FULL SPECTRUM CULTURE

In general, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the market accommodating itself to a certain group of people with certain religious convictions; that’s niche marketing at its best, I think. What is wrong here is when those who strictly speaking are not paying mortgage interest still want to receive a mortgage interest tax deduction, and the government allows it:

One challenge for people using Islamic-compliant home financing is persuading the Internal Revenue Service to extend tax breaks available to home buyers. Deducting mortgage interest from income taxes is a significant savings. “Because we have this unique model, there are some growing pains where regulators are concerned,” Ali said. “We don’t label (anything) interest, but we do send a schedule saying how much rent they paid. Some have gone to the IRS and gotten the IRS to agree that they should have the right to deduct it as if it were interest.”

That is wrong. Non-Muslims have to pay taxes on the income that they use to pay their rent, and Muslims don’t? If you’re not going to pay mortgage interest, then you shouldn’t get a tax deduction for the mortgage interest that you are not paying. It’s just that simple. Anything else is the state discriminating on the basis of religion, which is against the law, last I heard.