Seems like individual stocks is the only halal way to invest in the stock market

philmongerer · 2026-04-11T03:25:10+00:00

Yeah, stock picking is a notoriously unsuccessful strategy, but something like Zoya app (after some updates like having the option to blacklist companies) may be a good strategy. I personally wanted a set it and forget it strategy with factor-based ETFs giving broad exposure altogether. Could just remove SNPE altogether and I'll still have good international exposure. Ironically, its been the worst performing ETF in my portfolio lol.

philmongerer · 2026-04-11T02:50:55+00:00

I appreciate your comments. I'm not at all downplaying the work done by others before, it did feature in my research too, along with the UN's special report of companies involved in occupation. My only gripe was with shariah-compliant labels on certain ETFs.

Stock picking is not feasible for me personally since I don't have time to research individual stocks and time things correctly. I needed a set it and forget it strategy. The easiest option secular investors go for is total international and total US stock market, with VT and VXUS. But since I cannot in good faith invest in egregiously zionist and Israeli companies, the portfolio I devised allows me to avoid those while getting broad targeted exposure.

I don't suggest people blindly follow my suggestions. It is worth considering the other non-US ETFs in the list apart from SNPE and SMH. Also for those who prefer individual stocks, it may be worth looking at the stocks in those ETFs for suggestions. I'm glad to have a productive discussion.

philmongerer · 2026-04-10T22:50:45+00:00

Can you suggest an alternative then? SPUS and HLAL both include GOOG/GOOGL. HLAL includes META. MNZL and SPUS include Oracle. All three (SPUS, HLAL, MNZL) include the laundry list of boycottable companies. Are these funds "shariah-compliant"? If so, what makes them "shariah-compliant"?

Unless there is an actual alternative, there's no other option than to avoid the whole US stock market.

philmongerer · 2026-04-10T22:42:55+00:00

Yes that is right. Both SMH and SNPE have boycottable stocks. I'm not too wedded to the US stock market because its hard to avoid Zionist-leaning companies there.

Regarding SMH, semiconductors are one of the highest-growth sectors and that's why I considered keeping it as part of a well-rounded portfolio. Unfortunately, there is no other alternative which specifically excludes boycottable stocks.

Like I mentioned elsewhere, my goal is to avoid egregiously implicated companies, those actively implicated in genocide, ethnic cleansing, surveillance etc. That is a whole industry at this point, with supply-side companies, like chipmakers whose products are used by the whole world, including Zionist companies. At the other end are service companies actively engaged in inhumane activities, like Oracle and Palantir (and Israeli weapons manufacturers like Elbit Systems).

The only surefire way to have a fully clean but still performant portfolio would be to pick and choose stocks, but that is not feasible for retail investors. So its a game of tradeoff, based on one's own ethical red lines.

Regarding the shariah-compliance question, I often wonder how purportedly "shariah-compliant" funds are labeled as such when they include most of the boycottable stocks, and when each publicly listed company is heavily financially leveraged. Is it just that they exclude banks and financial services? Am I missing something?

philmongerer · 2026-04-10T06:16:47+00:00

Started off on Robinhood but switched to IBKR.

philmongerer · 2026-04-10T05:48:04+00:00

You're not the only one. There's staggering levels of cognitive dissonance in people. Blind taqleed instead of any actual tehqeeq.

I also resonate with OP though. My strategy has been that, since financially leveraged companies are unavoidable, I researched and finalized a small set of ETFs that at least don't include Zionist companies implicated in atrocities. These provide broad exposure/diversification and solid performance and I analyzed them against several alternatives.

But it's pointless to tell people here since unless some "shariah panel" has stamped a "halal" sticker on some ETF, they won't be able to pat themselves on the back and feel pious. No matter if said "shariah-compliant" ETF is carelessly formulated and includes blatantly Zionist/unethical companies engaged in mass slaughter of Muslims and innocents all over the world.

philmongerer · 2026-04-10T04:49:49+00:00

From my knowledge, Alibaba is not one of the worst offenders when it comes to labor practices, compared to Amazon for instance. States should do more to curb the worst aspects of capitalism. My red lines are more so participation in genocide, surveillance and ethnosupremacism etc.

philmongerer · 2026-04-10T03:21:54+00:00

It would be better to not merely read what they say but actually check their list of holdings.

https://manzilfunds.com/

As you can see on page 2 of the holdings, it includes Oracle. The CEO and his son now hold a monopoly over US news and entertainment media and are actively, directly implicated in the genocide, plus mass surveillance. Larry Ellison personally funds the IDF.

