The Egyptian Minister of Endowments, Muhammad Mukhtar Gomaa, set a 10-day deadline to remove donation boxes from mosques, stressing that this comes in implementation of the decision to ban the collection of donations or cash aid or the placement of donation boxes in mosques..
The announcement of this decision came during the first days of the activities of the fifth cultural season of the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, at the Egyptian Ministry of Awqaf, under the title “The Ruler’s Actions and the Danger of Opposition to It.”“.
With regard to vow funds, the Egyptian Minister of Awqaf indicated that there may be an agreement in the future with the Sufi orders, or a similar vision of what happened with unofficial donation funds in mosques..
On the reasons for the decision, Abdullah Hassan, the official spokesman for the Egyptian Ministry of Endowments, said that it comes in line with the state’s directions in achieving financial transparency, regulating in-kind and cash donations, increasing and supporting non-cash payments, and setting a governing and regulatory framework for all financial transactions..
The official spokesman for Sky News Arabia said that the decision aims to regulate donation funds and the donation mechanism, especially since donation funds in their current situation suffer from problems and abuses, whether with regard to mosques or their boards of directors..
He explained that the new mechanism for donations will be through a bank account specific to the board of directors of each mosque in the name of the Mosque Architecture Fund, and thus non-cash payments will be enhanced, any abuses will be controlled and those payments will be entered into the state’s financial system without prejudice to the area allocated to it..
He stressed that the decision does not include vow boxes in major mosques organized according to the law, but rather includes all boxes that are located in mosques randomly and are not subject to supervision.
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