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| ISIS gold, silver and copper coins |
According to CNN, the group’s aim is to stay away from the “tyrant’s financial system,” ISIS said in a statement. The group said it would issue another statement to explain the new currency’s exchange rate, and where it can be found.
The Independent Newspaper reported that the militant group on Thursday declared it will start circulating an independent currency as it attempts to establish an Islamic state across the Middle East.
The currency will include seven coins: two gold, three silver and two copper coins.
This action is “purely dedicated to God” and will remove Muslims from the “global economic system that is based on satanic usury,” ISIS said.
The terror group, which calls itself the Islamic State, has seized large swaths of territory in Iraq and Syria.
The group is attempting to establish an Islamic state in the region.
“Unlike its predecessor al Qaeda, which raised money principally from external sources … ISIS is principally, primarily self-funded,” Jimmy Gurule, a former U.S. Treasury undersecretary, told CNN’s “The Lead with Jake Tapper” on Thursday.
He said the group’s funding comes from oil, ransom payments, taxes and the sale of stolen artifacts.
“This is the wealthiest terrorist organization that the world has ever known, and so with that kind of money it’s hard to understand — what’s the potential? What could they do with that?” Gurule said.
He added: “The difficulty, of course, with that kind of money is you can’t just put that money in shoe boxes and place it under your mattress. It has to enter into the financial system at some point in time. So I think the Treasury needs to be focusing on banks, banks in Qatar for example in Kuwait that may be the recipients and handling money for ISIS.”
Charlie Winter, a researcher at the counter extremism think-tank the Quilliam Foundation, said the announcement was initially shared by a prominent Isis propagandist on social media.
He told The Independent Newspaper: “Isis has spoken about introducing its own currency for a while but now it has made the official announcement.
Mr Winter said the group did not specify where they will begin circulating the currency, but is likely to be circulated in Raqqa, Syrian stronghold first.
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