by Patrick Wood
September 08, 2025
from Technocracy Website






This is Part One of a larger series of papers that support my theory that debt-based capitalism could soon give way to an asset-based system, run by Technocrats armed with blockchain-based cryptocurrencies and AI.

 

Payment tokens are not at issue here, but asset-based tokens are.

 

When physical assets are tokenized, they can be traded anywhere. Consider all the homes that have been added to large portfolios through Build-to-Rent programs.

These are prime for tokenization.

Then there is the issue of 640 million acres owned by the Federal Government, which, if the Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick has his way, will be tokenized in due time.

 

Once such tokens are released to trading, they will be gobbled up by companies like BlackRock, which have huge cash reserves.

 

First, however,

I will show that the Islamic world is already entrenched in an asset-based system that eschews debt and usury of any kind.

 

Further, Islamic nations are leading the world in FinTech (Financial Technology).

When I wrote "Global Banks Adopting Islam" in 2007, few could have seen how right I was to quote the Bible warning that,

"the love of money is the root of all sorts of evil".

(1 Tim. 6:10)

What began as a seemingly opportunistic flirtation between Western mega-banks and Islamic finance has morphed into something far more consequential and sinister: a fundamental restructuring of global finance itself.

Back in 2007, when I first observed global banking titans like,

  • J.P. Morgan

  • Chase

  • Citigroup

  • HSBC

  • Deutsche Bank

  • Morgan Stanley

  • Goldman Sachs,

...rushing headlong into Islamic banking, the industry controlled a modest $700 billion in assets.

 

Today, as we navigate through 2025, that figure has exploded to over $5.4 trillion, with projections reaching $7.5 trillion by 2028. 1

 

What was once dismissed as a niche market serving Muslim communities has become a cornerstone of the global financial architecture.

The question that haunted me then - whether global bankers were seducing Islamic dictators or vice versa - has been definitively answered.

They have seduced each other so thoroughly that the distinction has become almost meaningless.

The result is precisely what I feared:

Islamic Shariah banking has not merely arrived in the United States and other Western nations; it has been normalized, legitimized, and integrated into the very fabric of international finance.

 

 


London is The Crown Jewel of Islamic Finance

When Gordon Brown declared in 2007 that he intended to make London the Islamic finance capital of the world, skeptics wondered if this was mere political posturing.

 

Eighteen years later, the answer is unequivocal:

Brown's vision has been realized beyond his wildest dreams.

London remains the undisputed Western center of Islamic finance in 2025, though its dominance now comes with important caveats.

 

The City's Islamic finance sector has grown from strength to strength, boasting compound annual growth rates of 10-12% over the past decade. 2

 

The UK now hosts five fully-fledged Islamic banks and over twenty conventional banks offering Islamic financial products, with the sector valued at over £6 billion ($7.7 billion) and poised to double in the coming years. 3

The London Stock Exchange has become the preferred global venue for sukuk (Islamic bonds) listings, commanding over 40% of the hard-currency sukuk market. 4

 

English common law governs most international sukuk transactions worldwide, cementing London's role as the legal and financial nexus of Islamic finance.

 

Middle Eastern sukuk and bond issuers alone raised $65 billion on the LSE in the first seven months of 2025. 5

Yet London's "center" status must be qualified. While it remains the premier international hub, the city's domestic Islamic finance market pales compared to the Gulf states.

 

The UK's $7.7 billion in Islamic banking assets represents merely 0.3% of the global total, dwarfed by the $700+ billion concentrated in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries. 6

 

London serves as the Western gateway and facilitator, but the real power - and the real money - remains in Riyadh, Dubai, Doha, and Kuwait City.

 

 

 


Shariah Banking's Western Infiltration

The question of whether Shariah banking has made significant inroads in the Western world can be answered with a resounding yes.

 

What began as a handful of specialized products has evolved into a comprehensive ecosystem spanning retail banking, investment management, insurance (takaful), and capital markets.

In the United States, approximately 43 institutions now provide Shariah-compliant financial products and services. 7

 

From Devon Bank in Chicago to University Bank in Michigan, American financial institutions have embraced Islamic finance principles with the same enthusiasm once reserved for subprime mortgages.

 

Major Wall Street firms - JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, and others - now maintain dedicated Islamic finance divisions, though they remain curiously reluctant to publicize this fact to their domestic American clientele.

Europe has proven even more receptive.

