The Islamic banking sector’s phenomenal growth in recent years has not been universally welcomed. Among some powerful and influential circles in the West, particularly the United States, there is an assumed association between the increased financial capacity of sharia-compliant financial institutions — with the roughly $500 billion in wealth currently under sharia-compliant management expected to grow to $2.8 trillion by 2015 — and an increased ability for those who follow radical interpretations of Islam to fund terrorist operations. In April 2008 the Center for Security Policy (CSP) — a Washington, D.C. based organization describing itself as specializing in identifying policies, actions, and resources “vital to American security” — launched a national campaign to counter what the group describes as the “serious risks” sharia-compliant finance poses for US financial institutions “and the national security of the United States of America.” In CSP literature its President, Frank Gaffney, warned that “US financial
