Iran President Slams Capitalism

CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA

ISTANBUL (AP) — Iran's president said Monday that capitalist excesses caused the global economic meltdown and are un-Islamic, as leaders at a Muslim forum touted their religion's banking system a way to revive battered economies.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was among heads of state in Istanbul for a one-day meeting of the Organization of The Islamic Conference, a 57-state bloc of Muslim countries that promotes religious solidarity in economic and other matters.

In an address, Ahmadinejad slammed investments that pay interest, deemed usury by Muslims, and said they had contributed to financial and social problems such as homelessness.

"Usury, which is entrenched in the capitalist system, is perhaps the main reason why the system has gone bankrupt," Ahmadinejad said. "It is a way of accumulating capital without working. Usury, according to the Koran, is fighting with Allah."

Islamic banks operate on Shariah law, which bans those investments. Banks instead make money using a system of profit-sharing from returns on approved investments. Islamic banks exist in all oil-rich Arab Gulf countries and in most Islamic states.