Will ISIS Introduce Its Own Currency?
ISIS wants to introduce its own currency and plans to bring back solid gold and silver dinar coins, the Daily Mail reports . The Middle East terror group apparently wants to introduce its own Islamic currency as part of its attempts to solidify its makeshift caliphate.
Militants are said to want to bring back the original dinar, which is an ancient currency from early Islam, and religious figures in Mosul and Iraq’s Nineveh province have apparently announced its return in mosques.
The currency, which could be introduced within the next few weeks, will involve changing from regular dinars and Lira to golden dinars and silver dirhams.
“While ISIS has yet to confirm the introduction of its currency, social media is awash with claims that leading religious figures announced the plans during recent prayers in Mosul and Nineveh province.”
I am used to taking news reported by the Daily Mail with a bit of salt, so I searched for independent reports. I found only one, written two days before the Daily Mail article:
“Multiple reliable sources have confirmed ISIS is in advanced planning to implement a gold and silver based currency for use inside areas of Syria and Iraq under [their] control. The plans were announced at Friday prayers in Mosul and Nineveh, the currency could be live in the next few weeks or sooner.”
I have been unable to find the promised “multiple reliable sources,” and the social media are not exactly “awash with” ISIS gold as far as I can see, so I suspect that the story has been blown out of proportions. However, it looks like something that that the ISIS might want to do.
The historical gold dinar, which was a leading coin of early Islam, was used without appreciable change for the whole of Umayyad period. The coins were struck to a carefully controlled standard of 4.25 grams. The gold was mined at a location owned by the Caliph himself – known on the coins as the “Mine of the Commander of the Faithful.” The silver counterpart of the dinar, known as the dirham, was a 3 grams silver coin.
ISIS is Earning About $1Million a Day
Last month, it emerged that ISIS, which also goes by the name Islamic State, is earning about $1million a day from black market oil sales alone. Treasury Department’s David Cohen said the extremists also get several million dollars a month from wealthy donors, ransom payments, extortion rackets and other criminal activities, such as robbing banks.
According to reports, ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was injured in a recent airstrike by US-led coalition forces.
What do you think of the alleged ISIS plans to bring back gold and silver dinars? Comment below!
Images from Wikimedia Commons and Shutterstock.
