Mayor Bloomberg, Ground Zero Mosque: Islamic Financial News Market War Being Waged Between Bloomberg, Reuters

Bloomberg's defense of Ground Zero mosque related to Bloomberg business plan to dominate Islamic Finance market?

Mayor Bloomberg defends Ground Zero mosque, Governor’s Island, August 3, 2010 [Photo, NYC Mayor's Office]

“We have an aspiration at Bloomberg to become the most influential news organisation in the world.”
Peter T. Grauer, Chairman and CEO of Bloomberg, July 31, 2010

“…. the growth of Islamic finance has been phenomenal in spite of the current difficulties that seem to be indicative of the situation visa vi the international economic community, the financial world seems to be turning its attention to Islamic finance.”
Former Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia Tun Musa Hitam, Chairman of the World Islamic Economic Forum Foundation, CNBC interview, August 18, 2010

Two companies in the financial world who turned their attention to Islamic finance and its phenomenal growth, Thomson Reuters (Reuters) and Bloomberg L.P.. Bloomberg’s market, Bloomberg’s financial news terminals. Reuter’s market, Reuter’s financial news portals.

Earlier we reported we were cynical about Mayor Bloomberg’s motives for defending the building of a controversial mosque near Ground Zero. Of concern, Bloomberg’s financial interests in the Middle East with Bloomberg L.P. establishing a financial information hub in Dubai at the Dubai International Finance Centre, DIFC. The five-year Bloomberg plan to ‘double revenues by 2014″ in the Middle East. We learned we’d only skimmed the surface. Here’s what we discovered:

The Middle East financial news turf war being waged between Bloomberg L.P. and Thomson Reuters (Reuters). Based on a timeline of events, in the summer of 2008, Bloomberg and Reuters were in a dead heat, Bloomberg with 33% of the world’s financial news market, Reuters, 34%. Reuters declaring they were going after Bloomberg’s financial news terminal market, Bloomberg’s cash core generating machine. In early 2009, Reuters ramping up the competition for the Middle East Islamic Finance market. By the summer of 2010, Reuters had made Islamic Finance ‘history’. In the U.S., Michael Bloomberg, with 85% ownership of Bloomberg L.P., a privately held company, made his own Islamic history, the billionaire Mayor of New York City declaring there should “no compromise” on the building of the controversial mosque near Ground Zero. (New York City already has 100 mosques, seventeen located in Manhattan) Bloomberg, a voracious proponent of the mosque, stated it was “UnAmerican” to investigate the developers of the mosque. According to Mayor Bloomberg, not building the mosque would send a “signal” to Muslims around the world.

The stakes in the Bloomberg-Reuters Middle East Islamic Finance war: The nearly 300 Islamic banks and financial institutions worldwide whose assets are predicted to grow to $1 trillion by 2013.

-On June 23, 2008, the New York Post reported “Thomson Reuters is going hard after Bloomberg L.P. which has long been the marquee name on Wall Street for financial information. The companies are in a dead heat: Thomson Reuters has 34 percent of the market for financial data and Bloomberg 33 percent”. In 2007 the combined revenues of Thomson and Reuters, $12.5 billion, “more than twice” the revenue of Bloomberg with Thomson Reuters, five times as many employees as Bloomberg.

- On July 3, 2008, the announcement of the formation of the The Middle East Investor Relations Society (“ME-IR Society”). The first meeting of the ME-IR Society Board members held at the DIFC in Dubai.

“The ME-IR Society aims to support the further development and practice of investor relations (IR) across the Middle East, in line with the rapid growth of the region’s capital markets and increasing demand from both regional and global investors for greater disclosure and transparency.”

