Poking around the press section of the website for the United States Treasury Department, I noticed a press release entitled “Treasury Department Statement Marking the Beginning of Ramadan.”
One might be forgiven for asking why the Treasury Department is issuing a press release recognizing the start of Ramadan.
The press release is bland and vague:
|
As Ramadan begins, the U.S. Department of the Treasury recognizes the particular importance of charitable giving throughout the holy month of Ramadan for Muslims in America and around the world. Charitable giving is a fundamental characteristic of many faiths, and zakat*, one of the five pillars of Islam, is a sacred obligation for Muslims.
Treasury underscores its support for the important work of the charitable sector in providing essential services to those in need, both at home and abroad. Treasury remains committed to strengthening its engagement with the donor community and the charitable sector to support their efforts while at the same time, safeguarding charities from abuse by terrorist organizations. In recent years, the charitable sector has taken significant steps to promote transparency and to guard against such abuse.
We look forward to strengthening our partnership with the charitable sector and the donor community to further advance our shared objective of protecting legitimate charitable activity.
Curious, I checked in the online press release archive for February 2009 to see if the Treasury Department had issued a similar blandly vague press release for the beginning of Lent (February 25th this year).
Nope.
I remembered that President Obama had official remarks recognizing the start of Ramadan. Yet the President also overlooked the beginning of Lent.
In his remarks at this year’s National Prayer Breakfast on February 5, 2009, the President said:
The goal of this office [the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships] will not be to favor one religious group over another – or even religious groups over secular groups. It will simply be to work on behalf of those organizations that want to work on behalf of our communities, and to do so without blurring the line that our founders wisely drew between church and state. This work is important, because whether it’s a secular group advising families facing foreclosure or faith-based groups providing job-training to those who need work, few are closer to what’s happening on our streets and in our neighborhoods than these organizations. People trust them. Communities rely on them. And we will help them.
(Emphasis added.)
Yet he and his Administration are clearly favoring Islam over other religious groups.
* The press release does not elaborate on the meaning of zakat beyond equating it with “charitable giving.” Here is Bernard Lewis explaining zakat in The Middle East
The fifth and last of the five pillars is the zakat, a financial levy paid by Muslims to the community or to the state. Originally a charitable contribution collected from the believers for pious purposes, it was in time converted into a kind of tax or tribute, whereby those who accepted Islam gave formal expression to that acceptance. As a religious obligation, it retains the meaning of almsgiving.
No doubt the princes of Saudi Arabia and the imams of Iran collect zakat. Some of the funds collected might even go towards helping poor people. But zakat should not be misleadingly equated with the Western secular concept of “charitable giving” or even with the Christian concept of “tithing.”
Tags: Five Pillars of Islam, Islam, Ramadan, United States Treasury Department
