Shari'a Banking In The UK

According to this article, which I spotted at Mark Alexander's web site:

The British government will announce on Monday [April 30?] that it is set to become the first western state to issue Islamic bonds, seeking to meet what it believes is a significant demand for this financial product both inside and outside the UK.

In what ministers believe will be an important gesture to Britain’s Muslim community, the Treasury will say Monday that it is paving the way for the launch of the first Sharia compliant UK government bonds by 2008.

The move, to be announced by Ed Balls, the City of London minister, is unprecedented by any western state.

Sharia compliant bonds have hitherto been issued by the governments of Pakistan and Malaysia and also by corporate issuers around the world, but never by a western state.

The UK will not only be looking to issue these government bonds on wholesale financial markets. It will also be looking at using Sharia compliant bonds to allow Muslims in Britain to invest in domestic National Savings products through banks and post offices....

So, the financial geniuses in the UK hopes to bolster their economic system. But what they are really doing is, as Mark put it, "capitulating" to Muslims who will not assimilate and giving those Muslims more financial power. In effect, this measure is a harbinger of the demise of a Western financial system.

How long before the United States does something similar?