Members of the board:

The board members of the Society include a number of the region’s most senior executives, investor relations professionals and other capital markets participants. They are:

- Arif Amiri – Senior Director – Investor Relations and Corporate Governance, Emaar Properties
- Federico Salinas – Partner, Dewey and LeBoeuf
- Mark Shuttleworth – CFO, du – Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company
- Peter Barker-Homek – CEO, TAQA – Abu Dhabi National Energy Company
- Manish Wadhwani – Managing Director, Millennium Finance Corporation
- Jonathan Minor – Head of Investor Relations and Treasury, Investcorp Bank
- Noor Sweid – Managing Director Strategy and Investor Relations, Depa
- Basil Moftah – Managing Director Middle-East Africa, Thomson Reuters

The ME-IR Society bio for Moftah:
stated Basil Moftah joined Reuters in Egypt “over 10 years ago through the European Graduate Program”.

-February 25, 2009, Reuters’s key strategical ‘investment,’ American Muslim Rushdi Siddiqui, new head of Reuter’s Islamic Finance.

Reuters:

“Thomson Reuters today announced that it has appointed Rushdi Siddiqui to lead its Islamic Finance business. Mr Siddiqui’s appointment represents another investment by Thomson Reuters in this sector.”

“Thomson Reuters, which has been active in the Middle East, Africa and South East Asia since 1865, has strong Islamic Finance assets covering leading content, news, analytics and trading capabilities.”

Prior to working for Reuters, Siddiqui was the former Global Director of Dow Jones Islamic Market Indexes. Reuter’s new Islamic Finance head, a former member of the Dubai International Finance Centre Advisory Board.

Ameinfo.com, June 7, 2006:

“Dr Omar Bin Sulaiman, Governor of the Dubai International Financial Centre, commented: “We are committed to the development of Islamic finance, one of the fastest growing sectors in the financial industry. It is our strategic aim to involve leading authorities in the market and Rushdi Siddiqui is well known for his achievements in the development of Shariah compliant indexes. We look forward to working with him and developing an efficient and active international Islamic financial industry.”

Siddiqui:

“I look forward to working closely with the esteemed members of the Council to implement the vision and the will of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai for Islamic Finance.”

-On April 27, 2009, Siddiqui, head of Reuter’s Islamic Finance, was bestowed the honor of awarding the International Islamic Finance Forum’s Lifetime Achievement Award in Islamic Financing to Vice President and Prime Minister of UAE and Ruler of Dubai HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.

-On the same day Siddiqui handed Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum the coveted IIFF’s Lifetime Achievement Award in Islamic Financing, Reuters announced a partnership with ITWorx based in Egypt, , ‘one of the largest software professional services organizations in the Middle East and Africa’:

“For the first time, financial professionals in the Middle East and Africa will have access to critical, real-time market information including proprietary Thomson Reuters content through portals developed by ITWorx.”

-September 3, 2009, Thomson Reuters press release announced Reuters relocated the Global Head of FX transactions Mark Kiley from the Reuters’ Singapore office to Dubai:

“Dubai – Thomson Reuters today announced that in recognition of the growing importance of the Middle East and African foreign exchange (FX) dealing markets, the Global Head of FX Transactions has been relocated to the United Arab Emirates.

Announcing the move of Mark Kiley from the company’s Singapore office to Dubai, Basil Moftah, Managing Director for Thomson Reuters in the Middle East and Africa, said: “This is one of the world’s most important FX trading regions and Mark’s move here is part of Thomson Reuters strong commitment to supporting the expansion of the region’s financial markets.”

-October 2, 2009, The Dubai Chronicle reported Chairman and President of Bloomberg LP Peter T. Grauer met with UAE Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum at Maktoum’s Emirate office. According to the Dubai Chronicle, Grauer gave a presentation of Bloomberg future expansion plans in the ‘area of business information’ in the United Emirates, North Africa, and India. Grauer stated the UAE was a great place to expand, the UAE’s “logistic facilities” the ‘biggest incentive for investors and companies to expand their businesses in the country and the region beyond’.

-October 29, 2009, an article published by The National reported Bloomberg Makes Dubai a hub.

