A lot of Muslims assume that MUIS’ funds are mainly (if not only) from two sources:
1. Government
2. MBMF
And we think that MUIS staff salary are all paid by the government.
Not true.
MUIS actually has multiple sources of income.
As showed previously, MUIS collects about $22 million a year from the Mosque Building and Mendaki Fund (MBMF)
Another source of funds for MUIS is zakat (harta and fitrah).
In 2014, MUIS collected $31.8 million zakat/ fitrah.
For most of us, when we give our zakat, apart from it being a religious obligation, we assume the money will be used to help those in need.
While we may know the different asnaf, there is an expectation that most of the funds will be used to help the needy (whether they are poor, mualaf, travellers etc).
But what many of us may not realise is that a lot of the funds actually go to support MUIS staff salary and operations.
Of the $31.8 million collected in 2014, only $13.8 million went to the needy.
That is less than half of the zakat/ fitrah collected.
Where did the rest of the money go to?
About $1million went to rent.
$7.65 million of the zakat is used for salary.
And this is not for amil. Amil commission is $900,000.
$310,000 of the zakat/ fitrah collection was used for IT maintenance.
Several million are given out as grants.
In 2014, MUIS gave $250,000 to the RRG.
RRG is an organisation set up by the government. We are still waiting for MUIS to respond to our email if the money given to RRG came from our zakat/ fitrah.
And MUIS still has about $30 million from the fitrah fund in bank.
Most of the money we give for zakat does not go to the needy.
A large part of it goes to MUIS staff and its operations.
And some of the funds collected are kept in the bank.
Source: MUIS Annual report 2014
Source: Almakhazin SG
