A radical Muslim leader from Scotland is
calling for paper money to be
scrapped and replaced with gold and silver coins.Followers in Indonesia have already begun using the coins following the teachings of Ian Dallas from Ayr - now known as Sheikh Abdalqadir as-Sufi.
Sheikh Abdalqadir (79) is said to have a devoted band of more than 10,000 followers across the world, called Murabitun.
They boast of support in Scotland and England as well as a dozen other countries including the US, Germany, Spain, Malaysia, Indonesia, India and Turkey.
Conquer
The Sheikh believes Islam can conquer the West with a hard-line interpretation of its laws. However, his organisation opposes terrorism and suicide bombing.
The guru, formerly a London-based TV writer who rubbed shoulders with a host of stars, despises modern capitalism.
His main aim is to restore the 7th-Century systems of trade, in particular the requirement of 'zakat' or the obligatory sharing of wealth, which, he says, must be done with gold or silver if it's paid in money.
As Ian Dallas, the Sheikh lived a Bohemian lifestyle in London in the '60s. He wrote TV shows and was friends with Beatle George Harrison, singer Edith Piaf and rock star Eric Clapton.
It's said he once gave Clapton a copy of the ancient Persian Sufi parable Layla and Majnun, inspiring the classic song Layla.
Converted
In 1967 he met an Islamic scholar in Morocco and converted to Islam, taking the name Abdalqadir.
He spent years travelling in north Africa, learning from leading Muslim scholars before founding the Murabitun in the 1980s.
He's now based in South Africa, having reportedly left Scotland in 2002.
It's believed he hasn't been back since although family and friends are said to be supportive of his work.
Among pronouncements on his website, Sheikh Abdalqadir denounces the state of the world's financial system.
He blasts the 'historical, demonstrated end' of capitalism, and claims Western governments are using terrorism to distract people from the financial crisis.
He says Richard Reid, the 'shoe bomber' who tried to blow up a plane in 2001, and Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, accused of trying to bomb a plane on Christmas Day, were both CIA plants.
Enslaved
"It's time for the enslaved billions of our world today to fear no more the exploding shoes and underpants of the idiot agents of capitalism and to learn what Islam really is," he says.
Followers in Jakarta are now using gold dinars, worth £100, and silver dirhams (£2), specially minted in the country, to trade goods such as food, medicine, clothes and phone cards.
A spokesman for the body responsible for issuing and distributing the dinar in Indonesia, which has a Muslim majority, said, "We decided to mint silver and gold coins following a fatwa issued by Sheikh Abdalqadir banning Muslims from using paper money."
He said coins minted in Indonesia are also in circulation in Australia, Malaysia and Singapore.
Sheikh Abdalqadir didn't respond to our request for a comment.
See also:
Sharia Finance: The Money that Prays
Sharia Showdown on Wall Street
Scotland's own banknotes saved
New banknotes give an edge to HBOS for longer lasting fivers
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