“Max Linnington, the company’s newly appointed regional head of Middle East and South Asia, announced the expansion today in advance of a panel discussion with economists and dignitaries in front of the Dubai International Financial Centre’s iconic The Gate building, where Bloomberg has had offices for two years.”
……

“Particularly since the meltdown of the western capitalist system, there has been an increasingly large focus on the virtues of Islamic finance,” he [Linnington] said. “Today, there is no one single provider of information that caters to the Islamic finance market. So by Bloomberg being here, we are in the process of building out an Islamic finance product. We are very confident that we can build a product that meets the needs of the market right now.”
…..

“The company services about 300,000 terminals worldwide, bringing in about US$5 billion (Dh18.37bn) in annual revenues, he said. It has news bureaus throughout the GCC, including in Bahrain and Kuwait, and is in the process of opening offices in Saudi Arabia and Qatar. A news bureau was also planned for Abu Dhabi, he said.”

“The new regional hub will cover the GCC, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal. The office’s expansion will take place across the sales, journalism and data departments, and its services will eventually include a local help desk.”

-November 2, 2009, less than one week after Bloomberg announced they were adding a regional hub in Dubai, Reuters announced they had officially opened their ‘expanded and refurbished Middle East and Africa headquarters in Dubai”, after a “year of significant hiring”.

-December 16, 2009, six weeks after Bloomberg announced they were opening a regional hub in Dubai, Reuters announced they were planning to launch an Islamic Finance Portal in early 2010.

“At present there is no global connectivity for the industry and this platform will be able to connect up players from across the globe,” Rushdi Siddiqui, Thomson Reuters global head of Islamic finance, told Gulf Daily News on Wednesday, December 16.”

-February 18, 2010, Trade Arabia reported Key Islamic finance gateway launched:

“Thomson Reuters has unveiled its next generation Islamic Finance Gateway in Bahrain.

The gateway, launched at a conference at the Sheraton Hotel, is seen as bringing financial information in the Islamic business centre up to the level of Western portals and bridging a gap between western and Islamic finance to guide the emerging industry to the next stage of growth and development.”

Attending the conference, Thomson Reuters Middle East and Africa managing director Basil Moftah:

“We have just begun the electronic history of Islamic finance today.”

“Islamic finance is an important part of our Middle East growth strategy, and the Thomson Reuters Islamic Finance Gateway will not only address the Islamic banking industry’s needs, but will also enhance our ties to the greater Middle East and North Africa region,’ said Thomson Reuters Middle East and Africa managing director Basil Moftah.”

Another conference attendee, Thomson Reuters global head of Islamic finance Rushdi Siddiqui:

By bringing together neutral, intelligent, Islamic, trading-ready finance information and analytics on a common platform, the Thomson Reuters Islamic Finance Gateway addresses the complete Islamic finance work-flow.

Market professionals will now be able to access comprehensive, trusted multi-asset class information on a wide range of Islamic finance instruments such as sukuks, Islamic leveraged loans, funds, Islamic money market, takaful and currencies, alongside embedded real-time news stories from Reuters, and correlation analytics for Islamic versus western conventional market views.

“The Thomson Reuters Islamic Finance Gateway is a global, neutral platform and directory, consisting of details for and links to Islamic finance professionals, rating agencies, industry standards bodies, Islamic finance hubs, index providers, consulting firms, 400 Sharia scholars and Islamic subsidiaries from over 25 countries.”

-March 10, 2010, three weeks after Reuters announced the launching of the Thomson Reuters Islamic Finance Gateway the Khajeel Times reported Bloomberg Set for Dubai expansion in bid to double revenues by 2014.

“Bloomberg, a leading global provider for financial data and news services, plans to “significantly boost regional operations from its Dubai hub as it is bullish about growth prospects of the emirate as a global financial center, a top executive said.”

The Bloomberg top executive, Peter T. Grauer, Chairman and Managing Director of Bloomberg.

Grauer:

“Central to our growth strategy is the doubling of our staff strength in the Dubai office, our tenth regional hub, from 48 to 100 people in a year.”

-May 1, 2010, the attempted car bombing of Times Square.

-May 4th, 2010, Mayor Bloomberg in an interview with CBS News Katie Couric speculated on the identity of the Times Squares car bomber suspect who hadn’t been apprehended.

