Zakat Quotes
“Zakat” is the practice of giving a percentage of one’s property to the poor. This is similar to the concept of tithing and charity in Christianity and Judaism. One difference today is that many of the Muslim nations use the religious requirements as an element of state policy and the social safety net is intertwined by state and church. The Mormon Church in early Utah had the same amalgam of church and state, but that was abandoned in favor of separation of church and state. Turkey went through the same shift in the Ataturk revolution.
The road name is not only descriptive of the fact that Muslims make pilgrimages to Mecca for religious purposes. But by Saudi law, no one but a Muslim may use this road. Everyone in Saudi Arabia must have an identity card and that card is color coded by religion. For American’s the notion that there might be a public road on which only members of one religion may travel is as foreign a concept as there is.
He was referring to a religious requirement in the Koran that Muslims spend 10 percent of their wealth in helping the poor. However, the nation had huge oil revenues and virtually every government purchase and license involved kickbacks and “commissions” to someone—typically a member of the Royal Family or their cronies. See {627158}.
