Fintech Company Posts Islamist Radicals on London Buses to Promote Sharia Finance

(Facebook photo posted by Wahed Finance )

Anyone riding public transit in London over the past few months has seen the posters. Emblazoned on buses, roadside transit shelters, and the walls of underground Tube stations—all under the jurisdiction of Transport for London (TfL)—they feature Zimbabwean Salafi cleric Mufti Ibrahim Menk, who once described gays as “worse than animals.” The mufti smiles as his open briefcase full of U.S. dollars and euros goes up in flames, an obvious critique of Western banking and investment practices as a source of evil.

Another poster displays burning dollars and euro banknotes flying around the heads of Menk and Russian prizefighter Khabib Nurmagomedov as they make a one-fingered-salute to the sky, signifying Tawhid, or the oneness of God. The posters call on viewers to “Join the Money Revolution.” It’s a summons to participate in a sharia-compliant finance scheme organized by Wahed Invest, a $300 million, New York-based financial technology (fintech) company launched in 2017 and backed by Saudi Aramco and French Manchester United midfielder Paul Pogba.

Wahed Invest offers a similar message in ads posted on Facebook, which declare, “Mufti Menk and Khabib are taking over London’s streets to help join the fight against Riba!” (“Riba” is the Arabic word for interest on money.)

A voiceover from Menk, who leads the Fatwa Department of the Council of Islamic Scholars of Zimbabwe, declares, “It’s time to withdraw from Riba, from a financial system that doesn’t serve Muslims. Riba creates an unequal society of haves and have-nots, creating wealth for a few at the expense of the majority. We know how hard it can be to avoid interest in a society where we are surrounded by it. But together, we can reshape the future of finance—one that’s fairer, transparent, and built on trust.”

Promoted by Divisive Preacher
By picking Menk, listed by the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Center in Jordan as one of the world’s most influential Muslims, as its “brand partner,” Wahed Invest reveals its strategy of catering to British Muslims sympathetic to the cause of Islamism in the United Kingdom. Menk’s Islamist credentials are impeccable. Singaporean officials banned him from visiting that city in 2017 for what the country described as “unacceptable ... segregationist and divisive teachings.” Danish officials banned him from entering their country for two years in November 2023 “in consideration of the public order.” Officials canceled Menk’s 2013 speaking tour of universities in the U.K. after comments he made in 2011 came to light. “With all due respect to the animals, they are worse than those animals,” he said of homosexuals, according to the Huffington Post. He has since retracted these comments.

Menk hasn’t slowed down a bit in the years since. In a May 2024 podcast interview, which has garnered more than one million views, Menk accused Israel and its Western allies of “killing kids and women … with so much pride and joy” and of “cheering the genocide on in a loud and proud way.” He also declared, “If they can do that there, then surely these guys have no humanity in them whatsoever. They would, without blinking an eyelid, do it anywhere else on earth.”

Menk’s companion in the subway ads, Khabib Nurmagomedov, has unsavory connections of his own. Chechen warlord Ramzan Kadyrov, a key ally to Russia’s Vladimir Putin, has given the mixed martial artist and Ultimate Fighting Championship world champion luxury cars and honorary citizenship, GB News reported. “Khabib,” as he is known, used his influence as a Russian celebrity and one of the world’s most popular Muslim athletes to further his ultra-conservative worldview by calling for all nightclubs in his native Dagestan to be closed in 2018. When Khabib criticized a sold-out rap concert in Makhachkala, Dagestan, that same year, Russian rapper Egor Kreed canceled his performances. Kreed was apparently “threatened by a group of extremist-minded individuals,” Dagestan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs reported.

Pushback on Ads

The presence of Menk and Khabib on London’s buses did not sit well with everyone. Susan Hall, a Conservative member of the London Assembly and former mayoral candidate, told GB News: “The Wahed advert on [Transport for London] services begs a lot of questions about the Mayor’s policing of advertising,” adding that “If Wahed had wanted to advertise their platform with a high-calorie meal on the Tube, it would be banned, but apparently a preacher banned from other countries for promoting religious discord is fine.”

Hall raises a legitimate point. TfL’s advertising policy, affirmed in 2016, proclaims, “We expect advertisers to share our values and we want our network to carry the very best advertising, which informs and delights our customers.” It continues: “London shapes the advertising market, both in the UK and beyond. We have a hugely important role to play.... We also aspire to ensure we don’t carry advertising which is offensive, insensitive, promotes violence, hate, intolerance or inequality, or is purposefully controversial.”

While London Mayor Sadiq Khan promised to review the Wahed ads, he later denied having any veto over them, despite having intervened previously in ad campaigns on TfL. A spokesperson for the mayor sent a statement to Focus on Western Islamism (FWI): “The Mayor is clear that there is no place for hate in London and he strongly condemns any language which divides London’s amazing diverse communities. The Mayor has no involvement in approving or deciding which ads run on the TfL network, and TfL’s policy reflects legal requirements.”

In response to an FWI query, a TfL spokesperson said: “We have been informed that (independent regulator) the Advertising Standards Authority is undertaking an investigation into recent adverts from Wahed. We have therefore paused all current and future advertisements from the company until the outcome of this investigation is known.”

TfL’s decision to cancel the ads suggests that there is a limit to how far Islamists can go in their campaign to promote divisiveness and isolationism in U.K.’s Muslim community. The controversy also highlights the hypocrisy of Islamists enjoying the fruits of England’s economy even as they attack its capitalist underpinnings.