Bloomberg:

“If I had to guess, twenty five cents, this would be exactly that, somebody who’s homegrown, maybe a mentally deranged person or somebody with a political agenda that doesn’t like the healthcare bill or something, it could be anything.”

Later that evening the FBI arrested Faisal Shahzad, 30, a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Pakistan. The FBI captured Shahzad at Kennedy Airport on a plane bound for Dubai.

Faisal Shahzad photo from Shahzad’s video. A video where Shahzad read from the Koran while speaking about his intent to harm Americans.

-May 19, 2010, Dubai International Financial Centre Press Release:

“His Excellency Ahmed Al Tayer, will welcome the high-level delegation with a keynote address at the MENASA Forum. The day’s agenda will then formally commence with a keynote address by Daniel L Doctoroff, President of Bloomberg LP and former Deputy Mayor for Economic Development and Rebuilding for the City of New York, a position he held at a time when he was tasked with leading New York’s dramatic economic resurgence following the tragic events of September 11, 2001.”

Doctoroff resigned as New York City Deputy Mayor for economic development to become President of Bloomberg L.P. in December, 2007.

Another speaker at the MENASA Forum, Rushdi Siddiqui, Global Head Islamic Finance, Thomson Reuters.

“Rushdi Siddiqui, Global Head Islamic Finance, Thomson Reuters, where he works closely with Islamic finance and banking professionals, including Shariah scholars, to address the challenges of developing Islamic capital markets and the likely trajectory of the sector going mainstream.”

-July 12, 2010, the New York Post reported Bloomberg: Investigating mosque is un-American:

“Bloomberg was asked Monday about GOP gubernatorial candidate Rick Lazio’s demands last week that Democratic rival Andrew Cuomo investigate the mosque being developed near the Sept. 11 attack site.

The mayor has defended the mosque plans before. On Monday, he said investigating or vetting religious organizations goes against what the nation stands for.”

-July 20, 2010, the New York Daily News reported Mayor Bloomberg sticks up for aide Andrea Batista Schlesinger after her Twitter tangle with Palin:

“Mayor Bloomberg stuck up for his aide who tangled on Twitter with Sarah Palin over a mosque proposed near Ground Zero.

“I will defend her right to speak her mind,” Bloomberg said Monday.

The flap erupted after Palin tweeted Sunday night that “peace-seeking Muslims” should reject the proposed mosque downtown as a provocation that “stabs hearts.”

Andrea Batista Schlesinger, a former head of the left-leaning Drum Major Institute who is now a policy aide to Bloomberg, fired back on her Twitter page.

“Mind your business,” Schlesinger wrote, followed a moment later with, “Whose hearts? Racist hearts?”"

-July 31, 2010, report from Business Intelligence Middle East Chairman and CEO of Bloomberg Peter T. Grauer stated:

“We have an aspiration at Bloomberg to become the most influential news organisation in the world.”

According to Grauer, Bloomberg’s proprietary terminal business generated “in excess of $5.5 billion last year, a “compound growth rate far greater than 12% per annum”.

“Grauer took advantage of the downturn to bring Bloomberg closer to its stated global goal of world news domination. Instead of cutting back, he beefed up the workforce. “We added almost a thousand people in 2009; we’ve added in excess of 600 people this year. We continue to innovate: we introduced over 2,000 new functions on our terminals last year, and we’ve actually picked up market share,” he claims.”

Part of the goal of world news domination, Bloomberg’s acquisition of Business Week:

“This year, they also picked up BusinessWeek from McGraw-Hill at what Grauer calls an “attractive price,” (reported to be some five million dollars in cash) pointing out that “in negotiations the buyer and the seller have to come to a meeting of the minds to get the transaction done … we have made a long-term commitment to what is now called Bloomberg BusinessWeek — putting our name on it for us is a major brand statement — and we are fortunate enough in that we have quite extensive financial resources to really make this thing work.”

-August 17, 2010, CNBC interview with former Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia Tun Musa Hitam, Chairman of the World Islamic Economic Forum Foundation.

