CAIRO, 17 December 2002 — Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Dr. Ali Al-Namlah has rejected as baseless the accusations directed against Saudi Arabia’s charitable activities abroad.
In a press statement, Al-Namlah, who was in Cairo to participate in a meeting of Arab ministers of social affairs, said the Kingdom does not interfere in the domestic affairs of the countries where it carries out charitable works.
“Charitable works are carried out after the approval of the authorities concerned in the these countries”, he said, adding that the Kingdom has been calling for moderate Islam that is based on the teachings of the Holy Qu’ran and the Sunnah (the Prophet’s teachings).
In a statement published by the Cairo-based Al-Alem Al-Youm newspaper, Dr. Ahmed Mohammed Ali, president of the Jeddah-based Islamic Development Bank, slammed the “biased campaigns launched against the Islamic banks”, and said that Islamic banks are controlled by central banks.
He said the experiment of Islamic banking has proved successful, and the number of Islamic banks is reaching 200. Dr. Ali pointed out that the Arab and Islamic banks and economies were affected by the incidents of Sept. 11.
He noted that the IDB has so far extended about $27.776 billion for financing about 4,022 development projects. The IDB has been extending support to the Palestinian intifada through special funds such as Al-Aqsa and Al-Quds funds, which received about $670 million. “The Palestinian national authority has received about $480 million”, he added. (SPA)
