Arab “cell phone stores” and “barber stores” have long been part of Vienna’s cityscape thanks to the open borders policy of the Unity Party. Certain streets in the city seem to consist solely of such stores. The question of how they are able to survive in the face of massive competition is on the minds of some observant Viennese. The Muslim money transfer system called Hawala could provide the answer they are looking for.
Hawala is a Muslim money transfer system in which no physical money crosses state borders, but instead a transnational network of trust comes into play. For example, person A from Vienna wants to transfer money to person B in Damascus. Person A goes to Hawaladar A in Vienna. For a small fee in Vienna, the sum to be transferred is paid out to person B in Damascus by hawaladar B there. This fee is usually lower than that charged by Western Union or conventional banks.
The whole system is based on the honor, reputation and trust of the hawaladars. The Muslim businessmen from Vienna compensate their partners in Damascus for the money transfer with favors or Western goods such as jewelry and electronics in addition to the amount owed.
The way Hawala works shows that money is transferred from Vienna to Muslim countries with a handshake, bypassing state control. This shadow banking system is only possible because the transfers are only carried out between fellow countrymen and fellow believers. No books are kept and if they are, they are destroyed quickly after the transaction is completed. This eliminates bank fees and tax charges for the parties involved.
In addition to hawala, relevant businesses usually offer money transfer services controlled by the authorities, such as Moneygram, and thus feign respectability towards the state and the customer.
This parallel banking system is not only used by Arab clans, but is also used by various Muslim terrorist organizations to obtain financial support from supporters in Austria and Germany. The anonymity and the covering of tracks makes it difficult for the authorities to track down these illegal flows of money. In Austria, if a business is found to be practising hawala, the operator faces a fine of up to 50,000 euros for several administrative violations and tax evasion. In Germany, several Hawala operators have already been convicted of being part of criminal organizations because the court deemed their illegal business to be a repeated commission of criminal offenses.
Hawala can be seen as one of the many consequences of illegal mass immigration since 2015. This flourishing shadow banking system proves that the state is increasingly losing control over the Muslim parallel society. While Austrians are being seized by the tax authorities through increased taxation or the withdrawal of subsidies because of an extra euro on their pay slip, illegal migrants can freely transfer part of their minimum income to their countries of origin for their families or for dubious purposes.
“Hawala” – Moslemisches Schatten-Banksystem führt Staat vor – Unzensuriert