Under U.S. tax law, individual taxpayers can deduct their payments of certain types of interest, including any paid in the course of their business and interest on their mortgages. Like any interest deduction, the mortgage interest deduction reduces the cost of homeownership, essentially providing a government subsidy for homeownership.That subsidy is unavailable to Muslim homebuyers, though. Islamic law prohibits Muslims from paying interest. To avoid this prohibition banks have created alternative Islamic finance instruments, instruments which allow banks to lend money to Muslim borrowers without charging interest while earning an interest-equivalent return. Although that interest-equivalent return makes Islamic lending financially attractive to banks, it is explicitly not interest. And if it is not interest, the tax law does not provide for its deductibility. Unlike their non-Muslim neighbors, Muslim homeowners bear the full cost of their house. The government has not proffered any accommodation, in spite of the near-identity between the economic situation Muslims face and those faced by their non-Muslim neighbors.