Islamic "Gold" Dinar Will Minimize Dependency On US Dollar
Malaysian Times - Business section April 22, 2003
Malaysia will start using the Islamic gold dinar starting mid
2003 in its foreign trade section with some countries
replacing the U.S. dollar in a first step move toward unifying
the currency used in commercial dealings between Islamic
countries.
The success of this idea, according to several western
newspapers, may lead to minimizing the U.S. dollar
hegemony as an intermediate tool in commercial dealings in
the world.
The idea was adopted by Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir
Mohamad who conducted bilateral talks during the year
2002 with several Islamic countries, including Bahrain,
Libya, Morocco and Iran, to convince them of using the
Islamic dinar as a way of payment in their commercial
dealings with Malaysia.
This move is considered from one side a way to recall a
currency related to the history of Muslims and their
monetary heritage since the time of Prophet Muhammad
(peace be upon him), and from the other side, the ability to
find the Islamic alternative to the dollar at a time the calls
to boycott all what is labelled as American starting from
goods to currency, are intensified.
The idea of the Islamic gold dinar belongs to Professor
Omar Ibrahim Fadillo, founder of the Morabeteen
International Organization founded in 1983 in South Africa
where it is widely known as well as in Europe.
The organization believes that the unity of the Islamic world
can not be achieved except through the unification on the
economic level. It also calls for the establishment of a
united Islamic market using one currency which is the gold
Islamic dinar used by the Morabeteen members, hoping it
will replace the U.S. dollar.
"The idea of the Islamic gold dinar aims at minimizing the
hegemony of the U.S. dollar and to use the gold once again
as an international currency because the value of the paper
currencies is in continuous fluctuation unlike the stable gold
currency which preserve its value through the value
of the metal itself.
The system is built on the idea that the Islamic
governments keep the gold in a central bank and use it in
settling their commercial dealings instead of depending on
foreign fund markets and foreign financial corporations. The
first Islamic gold dinar, equivalent to 4.25 grams of
22-karat gold, was issued in 1992 on a very limited scale
between the member of the Morabeteen.
Several countries around the world are currently dealing
directly with 100,000 Islamic gold dinars and 250,000 silver
dirhams issued by the company, hoping that one day it will
replace the U.S. dollar in the dealings of the 1.3 billion
citizens of the Islamic countries.
"Consequently, the gold dinar will be the ideal currency to
facilitate and increase international trade and minimizing
speculation in paper currency that led to the Asian currency
crisis in 1997," Dr. Muhammad Sheriff Bashir said.
The existence of a fund unity between the countries of the
Muslim world will increase the amount of trade between
them and will help in increasing the economic development
if the conditions for the success of the gold dinar were
provided, he added.
Malaysian Times |
