Cryptocurrency confuses a lot of regulators how to approach the industry. But aside from regulators and lawmakers, religious organizations also took their time to analyze what digital currencies are. A few months back, a Muslim scholar published a study that Bitcoin is considered permissible in Islam.
After the Muslim scholar decided to consider cryptocurrencies acceptable to their religion, the value of Bitcoin had a bullish run right after. However, there are Muslim countries that banned crypto activity such as Iran. But despite that, it seems that the Muslim world is eager to use this opportunity not only to invest but to help individuals who are in need.
Accepting Bitcoin and Ether as Donation
On Monday, the Masjid Ramadan which is a Turkish mosque that is found in East London announced that it would accept to receive Zakat and Sadaqah in forms of Bitcoin or Ether.
The mosque’s chairman Erkin Gurney mentioned that the move will enable more donation going to the mosque. He mentioned that “The mosque is not financially strong enough to support everyone”. He added that “we don’t want to upset anyone but crypto is another avenue, another currency, that will give people a platform to donate”.
For Muslims, the Islamic month of Ramadan is the month where they fast during daylight and are encouraged to take pilgrimage to the Holy City of Mecca. Also, they are obliged to give 2.5{4ede17fdd9b4ce8121d01fc4b54913fe84f8215aace504cc657695cefb5329ff} of their wealth to charity. And the compulsory annual donation in their tradition is called Zakat with minimum donation known as Sadaaqah.
The mosque hopes that with its announcement, it will be able to generate more than $13,000 in crypto donations. The fund will head towards repairing the mosque and assisting funeral costs and shelter for those people in need within the area.
According to Gurmit Singh, who owns Combo Innovation, the company that supports the mosque in accepting crypto donations, he argued that the cryptocurrency donations can help the mosque significantly. He even said that “24{4ede17fdd9b4ce8121d01fc4b54913fe84f8215aace504cc657695cefb5329ff} of the world’s population is Muslim, but 53{4ede17fdd9b4ce8121d01fc4b54913fe84f8215aace504cc657695cefb5329ff} of the world’s poor are Muslim”. He also added that “with a total market cap of £290 billion with bitcoin holding a market dominance of 36{4ede17fdd9b4ce8121d01fc4b54913fe84f8215aace504cc657695cefb5329ff} or approximately £104 billion.. 1{4ede17fdd9b4ce8121d01fc4b54913fe84f8215aace504cc657695cefb5329ff} of bitcoins could be held globally by Muslims; that could mean £1.04 billion of bitcoin could possibly be sitting in Muslim owned cryptowallets”
Just how big is the expected funds going into the mosque if all things work out as planned? “That is a potential £26 million in Zakat contributions sitting there idly when it could be used for so many worthy causes globally”.
Crypto Donations
Crypto donations are now becoming popular. Last April, UNICEF Australia announced that they will allow users to donate their computer’s processing power in order to mine cryptocurrencies that will then head towards the organization.
According to Tony Andres Tang who worked as the digital brand and content manager of UNICEF Australia, he said that they “are transparent in the fact (they) are borrowing a computer’s processing power, and provide the ability to choose how much power is donated”.
Could this be a sign of things to come? Given the popularity of cryptocurrencies, it isn’t surprising that even religions are now accepting cryptocurrencies.
