Fraud in faith’s garb
i n recent months, the ministry of social affairs and labor has tightened control over donations collected by associations belonging to religious parties. the ministry has made it mandatory not to accept any donation either through the bank credit card or by transferring directly from the donor’s account to the society’s account. the senior of- ficials from the donation collection departments of these charities who made a lot of money by taking advantage of their positions, did not like the decision of the ministry so they adopted new ideas similar to those of a member of a big charity organization years ago who spent huge sums money on advertisements which filled the streets of kuwait and newspapers, promoting the sale of silver and gold wheat spikes — silver spikes sold for 250 dinars and gold for 500 dinars. the spikes were in the form of a palm made of tin no bigger than 15 cms painted in gold and silver colors and placed on cheap wooden base. however he made a lot of money and gave the charity association no share of the profit following which a severe disagreement erupted between them and continues to this day. i remember when i was about 10 years old, i was doing a weekly lottery for the family by putting a pair of scissors for clipping nails, a cheap ring, a small pocketbook, or anything else behind a cardboard and covered it so it could not be seen, and giving a number to each of these items. i put squares and numbered them from 1 to 20 for example on the face of the board and i sold each square for a very small amount, and the winning number got the prize, and the total amount i got from that game was always twice the value of the prize. then i left that game after my parents and friends were fed up with my demands and my insistence. today a reciter of the holy quran, former muezzin, and owner of a profitable religious business, in cooperation with a salafi society, published an advertisement on the islamic lottery project. the participant will send the number 1 to a specific phone number for 100 fils per message without specifying numbers of messages. three winners will then be selected from among those who have sent their messages. to make it appear religious work, not gambling, they set the amount of the first and second prizes at 300 dinars, and the third 200 dinars, to spend the amount for the umrah trip. we called some brothers who have contact with that society to intervene and stop this farce, and these childish acts, and this project has already been stopped. such people use every means to collect money from the naïve and they are so many who seek reward from god and not fortune seekers. therefore, the ministry of social affairs and labor must monitor such actions and put an end to any fraud.