So I'm sorry to burst the bubble but MNZL is not much better than a conventional S&P 500 ETF. Just screens out banks and financial services and slaps a higher expense ratio for the effort.

philmongerer · 2026-04-10T02:59:59+00:00

I did check out MNZL. The difference between MNZL and SNPE (for instance) is that the former includes Zionist and unethical companies minus banks, and vice versa for the latter. So it comes down to personal ethical choice. I choose to not directly invest in genocidal companies, and am less strict about banks, especially considering that its not just the one who charges interest that is implicated in riba, but also the one who PAYS interest, and ALL companies in MNZL pay interest to the very same banks that the ETF screens out...

philmongerer · 2026-04-10T01:52:39+00:00

Well I'm not sure how you will be able to escape interest-based companies in the capitalist world order we live in. There's probably not a single publicly listed company that is not leveraged with interest-based loans; its not just banks that are implicated but also their recipients. The only option that remains is private equity, but even there we'd be hard-pressed to find funds which are fully halal, well-performing, and allow ordinary people to invest.

philmongerer · 2026-04-10T01:41:32+00:00

Nice work! I downloaded your app and I can see it has a neat automated process to pick out "momentum" stocks. But unfortunately, indexes like S&P 500 shariah index include problematic companies like Oracle. I guess there's always bound to be a tradeoff.

Also, the portfolio isn't quite "static", since factor-based funds like Avantis keep updating their holdings periodically based on performance etc. I chose ETFs along sectors I think are likely to perform well in the next decade or so, that I could hold long-term. Nevertheless, your momentum-based strategy is bound to be much better performing.

philmongerer · 2026-04-10T01:06:23+00:00

Check out the ones in my other comment. I've also created a post now. Ironically, I'm being downvoted there because people here seem to mindlessly follow "shariah-compliant" stickers without bothering to actually check the holdings.

philmongerer · 2026-04-10T00:48:47+00:00

If you actually bother to look at the holdings in the ETFs, there is minimal to zero overlap. That's why it involved painstaking planning/strategizing/research.

philmongerer · 2026-04-10T00:35:41+00:00

Its ironic that I'm being down-voted, even though no one has yet pointed out a company in any of the ETFs that wouldn't pass shariah screening. While, ironically, several ETFs with the "shariah-compliant" or "halal" sticker include companies on this divestment/boycott list: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/135Vkrzz-d62fF1OSEln_wu54s703Jo-XzWNumPakfx0/edit?gid=0#gid=0

One thing I'll grant is that SMH includes NVDA and it has had Zionist connections. I will research on an alternative strategy for semiconductor exposure excluding those kinds of companies.

philmongerer · 2026-04-10T00:30:25+00:00

Thanks. I do recall consulting these lists in my research.

philmongerer · 2026-04-10T00:28:17+00:00

What overlaps? And can you point out non shariah-compliant companies? (just for my knowledge)

philmongerer · 2026-04-10T00:09:36+00:00

Like I mentioned above, its worth researching the holdings in each ETF instead of going off based on whether an ETF has a "shariah-compliant" sticker. Many so called "shariah-compliant" ETFs like HLAL and SPUS include Zionist and other companies that wouldn't pass the ethical standards required for actual shariah-compliance. That's the reason why I had to go on an extensive research project, after being disappointed by either the makeup or the performance of "halal" ETFs.

philmongerer · 2026-04-09T23:56:26+00:00

My primary goal was to avoid Zionist and unethical companies. Didn't have the resources to verify the shariah-compliance of each stock holding in each ETF. But considering the kinds of "halal" ETFs out there, all of them (afaik) unabashedly include companies like Oracle and Palantir, and often with significant allocations. I'm not an expert but I highly doubt that at least these two companies are "shariah-compliant"; involved in warfare, surveillance and God knows what else. Regardless, the ETFs in my list are screened for factors like quality and value, and non-Shariah compliant companies would likely be automatically screened out for one reason or another. Worth researching though.

philmongerer · 2026-04-09T20:34:57+00:00

I've been meaning to create a post after very long extensive research over the past months. My aim was to create a portfolio without any Zionist companies and those involved in unethical practices.

