 years Canada has built itself as an affluent modern western country and democracy. Suddenly, some new immigrants from the Middle East want Canada to adapt to their way of financing. They wish for us to change for their religious reasons as to how our monetary system (that our predessors devised) should work for them. Wow! Talk about being brash!

Over the past few years I personally believe that immigration has failed to educate new Canadians as to what the majority of the people that built this country have sacrificed. Our veterans died and most are buried in graves in countries far from here in order to have kept this country free from religion and other forces dominating and dictating as to how this country is run. I'd bet they are turning over in their graves right now with this subject.

Put a stop right now to Islamic Financing before the other issues with the Islamic religion and state also come with Islamic financing. Oh you say that wouldn't happen? It's already been tried! Just a couple years ago Muslims in Toronto tried to institute Sharia law. Thankfully they were unsuccesful. Islam can't seem to stay out of the state. Note the following:

"So thorough is the integration of the justice system and Church under Sharia law that Sharia courts are essentially religious courts; judges are usually local church (Mosque) officials."

Once again I reiterate, any church - including Islam - has no right being involved in this country's banking system, it's courts, or it's bedrooms.

As a 5th generation Canadian, I want nothing to do with how things are done in the Middle East - including financing and law. Keep the Canadian banking act free from Islam and any other religion.

Thank you.

1) Long term investment in an individual's own home is a good inflation offset as well as allow the building of a retirement nest egg. Missing out on such with the use of modest leverage as a tool towards home ownership, may handicap the very community that proponents of Islamic banking in "neither charging nor receiving interest" would want to see. There are consumer protection laws in place which define and prohibit usury and usurious practices; and where they are not present they can be enacted, and where/when they are inadequate these laws/regulations can be reviewed and augmented.
2) We all know that there are no guarantees for anyone in the capital markets or in the economic system, regardless of race, origin, geography, religion or any other inclination or association. The reality is that there are industry cycles affecting all sectors and subsectors, weather vagaries affecting crop production, differing mineral and other natural endowments, and imperfections in man-to-man transactional relations, etc...and the elements of uncertainty, unpredictability, and unintended consequences of individual, regulatory, corporate and/or government actions. Hence it may be a disservice to the constituency, or any constituency/group for that matter, to give expectations of sure-fire gains (short-, medium, or long-term ) in Islamic or any other investments which cannot be met.

As well, there is more often than not a genuine gap between the self-interest of a Buyer and Seller in any transaction - a familiar occurence at the bazaars of old, and the marketplace in all things of our present day. That we encounter problems in mediating the price of a good or service between Buyer and Seller is a reality at some time or other, even if that may not be the case with all things and all of the time.
We cannot avoid such "unpleasantness" as much as some of us would like at some point in time or other, including the element of subjectiveness that goes into valuation.
Removing monetization from being a tool of negotiation or transaction will only handicap transactions. Money does give much greater flexibility and allow for more trade transactions between societies and individuals.