Fund raising for mosques

Fund raising for mosques

From Panji Masyarakat

I come across fund collectors carrying charity boxes on the
roadsides or on buses in Jakarta almost every day. They mostly
come from the outskirts of Jakarta, asking for money from bus
passengers to be utilized for mosque construction. They always
begin Assalamu'alaikum... we, the committee of the mosque
establishment...and so on. This opening phrase has become very
familiar to me. Moreover, their number increases by the day.

As a Moslem myself, I am very concerned over this condition.
Are the financial matters of our places of worships that bad? Is
the Moslem local community so financially incompetent that it has
to send alms collectors to beg on the roads and on buses in
Jakarta?

I have talked about this matter and my concern with some
friends. Shouldn't we feel ashamed of such a reality?

I believe there are institutions which can find the answer to
this question. There are several foundations which can address
this problem by holding fund-raising activities instead of having
collectors moving around in Jakarta.

In this case we have to be efficient in terms of mosque
construction. Imagine, one village which already has more than
two mosques still wants to build another new mosque, while other
districts are short of places of worship. The money received from
whatever source should be evenly distributed among areas. We have
to exploit the community's potentials as well.

ACHMAD RIDHA

Depok, West Java