 

Beyond the UK's leadership, countries like Luxembourg, France, and Germany have implemented increasingly Shariah-friendly regulatory frameworks.

 

The European Investment Bank has issued sukuk, and major European insurers now offer takaful products.

What was once unthinkable - European financial institutions organizing their business practices around medieval Islamic law - has become routine.

The normalization process has been so complete that Islamic finance is no longer seen as foreign or exotic.

 

It has been rebranded as,

"ethical finance," "ESG investing," and "sustainable banking."

By wrapping Shariah compliance in the language of environmental and social responsibility, Western institutions have made Islamic finance palatable to non-Muslim customers who might otherwise object to financing structures based on religious law...

 

 

 


The Zakat Trail - Following the Money

One of the most disturbing developments since 2007 has been the institutionalization of zakat - the Islamic requirement that 2.5% of eligible wealth be donated annually to Islamic charities.

 

In my original analysis, I warned that Western banks' compliance with zakat requirements would channel "staggering" amounts to Islamic causes, with the certainty that,

"a portion of this money will end up in the hands of radical Muslims."

Tracking zakat flows has proven even more difficult than anticipated, largely because the system has become so sophisticated and widespread.

 

Global zakat generation is now estimated to be approaching $2 trillion annually, though precise figures remain elusive due to the mixture of formal and informal channels. 8

 

Western banks' contribution to this total, while growing rapidly, likely represents tens of billions of dollars annually - funds flowing from London, New York, and Frankfurt to Islamic charitable networks worldwide.

The zakat system has been digitized and automated through blockchain technology, making it simultaneously more efficient and more opaque.

Western banks now offer zakat calculation services, automated charitable giving, and even zakat-compliant investment products.

What was once a simple 'religious' obligation has been transformed into a sophisticated financial product, complete with tax advantages and regulatory approval.

How much of zakat is funneled into terrorism or other anti-Western activities...?

That is a closely guarded "secret", but every expert in the field knows that it happens.

 

 

 


The Islamic FinTech Revolution

Perhaps the most dramatic development since 2007 has been the emergence of Islamic finance as a driving force in global FinTech innovation.

 

The numbers tell the story:

Islamic FinTech transaction volumes reached $161 billion in 2024 and are expected to nearly double by 2028. 9

 

The sector is projected to grow from $138 billion in 2022-23 to $306 billion by 2027, representing a compound annual growth rate of 17.3%. 10

Countries like Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Indonesia, and Malaysia have become hotbeds of financial innovation, frequently leapfrogging legacy Western infrastructure.

 

The creation of dedicated Islamic FinTech free trade zones, such as,

  • Dubai's DIFC

  • Abu Dhabi's ADGM

  • Bahrain's FinTech Bay,

...has provided regulatory sandboxes where Shariah-compliant financial innovations can be tested and scaled.

The irony is palpable:

the same Islamic world that once rejected Western financial concepts for religious reasons is now leading the charge in financial digitization.

  • Mobile-first Islamic banks

  • AI-powered Shariah compliance engines

  • Blockchain-based sukuk,

...are emanating from the Middle East and Southeast Asia, while traditional Western financial centers struggle to keep pace.

This technological leadership has profound geopolitical implications.

 

When Islamic nations control the infrastructure and protocols of digital finance, they effectively control the terms under which the rest of the world accesses these systems.

 

The West's eager adoption of Islamic FinTech solutions represents a strategic vulnerability that few seem willing to acknowledge.

 

 

 


Asset-Based Islamic Finance Converging with Western FinTech

The most significant development of the past eighteen years has been the gradual convergence of Islamic asset-based finance principles with Western FinTech innovation.

 

This convergence is both technological and philosophical, representing a fundamental shift in how financial systems operate.

Technologically, the convergence is nearly complete.

 

Major Islamic asset tokens leverage the same blockchain infrastructures as their Western counterparts, Ethereum, Polygon, Cosmos, and newer purpose-built "halal" networks like HAQQ. 11

 

Islamic real estate tokens, sukuk derivatives, and Shariah-compliant investment vehicles can be bought, sold, and held alongside Western equivalents, provided appropriate religious screening is maintained.

Western banks do not typically embed Islamic scholars on their regular corporate boards like they did in 2007, but now commonly establish independent advisory Sharia boards with scholars on a per-product or subsidiary basis to screen for Islamic compliance.

The philosophical convergence is more subtle but potentially more significant.

