ISIS Media Promote Its New Gold Dinar Currency

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On October 11, 2015, the Islamic State (ISIS) media group Al-Hayat released a 5-minute video titled "The Dark Rise of Banknotes and the Return of the Gold Dinar" available in five languages, which presents the ISIS project to establish its own currency[1] and explains the rationale behind it. The video was mainly distributed through Twitter and Telegram and was made available on hosting platforms such as Archive.org.

The video features animated graphics illustrating the narration

In the short video, which is slickly produced and features voice over in five different languages (Arabic, English, Russian, French and Turkish), ISIS praises its project to reestablish a gold standard in the form of minted gold, silver and copper coins, emulating the Umayyad and subsequent caliphates.

The animation uses strong symbolism, such as charging horses and swords, to set the current ISIS policy in the context of the early Islamic tradition

The ISIS caliphate and the return to the traditional golden dinar is shown in the video as the means to reinstate the natural order as envisioned by ISIS. The video end with an invitation for all ISIS supporters to watch the previously released hour-long video[2] that develops the narrative behind the new currency.

The ISIS narrative presents its new currency as a means to destroying the U.S. banking system of "interest and tyranny" as shown in the above images from the video

The establishment of a new currency is an integral part of ISIS' efforts to build a state and its quest for "normalcy."[3] It has been recently reported that ISIS has banned citizens living in its territory from using Syrian paper bills[4] and that it is trying to implement its own new mean of exchange. In a large territory comprising an estimate of over 8 million inhabitants, ISIS is highly dependent on the import of goods to maintain its permanent military campaigns. The circulation of gold may be a way for ISIS to export the captured resources (mainly petrol) in exchange for gold and support a local economy severely affected by the war. Furthermore, the establishment of a gold Dinar currency reinforces ISIS' position as a Caliphate State, based on early Islamic tradition; ISIS presents itself as the sole means to destroy the corrupt Western world and its Arab allies.

The video being distributed in several languages on the new "channel" feature of the Telegram messaging app