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IDB praises Indonesia's initiative on zakat framework
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The Islamic Development Bank expressed its support for Indonesia's initiative to develop international zakat principles, during an annual meeting in Jakarta on Sunday. The alms guidelines will be launched on May 23. (thejakartapost.com/Anton Hermansyah)
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font face="Roboto, sans-serif, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">The Islamic Development Bank (IDB) has praised Bank Indonesia's (BI) efforts to create guidelines on international zakat principles, which will be launched at the World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul on May 23.
The study, involving the National Zakat Agency (Baznas) and the Islamic Research and Training Institute (IRTI), aimed to create clearer standards for the alms and to unify zakat channeling into a better economic tool for the welfare of society.
According to IDB director Elmansour Feten, zakat should be dispersed directly to neighborhoods, and only spent on the eight types of recipients mentioned in the Koran.
"Unleashing the power of zakat is a good initiative from BI together with the IRTI, our research and training institute. This new work by BI is setting a standard and regulatory framework to help people donate efficiently. No one should be left behind and no one should work alone," he told thejakartapost.com in Jakarta on Sunday.
BI sharia economic development director Dadang Muljawan explained that the framework would help Indonesia accelerate poverty alleviation and create a self-sustaining society.
"By launching this framework, we expect that social financing will be more properly managed. BI is pushing for the governance of social finance. Society should be able to help itself," he said.
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) special representative to the Palestinian people, Roberto Valent, added that more guidance for zakat would help the world fulfill humanitarian needs, amid widespread conflicts and disease, especially in Muslim-majority countries.
"You see the latent potential of Islamic social financing including zakat, wakaf [charity] is enormous. As of today, more than US$25 billion is needed for humanitarian aid in the world and less than $15 billion has been disbursed," he said.
A regulatory process for zakat was needed as part of efforts to optimize the potential of the alms both at the national level of Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) countries and at the global level, he said. (ags)
