The
following news stories, coupled with the recent unveiling of a gold ATM in Abu Dhabi seem like the first steps on
the road to a trend:
1. Apparently the Malaysian state of Kelantan introduced some time ago the gold Dinar and the silver Dirham as legal tender, and the coins are in
circulation with at least 3 different banks responsible for coinage and
distribution. Interestingly, one of the reasons given by the chief minister of
the state of Kelantan for introducing the coins, is that:
“the poor would be protected against inflation by the intrinsic value of the precious metals”
Who would have expected an Islamist party
member from provincial Malaysia to speak words straight from an Austrian Economic
Theory textbook?
2. An amazing video from Indonesia, where a private Islamic organization is coining – you guessed it – gold Dinars and silver Dirhams. Their explanation for doing it, and the interviews with ordinary people using the coins for their savings, are eye-opening. One of the interviewees frames it as follows:
“The Dinar and Dirham represent a moral movement of maximum individual freedom”
It seems that this coinage movement sees
itself as both enabling individual freedom from banking manipulation and the
resulting inflation (obliteration of savings), and as a protest against state
corruption and central bank control over individual lives (centrally controlled
interest rates).
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