By Khedr Abdel Baki, IOL Correspondent
DAKAR, October 24 (IslamOnline.net) - Senegal’s Islamic development studies and research network is organizing during the holy month of Ramadan a series of seminars to raise Muslims’ awareness of Zakah and discuss the establishment of a national Zakah committee in the country.
"These seminars will include in-depth discussions and researches about Zakat and a national Zakah committee," Ibrahim Mahmoud Jhoob, the network chairman, told IslamOnline.net.
He added that the main goal of the efforts is to raise awareness among the country’s Muslim majority about the role of Zakah, especially after several field studies have shown poor religious knowledge of the issue.
Jhoob said the seminars will bring together the country’s intelligentsia, especially scholars and imams, to whom Muslims resort for information and education about Zakah-related issues.
He added that other sessions will also involve accountants, traders and economists.
Most Muslims prefer to pay their annual Zakah, the third pillar of Islam, during the holy fasting month of Ramadan.
National Body
Jhoob said participants will also mull the possibility of forming a national Zakah body.
"A major goal of the seminars is to form a national Zakah committee to be responsible for drawing up programs to invest the Zakah money."
The proposed committee will conduct studies and field researches on Zakah-related issues and train people in the Senegalese national institutions, Jhoob said.
He expected the envisaged committee to play a pivotal role in helping Islamic relief efforts, not dependant on grants and donations from Islamic and western countries in the absence of local financial resources.
Jhoob also highlighted the scholars’ role in rendering successful efforts to establish the Zakah committee.
"If they [scholars] are convinced and stepped up strenuous efforts within their circles of influence the results will be very fruitful."
There are no official Zakah bodies in Senegal. Zakah is being individually paid to scholars and imams.
Muslims make up 95% of the Senegal’s 10-million population.
In 2000, efforts to establish an Islamic body for Zakah covering the countries of west Africa proved futile due to poor financial contributions and procedural problems.
As part of an ambitious plan to channel Zakah (alms) money into productive projects to help needy Palestinians, a charity is helping Palestinian families launch their own businesses.
A cohort of Palestinian intellectuals proposed on October 17, setting up a central Zakah fund to channel the alms into productive projects to combat poverty and create more jobs for the poor Palestinians.