By Deborah Brewster
When the Red Crescent set up a health clinic in the town of Anabta, in the Palestinian West Bank, the charitable organisation began asking its local Muslim residents for donations. A contribution to the clinic, it suggested, could fulfil their religious obligation to give zakat, an annual gift to those less fortunate.
For a non-profit group operating in the west, this would all be standard practice. But in the Muslim world the clinic’s moves were part of a small but significant shift in the way philanthropy is carried out.
Rather than giving traditional personal handouts, Muslim donors are becoming increasingly interested in more institutionalised forms of philanthropy. The impetus for this change comes both from charitable organisations soliciting money, and from wealthy individuals who want to see their donations make a wider impact.
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(Submitted by reader)