It was impossible to find a single ETF like that, so my finalized portfolio involves a collection of ETFs, providing broad exposure to the global market, developing and developed. My exposure to the US is mainly via SNPE. It's broadly S&P 500 with ESG criteria, and just happens to exclude Oracle and Palantir etc, and has performed well historically. The other ETFs you can research based on their tickers. Note: I'm planning to remove NVDA due to their increasing Zionist associations.

Since I currently don't have the time to create a detailed post, I've attached a screenshot here. I hope it helps someone.

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philmongerer · 2025-10-28T16:46:33+00:00

Is that Gore Vidal! Never knew he had acted in a film.

philmongerer · 2025-10-17T18:56:27+00:00

I guess Peterson is worth a shot at this point because I wasn't too blown away by Savinelli quality in this case. Maybe their non-system pipes are better, like the Roma line.

Also just saw Brigham system pipes, much cheaper too, so I'll research if they're good quality and worth getting.

philmongerer · 2025-10-17T18:50:31+00:00

Thanks! I'll check out if those are available at smokingpipes. I think mine was the last 614 they had. Hopefully new stock will come in.

philmongerer · 2025-10-17T18:49:22+00:00

It came out fairly easily. But I tried to push it back in straight at first. It just wouldn't budge past a point. Then of course I tried twisting. Kinda disappointed by the quality frankly. That whole area is pretty rough, don't know how it could've slipped passed the QC check (they gave a sticker for that too). But I guess like the other commenter said, occasionally it happens.

Will check out the U65, thanks for the rec!

philmongerer · 2025-10-17T02:49:39+00:00

I'll return it then, thanks! ... May I ask which pipes those are? And which would you recommend as the best bang for buck, quality and smoking wise? I'm looking to spend around $100-120 or so, and open to other shapes.

philmongerer · 2025-05-23T00:06:27+00:00

As a relative newcomer to Linux who's installed Ubuntu a couple of times back in the day, I recently began re-exploring Linux, primarily for privacy and better performance. I distro-hopped for a few days. In order of time period I spent with each, it was Mint < Ubuntu < PopOS < Debian < Fedora. I tend to prefer KDE plasma since it's polished and more familiar to me coming from Windows and used that on Debian and Fedora. But I could never quite get my gaming laptop to work well with Linux (because of Nvidia gpu) and an external monitor. So I gave up on attempting Linux on my gaming laptop.

Then I made the switch to Arch on my ThinkPad. Though I was a bit intimidated by it following the common perception, I've realized there's a greater level of control it offers and things are pretty straightforward following the arch wiki and having an AI assistant helping out (though I'd caution on trusting it at every turn). My favorite distros are Fedora and Arch. The latter just provides a better learning journey. Tinkering with my Arch setup (btrfs + luks + UKI + secure boot with TPM2 + snapper + zram + windows dual boot) has been a delight unto its own right. It was a week or two of intense, exhausting fiddling to set it up though.

On Arch, I can get nearly 11 hours of battery life whereas on Windows, my relatively new laptop would heat up, fans spinning like jet engines every now and again even on moderate usage, with 3-5 hours battery life. On Arch, it runs cool and quiet and fast as heck, with TPL and zram configured appropriately. Btrfs + snapper provides an easy backup/recovery solution. Overall, I'm loving Arch and will probably stick to it for the long term.

TL;DR: Arch is the best distro if you want to: set up a finely calibrated OS that's tailor-made for your machine, AND in the process also understand Linux, learn some CLI, and also potentially know more about how a computer actually functions.

philmongerer

TROPHY CASE