Mauritania’s Council of Ministers has approved a draft decree for the creation of a national body to administer and collect ‘zakat’ or ‘Zakat al-Fitr’, Islam’s compulsory, annual alms.
The Mauritanian government has planned to create a special allocation account for these funds, a donation destined for the most disadvantaged according to the rules of solidarity governed by Islam and stipulated by the ‘sharia’.
As reported by the RFI radio station, this body, called the Mauritanian House of Zakat, has the mission of «ensuring the distribution» of this alms «to those who are entitled to it».
Until now, the collection of this alms was not regulated in the Mauritanian country, as each person has donated it according to his own choice.
According to the aforementioned radio station, the Islamist opposition party Tawassoul did not want to make any statements and is waiting to know more about the mechanism of operation, transparency and management of the future body, which was approved at the beginning of this week.
This draft law would mean the opening of a special bank account to collect donations and in a way that «guarantees transparency, establishes trust, reduces costs and ensures the achievement of the desired objectives, both religious and economic», the government has communicated according to the Mauritanian news agency Nouakchott d’information.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
