In another ground-breaking move for the self-professed e-capital of the Gulf region, a Dubai-based portal has set up a website through which Muslims can pay alms, or zakat.
Payments can be made from Friday through "ramadan.ajeeb.com", jointly set up by the locally-based "ajeeb" portal, which focuses primarily on Arab and Islamic issues, and the Human Appeal International of Ajman charity, the Gulf News said Thursday.
"It is a unique opportunity to pay zakat and other charitable contributions over the Internet over a secure server that ensures the safety of the contributor's personal information and the safety of his credit card details and amounts paid," the charity's secretary general Salem Ahmad Abdul Rahman said.
Abdul Kader Kamli, editor-in-chief of ajeeb.com said: "Muslims must rely on technical advances and make use of them to further the course of Islamic charitable work and to reveal the noble motives of Islam."
Zakat is one of the five pillars of Islam, requiring Muslims to donate about one-fortieth of their annual income to the poor and needy to "purify" or legitimize the revenue that is retained.
The Muslim fasting month of Ramadan began on Monday in the Gulf and is a period when many traditionally pay alms.
The liberal Gulf emirate of Dubai has rushed headlong into the electronic age, launching a series of multi-billion-dollar projects in a bid to become the region's e-capital – DUBAI (AFP)
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