Payment of zakat made easy

July 27, 2014

Jeddah, Jul 27: Various charitable organizations have made zakat high-tech by deploying their booths across the city and collecting funds from donors through magnetic cards.

All debit and credit card transactions are linked to these organizations’ accounts and the person fulfilling zakat receives a receipt for his payment.

Intended to take deposits for charity, this new mode allows people to save time and avoid hassles. All the booths present at mosques, malls and shopping areas have agents drawing people’s attention to it.

Maufiq Mutallaq Al-Maramhi, marketing representative of Al-Birr Charitable Society, said that this move aims to enhance awareness of zakat by reaching the maximum number of people and deliver best methods to enhance the fulfillment of this duty.

“It’s a first step that we have taken to ease the process of people paying their zakat while they are shopping with the use of their ATM cards or any other magnetic cards instead of cash. From the beginning of Ramadan, this new door that Al-Birr has opened is bound to reap benefits for people in need in Khalees Governorate as well as in the Kingdom,” he said.

He added that zakat received from people during Ramadan, especially assisted the orphan sponsorship and the iftar project. “We saw daily 15 to 20 people interested to pay zakat and help these programs,” he said.

Similarly, several other organizations adopted the same method to collect donations from people by installing their booths in public areas and successfully enhanced awareness of zakat by attracting a number of people.

“This is the first time I’ve noticed a new technique of paying zakat in the city. I am glad to pay zakat to the poor in the Kingdom with the help of these associations. I believe this system of paying through ATM cards will definitely help those who want to pay their zakat in the Kingdom. Also, it is definitely going to be easy to use, especially for those who want to pay a specific amount,” Mohammad Sohail, a Saudi resident, said.

Majed Abdullah, an Egyptian resident, said: “I tend to give zakat to the poor when I visit Egypt during Ramadan or Eid. This time I contributed my zakat through Al-Birr Society. I felt it was more convenient and the projects it supported were attractive.”

A Jordanian resident, Fatimah, said: “The high-tech process to collect funds is an innovative method and caters to the needs of society. Several women crowded the booth outside the mosque’s female section and paid their zakat. This system helped everyone to pay their zakat the easier way.”

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UN condemns Israeli regime’s ‘organized torture’ against Palestinians

News Network

November 30,2025

The United Nations Committee against Torture (CAT) has condemned the Israeli regime for enforcing a policy of “organized torture” against Palestinians.

In a report published on Friday, CAT stated that the occupying regime enforces a deliberate policy of “organized and widespread torture and ill-treatment” against Palestinian abductees, particularly since October 7, 2023, when Israel launched its genocidal war on Gaza.

The committee expressed “deep concern over repeated severe beatings, dog attacks, electrocution, water-boarding, use of prolonged stress positions [and] sexual violence” inflicted on Palestinians.

Palestinian prisoners were degraded by “being made to act like animals or being urinated on,” systematically denied medical care, and subjected to excessive restraints, “in some cases resulting in amputation,” the report added.

CAT also condemned the routine application of “unlawful combatants law” to justify the prolonged detention without trial of thousands of Palestinian men, women, and children.

More than 10,000 Palestinians, including women and children, are currently held in Israeli prisons, according to Palestinian and international human rights groups, with 3,474 Palestinians in “administrative detention,” meaning they are imprisoned without trial for indefinite periods.

The report highlighted the “high proportion of children who are currently detained without charge or on remand,” noting that while Israel sets the age of criminal responsibility at 12, even younger children have been abducted.

Children designated as security prisoners face severe restrictions on family contact, may be subjected to solitary confinement, and are denied access to education, in clear violation of international law.

The committee further suggested that Israel’s policies across the Occupied Territories constitute collective torture against the Palestinian population.

“A range of policies adopted by Israel in the course of its continued unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory amounts to cruel, inhuman or degrading living conditions for the Palestinian population,” the report said.

On Thursday, the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas condemned the systematic killing and torture of Palestinian abductees in Israeli prisons, urging international action to halt these abuses.

Citing human rights data, Hamas stated that 94 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli prisons since the start of Tel Aviv’s genocidal war on Gaza.

“This reflects an organized criminal approach that has turned these prisons into direct killing grounds to eliminate our people,” the resistance movement said.

Hamas called on the international community, the UN, and human rights organizations to immediately pressure Israel to end crimes against prisoners and uphold their rights as guaranteed by all international conventions and norms.

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