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“There is just one problem with Ali’s gesture: it isn’t true.
The population of Haiti is overwhelmingly non-Muslim. Zakat is forbidden to be given to non-Muslims.
One can reference “Reliance of the Traveler: A Classic Manual of Islamic Sacred Law” for confirmation of this. This passage is from Book H “Zakat” on page 274:
h8.24 It is not permissible to give zakat to a non-Muslim
In encouraging others to give to charity to help those in need in Haiti, Ali was doing good work perhaps. But zakat is actually quite different from what we in the West understand charity to be. Most importantly, zakat donations cannot go to non-Muslims. If a Muslim wishes to help the overwhelming majority of the Haitian quake victims, they will have to do so outside of the system of zakat, despite what Ali says.”