 

Western finance has increasingly embraced concepts that mirror Islamic banking principles:

  • asset-backed lending instead of pure credit creation

  • profit-sharing instead of fixed interest

  • transparency instead of opacity

  • ethical screening instead of amoral profit maximization...

Asset-based lending in Western markets has exploded, with the private credit sector increasingly focused on tangible collateral rather than abstract cash flows. 12

 

Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) investing - now a $30+ trillion global market - shares remarkable similarities with Islamic finance's ethical screening requirements.

 

The rise of "stakeholder capitalism" and "purpose-driven finance" represents Western adoption of Islamic finance's core philosophical foundations.

This convergence has created unprecedented interoperability between Islamic and Western financial systems.

 

A mega-investor holding both Western asset-based tokens and Islamic equivalents would find them technically compatible at the blockchain level, tradeable on the same platforms, and increasingly indistinguishable in their underlying structures.

 

The barriers that remain are primarily regulatory and religious rather than technological.

 

 

 


Complicity of the IMF, World Bank, and BIS

The IMF, World Bank, and BIS each play an active role in facilitating and integrating Islamic banking into the global financial system through standards, supervision, product development, and technical support in over 60 countries.

  • The International Money Fund (IMF) implements the Core Principles for Islamic Finance Regulation, collaborating with global standard-setters like the Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB) and the Basel Committee.
     

  • The World Bank has dedicated programs, such as the Global Islamic Finance Development Center, which support research, capacity building, and legal framework development for Islamic finance globally.

     

    It has dedicated programs, such as the Global Islamic Finance Development Center, which support research, capacity building, and legal framework development for Islamic finance globally.
     

  • BIS works with central banks to help integrate Islamic finance within regulatory reporting frameworks and global standards, especially by collaborating with the IFSB and other standard-setters.

 

 


The Debt-to-Asset Transformation

The most profound question raised by Islamic finance concerns what would happen if the world's debt-based financial system were replaced by an asset-based alternative.

 

This is no longer a theoretical exercise - it is happening in real-time, and Islamic finance is leading the way.

The current Western financial system is built on debt creation, credit expansion, and the infinite rehypothecation of collateral. Money is created through lending, wealth is generated through leverage, and economic growth depends on ever-increasing debt levels.

 

This system has produced unprecedented prosperity but also unprecedented instability, inequality, and systemic risk.

Islamic finance offers a fundamentally different model: asset-backed transactions, profit-and-loss sharing, prohibition of interest, and direct linkage between financial activities and real economic value.

 

In an asset-based system, money represents actual wealth rather than promises of future payment. Investment returns come from productive economic activity rather than financial engineering.

The implications of a global shift toward asset-based finance would be staggering:

  • Economic Stability:

    Systemic leverage would decrease dramatically, reducing the risk of cascading financial crises. Economic cycles would be driven by real production rather than credit cycles. Financial institutions would be inherently more stable because their assets would be tangible and their liabilities transparent.
     

  • Wealth Distribution:

    The concentration of wealth through debt compounding would be curtailed. Returns would flow to those who provide actual capital rather than those who manipulate credit. Small businesses and entrepreneurs would have better access to capital because lending would be based on asset value rather than credit history.
     

  • Global Power:

    The nations that control the most valuable real assets - energy, minerals, agricultural land, infrastructure - would gain power at the expense of those whose wealth is primarily financial. This would represent a massive geopolitical realignment favoring resource-rich Islamic nations over debt-dependent Western economies.
     

  • Innovation and Growth:

    While speculative bubbles would be curtailed, investment in productive assets would be encouraged. Long-term, sustainable development would be favored over short-term financial gains. The economy would become more connected to physical reality and less dependent on abstract financial instruments.

The transition is already underway.

 

Private asset-based lending has become mainstream in Western markets. 13

Real estate, equipment, intellectual property, and infrastructure are routinely tokenized and traded through asset pools and DeFi contracts.

Islamic finance, in pioneering this direction, has influenced Western adoption of asset-backed securities integrated with blockchain technology and risk-sharing governance.

Central banks are experimenting with asset-backed digital currencies. Governments are issuing asset-linked bonds.

 

Even traditional Western banks are restructuring their operations around tangible collateral rather than pure credit creation.

 

 

 


The Unholy Alliance fulfilled in the New World Order

When I wrote in 2007 about the "unholy alliance between Islam and global banking," many dismissed it as alarmist speculation.

 

Today, that alliance has achieved everything I feared and more. Islamic finance has not merely been adopted by Western banks - it has been absorbed, normalized, and elevated to the point where it now influences the structure of the entire global financial system.

