The exchange between Bill Maher, Sam Harris, and Ben Affleck[0] is a great example of hamfisting Islamophobia into completely legitimate criticisms of Islam, Islamism, Sharia over secular society, etc. Not every criticism of Islam (and truthfully, the vast majority of criticisms of Islam) are not racist of Islamophobic.
A closer example might be the MPAA (US film rating group). It's a voluntary certification, but it's become a de facto requirement such that the small, opaque, non-government group shapes the level of violence (high) and nudity (low) in all TV and films.
Right or wrong I have always associated refusal to use traditional banking a more hard-line Muslim belief.
Edit:
For most Sharia fintech startups, MUI certificates are not only commercially advantageous but legally required by the Financial Services Authority of Indonesia (OJK), the state financial regulator. Other areas of the Sharia digital economy, like halal e-commerce and umrah sites, travel-booking platforms for Islamic pilgrimages, do not require this certificate.
So yes for fintech, maybe for ecommerce in general?
https://www.ojk.go.id/en/berita-dan-kegiatan/siaran-pers/Pag...
Participating in the Indonesian sharia finance economy would be more akin to something like organic certification on produce. Most farms are not organic but if you want to label your products as such then you have to undergo a certification process with an agency like the USDA. In this case to be certified Halal you have to gain the MUI certificate which is recognized by the OJK Financial Services Authority of Indonesian. However, an Indonesian person is likely better person to clarify this more precisely.
>>Well obviously. If you want to build a halal certified banking product it has to be implement syariah principles, thats the point.
Nowhere does it say that most fintech startups, let alone most finance, are are seeking that classification.
Absolutely not.
It specifically applies only to Muslims, while excluding others (known as dhimmi, which translates to something like "protected people"). Others have protected rights to live, have property, and freedom of religion, and in exchange they're expected to respect the authority of the State and are subjected to different taxes (jizya tax). Everything else depends on the implementation.
It's basically how you get a vibrant expat community in places like Dubai.
I'm not sure why he refuses to accept the fact that he might be wrong in this instance, though. I've seen him talk about other topics with Maher before and he's not nearly so bombastic or hard-headed.
I saw an interesting interview with Harris shortly after this where he said everyone was shocked that Affleck inserted himself into the conversation this way as well. I haven't seen many episodes of this show but apparently this segment is always a one-on-one between Maher and the guest in question, usually talking about whatever book or movie they're promoting, and given Ben's relative frequency on the show prior to this, he was aware of that.
Not surprising that their fanbases and communities loyal to them are going to jump on this far more than necessary. It doesn’t matter if Affleck didn’t do a horrible job in that scene, the reaction wasn’t going to be that much different from Harris’ fans.