MBitcoiner on Nostr: The Fiat Muslim Mentality The fiat Muslim cannot allow himself to think of any viable ...

The Fiat Muslim Mentality

The fiat Muslim cannot allow himself to think of any viable alternative to the fiat system that he's subjected to. He thinks the current system in which he lives in must necessarily be the most viable and fair system, and assumes that no other system existed before it, or that other systems are irrelevant and not worth any thought. He supports his position from select fatawa from scholars that justify the current fiat system and its subsidized institutions.

The Fiat Muslim endorses the policy of monetary expansion by claiming that it is in line with the shariah, but doesn't consider the possibility or the viability of a fixed money supply. He automatically supports any and all authoritarian high-modernist interventionist policies enacted by Muslim governments, as long as it comes with a "halal" label.

He blames every modern societal problem on capitalism, but he does not allow himself to consider any negative effects from current ongoing socialist policies and institutions. He claims to detest western economic thought, but fully embraces Keynesian economics.

The Fiat Muslim justifies getting into interest based debt to finance his home, business, and car, claiming that it's a necessity in order to "succeed" living in the modern world.

He puts his entire savings in a checking account at an international bank, where he assures himself it's halal because it doesn't generate any interest.

He is completely unaware of how fractional reserve banking works, and while he instinctively knows that Islamic banking is not a totally shariah compliant alternative to conventional banking, he has assured himself that it's "good enough" since some scholar somewhere must have signed off on it.

He still naively believes that Islamic central banks actually and earnestly attempt to "stabilize" the economy and achieve full employment, despite their numerous banking failures and track record for wrecking entire economies.

He recognizes that charging interest is haram, but the central bank manipulating interest rates is surely halal. He believes that inflation is a natural phenomenon, and actually, an inflation target of 2% is probably part of the Shariah.

When asked about a possible alternative to the current fiat system, he can only think in potential socialist policies by Muslim governments, as these interventionist policies supposedly fit perfectly within an Islamic economic framework. Of course, an islamic flavor of socialism is considered the only "safe" and ethical alternative when capitalism gets blamed for every economic ill found in the modern world.

And when confronted with an actual working monetary system outside the rails of fiat and government management, he automatically dismisses it as something that is haram, because in Islam, only the state can issue money, and only the state can manage the actions of men in the economy.

He asserts with confidence that any alternative to the current fiat system must be devoid of "intrinsic value" because only the state can assign value. Therefore, any proposed alternative monetary system has no value, and would likely only be used by criminals.

In short, the fiat Muslim is economically illiterate and is unable to think in counterfactuals. He is somehow simultaneously arrogant, confused, scared, and ignorant, and he puts his trust completely in the government and central bank. He is unable to ponder deeply about anything, and he outsources his economic thinking to the state and its apparatuses.

Because of these limits placed on his thinking, he is not equipped to swallow the bitter pill that all of his monetary transactions are entrenched in Riba. He cannot fathom, and his mentality will not let him fathom, that the entire global fiat system operates with Riba embedded in its source code.

He does not realize it, but he is a slave to Riba, and his fiat mentality is a downstream consequence of his enslavement.

This is the fiat Muslim mentality.