It is unlikely that American investors in the post-9/11 environment would want to support such practices. One would hope that financial institutions would not want to assume the exposure associated with them, either. Yet, because the material facts about Shariah, its authorities and their charities are not being disclosed to investors, both are at serious risk. So is America to the extent that Shariah Law is being legitimated, its adherents are being empowered and its so-called “charities” are being enriched (four out of eight Shariah-approved uses for zakat can translate into support of terrorism – and have).

For these reasons, the Center for Security Policy recently sent the CEOs of dozens of the nation’s leading commercial banks, hedge funds and other financial institutions copies of Mr. Yerushalmi’s analysis. In an accompanying letter, I warned that they “may be exposed to personal civil and criminal liability and [their] firm will be exposed to reputational risk and/or price risk” should they be involved in Shariah-Compliant Finance. (See www.SecureFreedom.org for more on this correspondence.)

From now on, the leading Wall Street firms will not be able to profess ignorance of such risks. They will have a responsibility to disclose them to investors. Call it guilty knowledge.

Unfortunately, it nonetheless may take action by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Department of the Treasury, the Justice Department and/or Capitol Hill to get Wall Street’s attention on SCF. The $800 billion invested in such products to date is expected to grow by 15-25% in the future, powered in part by the dictators’ slush funds known as “Sovereign Wealth” that are recycling petrodollars into various, strategically ominous investments in the United States.

Alternatively, bringing to light the true nature and dangers associated with Shariah-Compliant Finance may fall to civil litigants like those who have brought suit in federal court in connection with Saudi and other interests’ (many of them Shariah-compliant) ties to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The cost to Wall Street of such litigation could be in the billions.

Either way, the financial sector will have guilty knowledge about Shariah-Compliant Finance and be vulnerable to problems that will make sub-prime look like a day at the beach. Those involved are on notice.