HOW SUBSTANTIAL IS THIS MOVEMENT ?

At this stage, the movement to convert from paper money to real money in the Muslim world is small, but if information I have is accurate, it could be about to explode in size driven by the reasons noted above. Here are some of the recent developments which suggest the movement may be well on its way to becoming a monetary force to be reckoned with.

· The State Government of Kelantan, the northeast Sultanate of Malaysia has a week ago officially adopted the ISLAMIC DINAR its economic policy. This means that the ISLAMIC DINAR will circulate through the hands of hundreds of thousands of people in a physical form. It seems possible that as word of this movement travels among Muslims, demand to open accounts and begin using this medium of exchange could grow very rapidly in the Muslim world.

· The ISLAMIC DINAR is now being privately used in more than 22 countries and is currently being minted in four countries. Eventually, the list of countries where it is traded is likely to grow to a much larger number given the large number of Islamic Countries who are members in the Islamic Development Bank, which includes some 51 countries. During 1982, the Islamic Development Bank was prescribed by the IMF as a holder of Special Drawing Rights (SDR's). SDR's are a unit of IMF currency tied to gold. The Islamic Dinar. The Islamic Dinar, which is the unit of account at the Islamic Development Bank, is equal in value to one SDR. Member countries of the Islamic Development Bank are Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Benin, Brunei Darussalam, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Gabon, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Kyrgyz Republic, Lebanon, Libya, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Mozambique, Niger, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leonne, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uganda, United Arab Emirates and Yemen. With a total Muslim population of 1.1 billion (19.2% of the world's population), if even a small percentage of Muslims begin to demand Islamic Dianars as their medium of exchange instead of paper, it could have a dramatic effect on the price of gold.

· An Islamic Agency has been set up to handle accounts and payments between accounts in the city of Dubai. This will allow the use of Islamic Dinars to spread in the Muslim world as a medium of exchange. At present, this undertaking is quite modest, with only $200,000 worth of gold deposited in Dubai. Dubai is viewed as an attractive place to keep money away from the taxation authorities since there are not taxes on individuals, corporation or merchandise sales there. This spokesman for the Islamic Dinar mint also claims his organization has a good relationship with the Royal Family in Dubai, which should help the group's efforts. After the summer a campaign aimed to the Muslim world to open accounts in dinars is anticipated and the goal is to open 10,000 accounts within the first year of operation.

· The organization may link up with another new and exciting development in the modern world as far as gold is concerned. They may soon be trading gold Islamic Dinars globally on the Internet through an organization located at www.e-gold.com . Readers are encouraged to visit this web site for more information, but essentially, the technology now exists to enable you to buy and sell gold right from your computer. It will be quite easy to make compatible our Islamic Agency, which will be operated by a Web Site to your e-gold Web Site.

· The sponsors of the Islamic Dinar will suggest to Muslims that they convert their paper currency denominated accounts into Islamic Dinar in Dubai. In addition to tax aspects, Dubai is an appropriate place from which to launch this new banking enterprise because it is forbidden for Muslims to deposit their money with non-Muslims. In the Qur'an itself, Allah makes this prohibition (which is a command for us) clear precisely when referring to the Islamic Dinar.

· On May 22 through May 24, directors of the Islamic Mint Directors from all over the world were scheduled to meet in Dubai to move this project forward. Stay tuned. I plan to tell you more about this story as it unfolds and how you may be able to begin buying gold by way of e-gold.

At this juncture, the western world could care less about gold because it has convinced itself that man can control his own destiny. Life has been so grand for us in the U.S. and most of the western world over the past 50+ years that we have given ourselves the credit for our prosperity rather than giving God the credit. Given this delusional thinking, we are convinced there is nothing, including matters of money that we cannot fix. This of course is pure rubbish especially when you consider that the depression now faced by Asia was created by excessive international liquidity made possible by the post-Bretton Woods floating rate exchange system. Even as the west experiences a moral decline that will inevitably lead to its destruction, Muslims acknowledge man's true need to live by a higher order. Accordingly, they detonate bombs and build their economies on real money rather than IOU's. Timing is difficult to figure here, but 1 billion+ Muslims beginning to opt for real money rather than the fake stuff, could portend well for the price of gold in the near future.