Najia Lofti, the president of Islamic banking in Catalonia who defends the burka

Najia Lofti has been in the spotlight these days due to her controversial intervention on Gemma Nierga's program on TVE, El Cafè d’Idees. She participated in a debate about the Islamic veil. A very trendy topic in Catalonia, after Aliança Catalana presented a motion in Parliament to ban the veil in schools.

Lofti claimed that the burka is not "religious," but "cultural," and that women wear it "because they want to go like that". This caused a lot of outrage. They accuse the Spanish public television of whitewashing misogyny and the oppression of women.

The protagonist of the controversy, Najia Lofti, is the president of CoopHalal, a financial institution based in Barcelona. She is the driving force behind the so-called Islamic Banking, which preaches finance according to the Quran and Islamic law (sharia). This has previously been warned as a sign of the dominant role that Islam is acquiring in our societies.

The controversy brings Islamic Banking back into the spotlight. CoopHalal, an entity often promoted by public authorities and Catalan media, is presided over by someone who denies that the burka is an imposition. A demonstration of how Islamism (in this case the whitewashing of the Taliban regime) can sometimes disguise itself with social projects and a friendly face.

What is Islamic banking

Islamic banking landed in Barcelona in 2015 with Najia Lofti, a former Moroccan deputy of an Islamist party linked to the Muslim Brotherhood. She has always denied the connection with this organization.

Spanish of Moroccan origin, after earning a doctorate in Economics from Rey Juan Carlos University, she devised the launch of a halal banking project. She herself described it as "a bank governed by sharia and the precepts of the Quran." Islamic banking "sets several red lines such as usury, abuses, speculation, or ambiguities in contracts."

It started with six partners and now they exceed 170 and 250,000 euros in assets. Based on Caspe Street in Barcelona, they are not a conventional bank. They do not have ATMs or credit cards, but they offer financial products such as commission-free mortgages or loans to finance housing.

The cooperative itself describes itself as a third way between socialism and capitalism. Its idea is based on the cooperation and solidarity of its partners. And on the idea that money should not be used to get rich but to generate wealth.

Subsidized by Ada Colau

But this economist was also embroiled in controversy for posting a photo of Hitler on her social media. She later deleted the post, although several Arab entities threatened to denounce her. She says she doesn't remember why she did it, and downplays it.

As we said, public authorities have promoted Islamic banking in Catalonia. Particularly the Barcelona city council. Under Ada Colau's mandate, the council subsidized CoopHalal and another Islamic entity presided over by Naija Lofti with 21,800 euros.

These subsidies were granted with concepts such as 'Promotion and Dissemination of microfinance and alternative finance within the Islamic finance model.' Or 'Discovering the principles of Islamic finance.'

Now Naija Lofti is once again the subject of controversy for her relativization of what the burka means for women. Saying that in Afghanistan women wear the burka "because they want to" when there is a Taliban regime that forces them is shocking. Nevertheless, she has received public money for her projects and has a platform on public television.