Hitam:

“I don’t think that the reputation of Islamic finance has been damaged in a serious way simply because if you look at what is happening in this particular field you will see that the growth of Islamic finance has been phenomenal in spite of the current difficulties that seem to be indicative of the situation visa vi the international economic community the financial world seems to be turning it attention to Islamic finance.”

-August 9, 2010, the State Department website, America.gov published Mayor Bloomberg on Vote to Allow Building of Mosque in City, Says Constitution guarantees this religious freedom as with any other group:

“New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg recently addressed the importance of religious freedom in America after city officials rebuffed an effort to halt the building of a mosque and community center near the site of the 9/11 attacks in Manhattan. Mayor Bloomberg said the U.S. Constitution guarantees Americans religious freedoms and that “Muslims are as much a part of our City and our country as the people of any faith and they are as welcome to worship in Lower Manhattan as any other group.””

The State Department printed the entire transcript of Bloomberg’s speech made at Governor’s Island. In the background, the Statue of Liberty.

Bloomberg:

“Of course, it is fair to ask the organizers of the mosque to show some special sensitivity to the situation – and in fact, their plan envisions reaching beyond their walls and building an interfaith community. By doing so, it is my hope that the mosque will help to bring our City even closer together and help repudiate the false and repugnant idea that the attacks of 9/11 were in any way consistent with Islam. Muslims are as much a part of our City and our country as the people of any faith and they are as welcome to worship in Lower Manhattan as any other group. In fact, they have been worshipping at the site for the better part of a year, as is their right.

Seventeen mosques were located in Manhattan when Bloomberg spoke at Governor’s Island. At the State Department website, this note at the bottom of the page which included Bloomberg’s speech:

“Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State.”

-August 10, 2009, the New York Post reported Feds funding Ground Zero imam’s Mideast trip:

“The imam behind a plan to build a mosque near Ground Zero is set to depart on a multi-country jaunt to the Middle East funded by the State Department — raising concerns that taxpayers may be helping him with the controversial project’s $100 million fund-raising goal.

Feisal Abdul Rauf is taking the publicly funded trip to foster “greater understanding” about Islam and Muslim communities in the United States, the State Department confirmed yesterday.

“He is a distinguished Muslim cleric,” said State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley, when asked about the journey, reportedly to include stops in Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain and Qatar.

“I think we are in the process of arranging for him to travel as part of this program, and it is to foster a greater understanding about the region around the world among Muslim-majority communities,” he added.”

According to Crowley, part of the deal, fund raising by Rauf from foreign countries for the mosque would be permitted. According to the NY Post:

“Abdul Rauf said funds for the center will come from Muslims and members of his congregation.

But a London-based Arabic-language newspaper that interviewed Abdul Rauf reported that he says he also will collect money from Muslim and Arab nations around the world — raising the possibility his goodwill mission could help him build contacts in oil-rich states.”

-August 25, 2010, Mayor Bloomberg during the annual iftar dinner held at Gracie Mansion, declared there should be “no compromise” on the mosque.

Bloomberg:

“But if we say that a mosque or a community center should not be built near the perimeter of the World Trade Center site, we would compromise our commitment to fighting terror with freedom.

“We would undercut the values and principles that so many heroes died protecting. We would feed the false impressions that some Americans have about Muslims. We would send a signal around the world that Muslim Americans may be equal in the eyes of the law, but separate in the eyes of their countrymen. And we would hand a valuable propaganda tool to terrorist recruiters, who spread the fallacy that America is at war with Islam.”

In attendance at the iftar dinner, Daisy Khan, wife of Imam Rauf. and the developer of the Park 51 project,
Sharif El-Gamal. During the dinner, Bloomberg defended Rauf:

“Before closing, let me just add one final thought: Imam Rauf, who is now overseas promoting America and American values, has been put under a media microscope. Each of us may strongly agree or strongly disagree with particular statements that he has made. And that’s how it should be – this is New York City.

