Dr. Monzer Kahf, a prominent economist and counselor states: “Bank charges are our contractual obligations as a result of the contract signed with the bank while interest that accrues to the account is not our money because it is not legitimate to earn interest according to Shari’ah. It is still the bank’s money from the point of view of Shari’ah. However, we don’t give it back to the bank not because it is not its but because it pays it by a valid contract according to its laws (though not according to Shari’ah) and returning it to the bank gives it more ability to make more of the evil interest! If it were a normal person whose main line of work is not interest-based we should return it to the person rather than give it to the poor and needy or to Muslim charity for distribution to the poor and needy.”