JEDDAH, 13 November 2004 — Unscrupulous traders are turning Zakah Al-Fitr into a business instead of the charity it is supposed to be. Street peddlers are raking in cash by recycling rice bought for use as a charitable donation through relatives posing as poor and needy.
Zakah Al-Fitr is a small amount that Muslims are obliged to pay as charity at the end of Ramadan. Muslims must do this, young or old, if financially able. Each gives away 2.5 kg of rice or grain — costing around SR10 — to the needy and the poor.
It must be given away during the last 10 days of Ramadan, the deadline being the Eid prayer or before dawn.
Rice tradesmen take advantage of this and raise the prices. Rice peddlers are crowding the streets, mosques, stores, displaying their products in unhygienic conditions. Beggars, some of whom are not truly in need, throng those giving out the zakah. Some who pose as “needy” take the bags of rice and give them back to the peddlers to be resold.
In the south of Jeddah there is a new phenomenon. There are peddler pitches run by families of up to 10 members. Some of the family members do the selling while others pose as beggars. The spoils are divided at the end of the day.
There is however a rising awareness among many givers of charity that all is not well.
Ahmad Abdulaziz has been in the business for 10 years in the Al-Hindawiya neighborhood. “No one from my family works with me but there are always people around the pitches acting as if they are poor but they are not,” he said. “They take the zakah and return it to a peddler where the same thing gets sold again. This is bad for our reputation as honest peddlers.”
Fuad Mahmoud said he gave charity money to the imam of a mosque to distribute among the needy. “I’m not going to look into who is cheating, who is buying or who is selling.”
Ibrahim Abda said he bought coupons for Zakah Al-Fitr from commercial centers that distribute zakah among the poor and needy all over the world.
“I distribute my zakah personally,” Fawaz Hamed told Arab News. “I do this to make sure that it reaches those who need it most. I do not trust middlemen, coupons or anything else.”
