This is in response to the article in the Dec. 13 Sun Journal, “A need for Islamic banking practices.”

Last month, Lewiston High School’s principal and the Lewiston School Committee were taking flak for not providing a special prayer room within the school for Muslim students to use during school hours. That request came from the Council on American Islamic Relations with a list of requests (more like demands) for the school board to implement in kowtowing to religious requirements.

Now the Androscoggin Bank wants to establish bank practices that conform to Sharia law which, according to the Bates College anthropology class information printed as a sidebar in the Sun Journal article, prohibits “money-begetting-money,” no paying or receiving interest on loans, accounts, mortgages, etc., but profit is allowed (e.g., buying a house for $100,000 and selling it for $150,000).

Whoa, there, you educated, college-degree financiers and professors. Anyone who buys a house for $100,000 and sells it for $150,000 has, by all definition, executed a money-begetting-money transaction, whether one’s religious belief is Christian, Buddhist, Islamic or Vulcan.

Establish two sets of banking rules, eh? One for Muslim immigrants with no interest on their loans and mortgages; one with interest on loans and mortgages for non-Muslims? I wonder if that would cause a loss in revenue for the first while bowing to Sharia law. Would that mean non-Muslims would pay more?

John R. Davis, South Paris