A group of intellectuals and academics attended a forum organized by Asharq Al-Awsat, a sister publication of Arab News, in Riyadh recently to discuss Saudi-US relations after the Sept. 11, 2001 events from a Saudi perspective. In this, the fourth and concluding part of a four-part series, Tariq Al-Homayed, the Jeddah-based managing editor of the paper, reports on discussions on charity work.
In the final session, the participants discussed charity work. Among the questions raised was how priorities are determined, and who should benefit from the donations — the Saudi poor or those living in other countries? Is there poverty in the Kingdom and who should be trusted to manage charitable funds?
Since Sept. 11, the issue has been the subject of discussion at Saudi forums and in the media. People want to know more about the journey of the riyal they willingly gave to help others. They want to know who the final recipient and beneficiary is. One citizen summarized the matter by saying: “I am willing to put a riyal in every box I come across, but would like to know the journey of this riyal from A to Z.”
Businessman and writer Hussein Shobokshi says the issue of the riyal journey is “surrounded by ambiguity” which has to be cleared up.
He said charity organizations must be obliged to exercise transparency and disclose financial statements showing their income and expenses just as other companies do under the rules of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency. It is important to make the operation transparent and disclosure of information is “a desirable thing in our country,” he said.
Charity work in the Kingdom, argued Jarallah Al-Balawi, director of charity organizations at the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, is institutionalized and has been under direct government supervision since the early 1960s when legislation organizing it was introduced. He complained, however, that charity work continues to receive “unfair and unjust treatment by the Saudi media.”
“The information has always been there but unfortunately the Saudi public and the media only developed an interest in this work after Sept. 11.”
Commenting on Al-Balawi’s remarks, Shobokshi said calls for transparency in charity were not new and that people have demanded this for a long time. Al-Balawi intervened to defend his position, denying any ambiguity and blaming the public for not being curious about the riyal’s journey. To ensure that everything is done according to the law, he explained, local charity bodies are prohibited from putting boxes in public places — including mosques — and are required to receive donations only through checks or vouchers.
For Dr. Saleh Al-Wehaibi, secretary-general of the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY), one of several charity organizations facing lawsuits filed by the victims of the attacks, Sept. 11 represents a “qualitative shift in modern history.”
As for the riyal’s journey, he cited two types of donations: A conditional donation and a general one. In the first, a person may ask for their money to be used for a specific purpose, such as building a mosque. In this case the donor is provided with progress reports from the beginning of the project until its completion. “Such donors pose no problems for us,” he explained.
In the second type, he said WAMY could not tell every donor where their money goes. He explained by saying the money could be used for various purposes such as providing scholarships, holding training courses or sending relief to some camps where they are most needed. “We have chartered accountants who oversee the amounts being spent on students or camps and we keep records that can be consulted.”
Sheikh Aqeel Abdul Aziz Al-Aqeel, director general of Al-Haramain Charity which was set up in the Kingdom in 1988 to promote charity abroad, expressed a different opinion. He said it should be realized that charity work is of “a special nature.”
This means charity must be undertaken by “trustworthy bodies” and that charity organizations must not be seen as commercial firms. Sheikh Al-Aqeel argued that if the issue was to prove how much money has been spent by presenting documents, anyone could easily fake a bill and submit it. For this reason, he said, “Charity work should be conducted by people who can be trusted and who enjoy a reputation for righteousness, qualities that serve as deterrents against misusing Muslim money.”
Trying to curb donations could prove a double-edged sword: It might lead to streamlining and regulating the activity but at the same time could put shackles on charitable organizations, barring them from areas where donations are most needed.
Shobokshi asked whether “we enjoy the privilege of choosing this or that trusted person” in preference to others adding that the trusted ones should also be men with the right qualifications.
Dr. Abdullah Al-Fawzan, professor of sociology at King Saud University in Riyadh and a well-known writer involved in charitable activity, said he was concerned mainly with caring for the handicapped. He viewed the matter from a different perspective while pointing to the ambiguity surrounding charity work.
“From now on, we must make the public fully aware of the riyal journey. Otherwise, we risk losing a large segment of those who love and support charitable work.”
On the nature of charity and the accusations directed against charitable bodies, Al-Fawzan regards it as a substitute for government efforts whether in Saudi Arabia or America. He stressed the need for charity work to continue even if it had been misused. “We should not reject all the accusations directed against us as if we were infallible. Wisdom remains a sought-for goal for the Muslim. It is necessary that charity work on both the domestic and international fronts should be scrutinized and subjected to constant revision in order to see its shortcomings.”
Dr. Al-Fawzan raised a serious point by warning that the dangers surrounding charity work do not relate only to charitable organizations but also arise from donations given to individuals visiting the Kingdom in the guise of Islam to collect money. According to him, large sums of money have left the Kingdom without local charitable organizations having any role whatsoever. The public should be enlightened on the need to give donations to organizations and not individuals, he said.
Commenting on Dr. Al-Fawzan’s remarks, Dr. Al-Wehaibi said the issue of individual donations should not be overblown. He referred to donations received by Jerry Falwell, the prominent Christian evangelist in the United States. Shobokshi shot back saying that Falwell was authorized to do what he is doing whether through his television station, university or society.
“I am talking about unauthorized quarters where money is sent, which is a serious matter.”
Al-Balawi said, “Individual initiatives are found everywhere and the people who do this work are a minority as far as I know.”
He urged citizens to make donations through official Saudi channels.
The forum debated the priorities for and outlets from which charitable money should be sent and the need for charity to focus at home instead of abroad.
The Kingdom recently organized a conference on this issue following a visit by Crown Prince Abdullah to poor neighborhoods on the outskirt of Riyadh.
Dr. Al-Fawzan wanted to know why WAMY was helping non-Saudi students while ignoring Saudis. Shobokshi asked that priorities were identified when money was distributed, but that “as a Saudi citizen, I do not yet know what determines these priorities.”
Sheikh Aqeel expressed a different view contradicting what was being said about poverty. For him, there is no poverty in the Kingdom. His reasons? The money spent by Saudis on perfume, travel and other luxuries “prove that our country does not suffer from poverty.”
(Concluded)
Arab News Opinion 18 March 2003
