TBY ABDALGHANY AOUESKHANOV
The event we chose to introduce Umar Pasha Ibrahim Vadillo to Kazak people was the 2nd International Economic Forum in Astana, capital of Kazakhstan, organized by the Ministry of Economy and Budget Planning of Kazakhstan, held on 11-12 March 2009. The theme of the forum was "Economic Security in Eurasia in the System of Global Risks". The forum consisted of 2 parts: first day was plenary session which was opened by the key note speech of the president of the country Nursultan Nazarbayev, followed by two noble prize winners (R.Mundell, E.Phelps), ex-head of European Bank of Reconstruction and Development, President of IDB and Saudi Finance Minister; the second day of the Forum was divided into two panel discussions - Islamic and Conventional.
Umar Pasha were to make his presentation on the second day of the Forum in the Islamic Finance section. Here needs a little elaboration on the background of the whole event: Kazak government, which is entirely secular de jure and de facto, being in the midst of heavy banking crisis that started in October 2007 at last realized that something is profoundly wrong with the western capitalist system which they had full-heartedly adopted since the independence in 1991; the dire economic situation prompted the government to look for solutions, so in the last year it began discussions on a possibility of opening first Islamic banks in the country. The 2nd International Economic Forum in Astana was an effort to convene prominent western and muslim scholars to put forward their ideas about the age of financial turmoil. In the light of such circumstances Islamic bankers came to Astana in the hope they could present themselves before the government and people of Kazakhstan as ones who knew what was wrong with the Capitalism and what was the solution. The Kazak organizers had a vague notion of Islamic Banking in general and Umar Vadillo’s views in particular, they understood Vadillo was one of the leading scholars in Islamic finance and stood on the same platform like the other muslim speakers, so they saw no controversy in inviting him to speak on Islamic finance; that is how Umar Pasha found himself in Astana in the Family of Islamic Bankers. Islamic bankers of course knew who was Umar Vadillo but they couldn't stop him from coming.
In order to transmit the extraordinary atmosphere of that day let us mention that it was Sidi Umar’s first visit to Kazakhstan and due to ticket arrangement complications he arrived to the capital of Kazakhstan at 8:30 in the morning just an hour before his presentation; he had enough time only to check in the hotel, change clothes and rush to the Palace Of Independence, an enormous architectural structure on the left bank of Astana where the forum was taking place. That's how Umar Pasha appeared on that historical day, 12 March 2009, before the Kazak public. He was the only one on the stage who was going to present traditional Fiqh on economic matters, all others were experts in islamic banking, the panel of speakers consisted of several arabs, one from Pakistan and two from Malaysia; although it must be noted that one of the Malaysian speakers, namely Prof. Dr. Kameel Meera from Malaysian Institute of Islamic Banking and Finance, did point out the problems of fiat money and their prime role in the present global crisis.
Despite long flight tiredness – when the moderator of the session, who was from Russia, passed the floor to him – Umar Pasha delivered a breath-taking speech in his usual inimitable style marked by explicit statements and emotional tone. He started off with analysis of the Kazak president’s speech which he’d read moments ago while we drove him from airport to hotel; in conclusion of that analysis Umar Pasha said the answer to the president’s call – who proposed to create new global currency which was supposed to be “anti-monopolistic, democratic, civilized, responsible and free” as alternative to the current monetary system which had “deep inner defect” – was Islamic Gold Dinar.
Then Umar Pasha spoke about the disastrous nature of modern monetary and banking system and stressed the point that the current global crisis was a positive phenomenon as it was an inescapable outcome of a system built upon false laws and principles of Usury and Humanism. He also said this crisis was the biggest crisis in the history of Capitalism signaling its final end and the Muslims should take this opportunity to establish the Islamic model which successfully existed from the time of the Messenger of Allah (s.a.w) up until the destruction of Ottoman Caliphate at the turn of the 20th century. “This crisis is nothing but Allah’s war against Riba, therefore we’ll see during this crisis who is who in Islam: the Mukminun will rejoice at this crisis and will come out united and determined, the Munafikun will pretend nothing is happening and continue business as usual,” stated Umar Pasha and the audience suddenly erupted in Taqbir.
He moved then on a brief analysis of Islamic Banking and his uncompromised verdict sounded like a thunder: "Islamic bank is not haram, it is double haram and the islamic bankers know it!” By the time Umar Pasha was finishing his presentation the vast hall was electrified, people who came to learn how halal and good Islamic banks were got shocked and yet they felt this man knew what he was talking about, so when Umar Pasha finally stopped almost everybody gave him standing ovation and Taqbir; incidentally there was no Taqbir before or after Umar Pasha's speech. It must be noted here, shouting Taqbir in public forums with media and state officials is still something very unusual in this ex-soviet republic, but this time it poured out from the hearts of people as if his speech fell upon them like a cool rain in the early spring, awakening and promising a certain advent of the sunny and beautiful summer.
During Q&A session not a single question was addressed to the Islamic bankers and experts in the panel but were all for Umar Pasha asking him to tell more about Dinar until the moderator intervened by asking the audience to have respect for other speakers and put some questions to them. But it didn’t help, people wanted to hear only the man from Spain, the man who spoke about Islam in a manner that was entirely new for them. Then the moderator who was apparently uncomfortable with the situation adjourned the forum for a tea-break. After the break the second half of the Islamic bankers presented their papers but majority of public was indifferent, everybody was still groggy from Umar Pasha’s punching power. In the final Q&A one young man stood up and asked a speaker who was the head of an Islamic bank from a Gulf country: “Do you charge interest on your loans?” The banker tried to dodge from direct answer by means of employing the terminology of Islamic contracts but the young Kazak ruthlessly stopped him and repeated: Do you charge interest or not? “We charge 2.5-3% on the principal amount but it is a service fee”, finally replied the banker. “Subhanallah, 3% or 30% is still the same Riba and we were just reminded by brother from Spain that in the sura Al-Baqara Allah has declared war on Riba. You came here to teach us Riba? You are in marsh and you want to suck us into it too? You better go back to your country!”
It was a historic day for us, Kazaks, because we witnessed something we haven’t seen for a long time: one man from a far place single-handedly defended the Deen. I saw tears in some people’s eyes. I suddenly remembered Umar Pasha saying sometime ago: "...we represent an irresistible force", and I saw it that day, I felt it.
After the Forum there followed a series of public lectures and meetings from Senate to universities, from Islamic Centers to various Jama’ats, from gold miners to businessmen. Umar Pasha was meeting people from dawn to dusk, men and women, young and old, they came to see the man who, as some of them said, “turned upside down their worldview”.
Inshallah, it is just the beginning.