Interesting project, thanks for working on this. I was wondering if you could explain a little more about how this this works?
You mention that Zakat is generally (perhaps with some exceptions) only meant to be given to Muslims. I’m not convinced by this interpritation—it seems pretty plausible to me that Dimmi should be included also, and in a way it seems a shame to have an EA-org adopting the Wahhabist/Salafist stance, vs more moderate approaches, but I understand why this could be good for appealing to a larger number of muslims.
GiveDirectly will only distribute Zakat to poor Muslim beneficiaries.
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Zakat will not be distributed to: • A person not eligible for Zakat according to this policy. • A non-Muslim.
But your website suggests you serve people without regard to their religion:
GiveDirectly has no political, religious, or sectarian affiliations, and is committed to serving people in poverty across the globe regardless of their tribe, religion, sex, and political beliefs.
Presumably in general this is not a huge issue here, because the vast majority of people in Yemen are Muslim. But presumably some are not. Does GiveDirectly do any vetting about whether the recipients are Muslim, and reject them if not? If an otherwise eligible family informed you they were actually Christian, or some other non-Islamic faith, would you decline to distribute?
Our Yemen program is not the same as our Zakat fundraising. We’ve been paying Yemeni families since August 2022 using non-zakat funds. Zakat funds are delivered according to the zakat policy. Non-zakat funds are handled the same as any other donations.
We don’t ask families about faith status and do not plan to start doing so. The reason we direct zakat funds to Yemen is that it’s a non-issue – 99.99% of the country is Muslim. Our zakat advisors who certified the fund were happy with this arrangement.
What’s described above (“an otherwise eligible family informed you they were actually Christian, or some other non-Islamic faith”) is an edge we have yet to see. If this did happen, we’d simply arrange for their transfer to come from our non-zakat funds (see point #1).
Interesting project, thanks for working on this. I was wondering if you could explain a little more about how this this works?
You mention that Zakat is generally (perhaps with some exceptions) only meant to be given to Muslims. I’m not convinced by this interpritation—it seems pretty plausible to me that Dimmi should be included also, and in a way it seems a shame to have an EA-org adopting the Wahhabist/Salafist stance, vs more moderate approaches, but I understand why this could be good for appealing to a larger number of muslims.
How does this work in practice? Your Zakat compliance certificate says you will not give to non-Muslims:
But your website suggests you serve people without regard to their religion:
Presumably in general this is not a huge issue here, because the vast majority of people in Yemen are Muslim. But presumably some are not. Does GiveDirectly do any vetting about whether the recipients are Muslim, and reject them if not? If an otherwise eligible family informed you they were actually Christian, or some other non-Islamic faith, would you decline to distribute?
Great question. How we approach this:
Our Yemen program is not the same as our Zakat fundraising. We’ve been paying Yemeni families since August 2022 using non-zakat funds. Zakat funds are delivered according to the zakat policy. Non-zakat funds are handled the same as any other donations.
We don’t ask families about faith status and do not plan to start doing so. The reason we direct zakat funds to Yemen is that it’s a non-issue – 99.99% of the country is Muslim. Our zakat advisors who certified the fund were happy with this arrangement.
What’s described above (“an otherwise eligible family informed you they were actually Christian, or some other non-Islamic faith”) is an edge we have yet to see. If this did happen, we’d simply arrange for their transfer to come from our non-zakat funds (see point #1).