On January 3, 2022, a pro-Al-Qaeda publisher released the latest issue of its women's magazine, which contains an ar ticle discussing cryptocurrencies, specifically Bitcoin, by a prominent jihadi ideologue. The article was originally posted on Telegram on December 12, 2021
The author of the article
The speculative nature of cryptocurrencies has triggered debate among Islamic scholars in recent years over whether they are halal (religiously permissible). The latest fatwa on the issue is from last November, when the National Religious Council of Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim nation, declared that cryptocurrencies are not compatible with shari'a and should not be used by Muslims. On the other hand, some Salafi-jihadist clerics in recent years have issued fatwas allowing the use of cryptocurrencies for zakat (almsgivings) or have actively called upon Muslims to donate funds for jihad in Bitcoin, for example in support of Hamas in Gaza. Islamist terrorist groups have been using Bitcoin since at least 2014. In 2015, it was reported that the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris were funded by Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) using Bitcoin.
In his article, Abu Qatadah claims that the imams in official institutions who issue fatwas tend to agree with their regimes and help them to stay in power, but people will not follow fatwas that do not serve their personal interests. People trust Bitcoin more than they trust the dollar, which is the strongest currency today. The value of the dollar was initially based on the price of gold, but later it became subject to political decisions by a single country (the U.S) that forced all other countries to conform. In Abu Qatadah's view, the strength of a currency depends more on politics than on economic factors, and is therefore unstable. No currency in our time has the stability that gold and silver offer, he says.
According to Abu Qatadah, the monetary system based on "paper money" is doomed to decline, and the main cause of this decline is "riba". i.e. interest, which is forbidden in Islam. Interest turns money into a commodity, which can be traded and is subject to fluctuations like all other commodities.
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