The Islamic State has barely been around for a year and already it has a stronger, more stable currency than either the USA or the European Union:
Islamic State is set to become the only ‘state’ to back its currency with gold (silver and copper) as it unveils the new coins that will be used in an attempt to solidify its makeshift caliphate. ISIS says the new currency will take the group out of “the oppressors’ money system.” As Zaid Benjamin notes, ISIS releases details of its new currancy with golden 1 & 5 dinar, silver 1, 5, 10 dirham and copper 10 & 20 fils
They don’t permit usury and they back their currency with gold. In the long term, Osama bin Laden may have been right about who was the strong horse and who was not. The fact that an ideologically weakened, demographically dying West, which is no longer Christian nor ethnically homogenous, nor nationalistic, still has a technological edge, is not likely to make the difference in the long run.
To paraphrase Tom Kratman: always bring a gun to a gunfight and always bring a religion to a religious war.
This move by ISIS may be particularly effective now that the USA has all but destroyed the international banking system with FATCA and the SWIFT sanctions. Look for Russia and China to follow suit before too long.