Minister of State for Islamic Affairs, Dr. Mohamed Ali has said that if Zakat is paid by those who are required to pay then poverty will be eradicated from the Muslim world.
Dr. Mohamed Ali made this remark speaking at the ceremony held to inaugurate the discussions to strengthen the Zakat laws.
“In 2012, Islamic financial analysts estimated annual zakat spending exceeded $200 billion per year, which is estimated to be 15 times global humanitarian aid contributions,” he said.
Dr. Mohamed Ali noted that according to analysts the total cost per year to end extreme poverty worldwide in 20 years would be about $175 billion.
“Last year a country spent about $1000 billion to buy weapons alone,” he said.
“Zakat is the solution to the problem of poverty in the Islamic world. Therefore we should make more efforts to increase it. We should make laws. We should make a system. And Zakat should be collected, managed and paid to its recipients as per that law,” he said.
Dr. Mohamed Ali noted that there was so much prosperity that often it was hard to find an eligible recipient of zakat during the caliphate of Umar.
The state minister stated that to end poverty requires globalisation of Zakat and serious efforts on the part of the OIC-member countries including countries such as Saudi Arabia.