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THE GOLD DINAR RESEARCH GROUP

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INTRINSIC value ... Syaikh Abdulqadir as-Sufi displays the Islamic gold dinar coin at a news conference in Putrajaya, July 31.

PUTRAJAYA July 31 - Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad intends to hold a seminar to discuss the introduction of the Islamic gold dinar as a world currency and determine all the parameters of its usage and the dimension of its applications, it was announced today.

An expert on the Islamic gold dinar, Rais Umar Ibrahim Vadillo, said this was expressed to him by Dr Mahathir during their one-hour meeting at the Prime Minister's office here.

Speaking to reporters after accompanying a world reknowned Muslim scholar, Shaykh Abdalqadir as-Sufi, in paying a courtesy call on the Prime Minister, Rais Umar said Dr Mahathir expressed his desire to establish Islamic gold dinar as a world currency.

The seminar would determine the parameters of the gold dinar's usage and the dimension of its applications, said Vadillo.

"The moment Malaysia established the gold currency as legal tender, like the South African kruggerand, then you are (potentially) creating a currency for one billion Muslims," he added.

Besides being a mean of payment for one of the biggest and most homogenous communities in the world, the Islamic dinar is also seen by many people as the only real challenge to the "hegemony of the US dollar", he said.

"Gold itself is not a promise of payment but gold is a merchandise, a commodity. It holds value by itself and it has no inflation."

Rais Umar said studies on the behaviour of gold over several centuries demonstrated that the price of gold had been constant.

"Unlike paper currencies, a piece of gold is of value from day one." He said the expanded use of the Islamic dinar would be to increase its functionality and this need not go through the political process.

"It should be through the spontaneous use of the coin. Let the people use the coin. There are thousands of people using the Islamic dinar in the Muslim world."

Rais Umar said it did not depend how many people were trading with it.

"We can create a trading bloc using gold coins even if only 20 people are trading in it.

Gold does not depend on the credibility of political authorities, gold depends on itself.

That is why it is possible to succeed," he said in reference to the possibility of the Islamic gold dinar being a world currency.

Rais Umar, leader of Murabitun Worldwide Movement, arrived here yesterday for a two-week visit together with Shaykh Abdalqadir, a renowned Islamic speaker and writer who was born in Scotland.

However, Rais Umar did not say when the seminar would be held except saying that Malaysia could play the lead role in establishing the gold currency as legal tender since it would potentially benefit one billion users in the world.

Meanwhile, Shaykh Abdalqadir said Malaysians were fortunate to have a leader in Dr Mahathir who knew the impact of the paper currency manipulation and those behind it.

He said Dr Mahathir had revealed the tactics of certain capitalist forces who had impoverished several Asian economies when they destroyed their currencies.

He praised Dr Mahathir for being a great Muslim leader who had spoken against these manipulators.

He was also confident that Dr Mahathir would lead in the greater use of the real money through the Islamic gold dinar.

Shaykh Abdalqadir last visited Malaysia in 1990 and has been invited to deliver a lecture entitled "The Collaborative Couple" at Universiti Malaya.