“And while a few of his statements have received a lot of attention, I would like to read you something that he said that you may not have heard. At an interfaith memorial service for the martyred journalist Daniel Pearl, Imam Rauf said, quote, ‘If to be a Jew means to say with all one’s heart, mind, and soul: Shma` Yisrael, Adonai Elohenu Adonai Ehad; Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One, not only today I am a Jew, I have always been one.’

-August 27, 2010, Reuters reported Ground Zero Muslim center may get public financing:

“(Reuters) – The Muslim center planned near the site of the World Trade Center attack could qualify for tax-free financing, a spokesman for City Comptroller John Liu said on Friday, and Liu is willing to consider approving the public subsidy.”

-August 27, 2010, CBS News reported “Ground Zero Mosque” Developer Sharif El-Gamal: No Money from Iran, Hamas:

“Sharif El-Gamal, the developer behind the so-called “Ground Zero Mosque,” told CBS News in an interview last night that the backers of the project will not take money from “organizations that have un-American values.”"

El-Gamal stated “we will not take money from Iran” or “Hamas”. El-Gamal stated, so far, he’d raised “$10,000 in donations from a Muslim congregation for the “$100 million project”.

CBS News:

“El-Gamal kicked off a fundraising effort for the site today with an announcement that he had secured $10,000 in donations from a Muslim congregation for the $100 million project. The New York Times noted in a story discussing the difficulty of completing the project yesterday that “Mr. Gamal has yet to secure financing, hire an architect, incorporate the nonprofit entity that will run the center, start its fund-raising, recruit its board members, or present formal feasibility studies and business plans to community meetings.”

FOX News filed the following report:

Who is Hisham Elzanaty? According to sources Elzanaty Hisham is the “owner of several medical companies run out of a building in the Bronx. East Tremont medical center is a clinic”.

“The State of NY Office of the Medicaid Inspector General sent Elzanaty a letter on Nov. 9th, 2009, informing him that an audit revealed that his agency billed for unsubstantiated services in the amount of $331,336.”

On the court dockets, a case filed by State Farm Automobile Insurance in 2007 against:

Accurate Medical, P.C., J.P. Medical, P.C., Quality Medical Health Care Provider, P.C., Jadawiga Pawlowski, David M. Burke and Hisham Elzanaty

The charge: racketeering. According to sources, Elzanaty is an Egyptian in his early fifties who resides in the Bronx.

So how to explain Mayor Bloomberg’s vociferous backing of a project which includes building another mosque in Manhattan, making a total of 18 mosques in Manhattan? A project which the developer was, according to news sources, “waiting tables in Manhattan five years ago” then managed to plunk down $4.8 million in cash “last year” for the property where the mosque will be located? The developer’s mysterious loan guarantee partner who backed up the $39 million the mosque developer used to acquire another property in Manhattan?

Call us cynical but we believe the answer lies in the Middle East and the turf war being waged between Reuters and Bloomberg L.P.. Reuters’ key strategy of appointing Muslims to head the company’s Middle Eastern organization. The close relationship developed by Reuters and their Muslim employees with the financial heads of the Islamic Finance world. Reuters making history in developing the first Islamic finance portals which Bloomberg dubs “terminals”. By the summer of 2010, with Reuters winning several key battles in the Middle East, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who owns 85% of Bloomberg L.P., began a public campaign to back the Ground Zero mosque. A project which the billionaire politician declared it’s against American values to investigate a religious organization. Mayor Bloomberg rallied in front of the Statue of Liberty, wrapping himself in the Constitution while defending this particular mosque project. Mayor Bloomberg decreeing it was against American values to investigate the developer of the mosque or the source of the funds needed to build the mosque. Mayor Bloomberg playing the shame game, stating opponents of the mosque, should be ashamed of themselves. Shaming is a form of manipulation. In this case, a very powerful politician who happens to be a billionaire whose company is currently engaged in a turf war over global domination of the financial news market. A market worth billions. A market located in the Middle East, the Islamic Finance market.

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Tags: Ground Zero mosque, Mayor Bloomberg