The silence of the global elite when Islamic mobs chant "Death to America" is no longer surprising - their goals have indeed become intertwined.

 

Western financial institutions now have billions of dollars invested in Islamic financial infrastructure.

 

Their profits depend on the success of Shariah-compliant markets. Their future growth strategies are built around Islamic demographic trends and Middle Eastern capital flows.

The transformation has been so complete that resistance is no longer possible without triggering financial catastrophe. Western economies have become dependent on Islamic finance for liquidity, growth, and stability.

 

Any attempt to reverse course would require dismantling financial relationships worth trillions of dollars and alienating the world's fastest-growing demographic group.

This dependency creates a strategic vulnerability that extends far beyond finance:

  • when Western institutions need Islamic approval for their most basic business activities

  • when Western governments rely on Islamic capital for their fiscal operations

  • when Western technological innovation depends on Islamic market access,

...the traditional balance of power has been fundamentally altered.
 

 

 

 

Conclusion - The Final Leg of Global Domination

Eighteen years ago, I warned that the alliance between Islam and global banking might represent,

"the final leg on the age-old quest for global domination."

Today, that quest appears to have succeeded beyond the wildest dreams of its architects.

Islamic finance has achieved something that military conquest never could: the voluntary submission of Western financial institutions to Islamic law.

 

Shariah compliance has become a competitive advantage rather than a regulatory burden. Western banks now compete to demonstrate their Islamic credentials and hire the most respected Shariah scholars for their boards.

The numbers speak for themselves:

  • $5.4 trillion in Islamic finance assets and growing; over 80 multinational Western institutions offering Shariah-compliant products

  • major Western stock exchanges competing for Islamic bond listings

  • Western governments issuing sukuk

  • Western central banks offering Islamic liquidity facilities

  • Western FinTech companies building their platforms around Islamic finance principles

More fundamentally, the philosophical foundations of Western finance are being steadily replaced by Islamic alternatives.

Asset-backing instead of credit creation.

 

Profit-sharing instead of interest.

 

Ethical screening instead of amoral optimization.

 

Transparency instead of opacity.

 

Real value instead of financial abstraction.

This is not merely the adoption of foreign financial techniques:

it is the transformation of Western civilization's relationship with money, wealth, and economic organization.

The implications extend far beyond banking into law, governance, social organization, and individual behavior.

The age-old quest for global domination has not been achieved through military force or political conquest. It has been achieved through the quiet, patient, systematic transformation of the global financial system. And the transformation is irreversible...

As we look toward 2030, the trajectory is clear:

Islamic finance will continue to grow, Western dependence will continue to deepen, and the convergence will continue to accelerate.

The question is no longer whether this transformation will succeed:

it already has...!

The question is what kind of world we will inhabit when the process is complete.

The love of money may indeed be the root of all sorts of evil.

But in 2025, that love has found its perfect expression:

the marriage of Western financial power and Islamic legal authority...

And like all successful marriages, it has produced offspring that resemble both parents while transcending the limitations of either.

The future belongs to those who control the assets.

 

And increasingly, those who control the assets operate under Shariah law...




References and Footnotes

  1. BusinessToday, "Islamic Finance Set To Surge To US$7.5 Trillion By 2028," May 2025 )

  2. Chambers Practice Guide, "Islamic Finance 2025" July 2025

  3. TheCityUK Islamic Finance Market Report, UK Islamic Finance Global Trends and the UK Market, 2022;

  4. Fitch Ratings, "UK Remains Western Islamic Finance Hub Despite Limited Local Uptake," August 21, 2025

  5. London Stock Exchange data and Middle East sukuk issuance reports, 2025

  6. TheCityUK, "Islamic finance: global trends and the UK market," 2022

  7. Financial IT, "The Development of Islamic Finance in the USA," January 10, 2024

  8. Islamic Development Bank, "Overview of Zakat practices around the world," 2022

  9. Insifr, "The future of Islamic finance: trends to watch in 2025," July 20, 2025

  10. Velmie, "Top Islamic Banking Software Providers in 2025"; Global Islamic FinTech Report 2024-25

  11. Various sources on Islamic blockchain platforms including HAQQ Network, MRHB Network, and Islamic tokenization platforms

  12. TPG Insights, "Asset-Based Credit in 2025: Powering Ahead," February 2025

  13. CAIA Association, "Asset-Based Lending: Coming of Age in the 2020s," June 2025