Yet even with the tax break, Texarkana, Arkansas, still cannot compete with Texas because of the usury law.

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Small-time moneylenders that competed with the church, were often denounced for usury.

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Further, the California usury law is one of the strictest of its kind in the nation, with any annual interest rate exceeding 10% deemed usurious.

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There was a great deal of controversy in the Islamic world on this issue as recently as the 1980s, with some prominent Islamic scholars claiming that there was in fact no complete prohibition of interest, only a prohibition of usury, or excessive, unfair interest.

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