Grand Ayattola's misguided advice!

Grand Ayattola Noori Hamadani accused the State TV and Radio stations of promoting riba in Iran. He said there are many “good economic” text books about interest-free- banking but their “ teachings” are not applied by decision makers in the IRI. In his view, reporting the bank rates by the TV and Radio stations is actually an indication of promoting riba by these means. Sometimes ago, he added, there were some talk about reducing these rates, and a few steps were taken, but regretably this process came to an abrupt end. He said extending poverty is not part of our Islamic ideology and added that he hopes that by mine utilisation and better use of uncultivated lands and more efficient use of forests and seas “ poverty would be eliminated” from Iran. In his view, the real cause of poverty is the payment and receipt of riba. This said, however, it is not clear how could you remove interest in an economy where the annual inflation rate, while variously estimated, is certainly more than 20%? Those steps that Noori Hamadani referred to, have led, inter alia, to a flood of liquidity to land and real estates and purchase of gold and foreign assets, pushing their prices up. The house price inflation which has become unbearable for many, is mainly due to unwise intervention of the state in the banking sector. It would have been nice to see that people like Noori Hamadani instead of encouraging this type of harmful intervention, would choose to support the government and the Central Bank of Iran .