Essay by Eric Worrall
According to the Jakarta Post, الزكاة or Zakat, a Muslim religious obligation to donate 2.5% of savings to charity, should be spent on climate action.
If you’re Muslim and care about climate change, read this
Yusuf Jameel and Gaelle Perrier San Francisco, California/Salt Lake City, Utah, United States ● Thu, April 6, 2023
Versi Bahasa Indonesia
Ramadan is here. Billions of Muslims worldwide abstain from food and water from dawn to sunset. As we experience a month believed to be blessed in Islam and in which good deeds are emphatically encouraged, a vast majority will opt to simultaneously complete the third pillar of the Islamic faith by distributing their annual zakat.
Briefly, zakat is a mandatory donation of 2.5 percent of a person’s annual savings to those in need, with the goal of alleviating inequalities. It applies to Muslims who hold certain assets such as cash, gold, and investments, and it can be paid to eight categories of recipients, including the poor, the needy, and those in debt.
Much of the zakat fund is managed informally, so it’s hard to say exactly how much we’re talking about. One estimate places the global zakat collection between US$200 billion and $1 trillion. In the United States, a 2022 study by Indiana University estimated that the average Muslim American household donated $2,070 of zakat to humanitarian charities in 2021, amounting to a total of $1.8 billion. It’s safe to say that zakat represents a vast pool of money.
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Traditionally, zakat has been used to cover medical needs and education; buy food, water, and clothing; sustain orphanages; and help people who are struck by natural disasters. For instance, a significant portion of the zakat this year is expected to be directed—and rightly so—to the disaster relief work in Turkey and Syria following the devastating February earthquakes.
Such assistance will always be critical. However, it does not solve the underlying problems. For lasting change, zakat should be targeted to address systemic causes of suffering—including climate change.
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Read more: https://www.thejakartapost.com/opinion/2023/04/06/if-youre-muslim-and-care-about-climate-change-read-this.html
The $1 trillion Yusuf Jameel and Gaelle Perrier urge Muslims to spend on climate action will buy less than 0.1C global cooling. It will never be possible to verify whether the money made any difference.
I leave it to religious scholars to determine whether any Islamic laws have been broken, by people who urge the giving of money to those who have near zero power to make a difference, but who don’t reveal to their audience how insignificant an impact all that money would have on the global climate.
Penalty for stealing under Islamic law – cut off the thief’s hand.
If zakat money goes to the climate change scammers, are we going to see a lot of the WEF toffs wandering around Davos next year sporting an amputation?
United Arab Emirates, the COP 28 hosts, take Islamic law very seriously.
I don’t believe they are going to donate to the only region where climate change is an issue – Europe, America, Canada and downunder. Sri Lanka would welcome aid to mitigate Climate Policy Caused Disaster inflicted by its government.
Perhaps the money would better be invested in flying carpets.
I have a warehouse full of them … they are flying off the shelves !
The technology for flying carpets always seems to be just 10 years away.
Every aircraft that I have flown in was carpeted.
Donating to a movement for regressive taxes would seem to be the opposite of charity.
“will buy less than 0.1C global cooling” I would not make that claim, as it encourages the greens to think money can buy cooling, as if money is a control knob.
Greedy bastards of the climate racket will even steal directly from the poor. (As if stealing through inflated energy bills and inflation itself isn’t bad enough)
Attention Please: Climate Crisis Advocates: Keep your soiled hands out of our church’s and mosque’s and synagogue’s and temple’s coffers. The donations of the faithful are meant for spiritual purposes, not your worldly follies.
Didn’t they already get into our pensions?
Gary ==> Yes they do….and we should step on their fingers at every chance.
Seems appropriate though, as this is a religion as opposed to something having anything at all to do with science.
I’m sure the Pope will respond by asking woke suburbanites to donate the money they usually reserve for avocado toast and triple lattes.
zakat is a mandatory donation of 2.5 percent of a person’s annual savings to those in need
I would have thought that encourages moral hazard by maxing out on the plastic.
The climate religion through its executive branch at the UN has been seeking an independent source of income for decades now.
Their proposal to tax emails failed. Their proposal to skim off climate “ambition” is foundering. Now they want to emulate the old religions with their tithes, zakat or offering.
The promise is that your tithe/zakat/offering will help the UN create perfect weather by building wind turbines to appease the climate gods.
Fortunately the average Joe with a computer can now consult ChatGPT to know that wind turbines do not change the weather. This is the answer to the question – Can wind turbines change the weather:
On the question of tithes and eternal life:
So by all means feel free to donate to the UN to appease the gods but do not expect the weather to change as a result.
In Australia, W&S subsidies act in reverse to tithes. They ensure the poor contribute to the less poor through their electricity bills. It is theft from the poor fully supported by the government. So the poor are already contributing to the weather gods or those who can afford solar panels on their roof.
“Now they want to emulate the old religions with their tithes, zakat or offering.”
thank God I’m an atheist!