How is Islam funded?

[murraybiscuit]

On my travels in Islamic nations (predominantly oil-rich), I've noticed the elaborate architecture and frequency of mosques. Having visited the giant mosque in Abu Dhabi, I was suitably impressed by its excess and obvious cost. The thing is however, that in some of the most impoverished nations, there are some pretty ostentatious mosques. So my questions are:

1. Who actually owns a mosque? How are the finances raised, who contributes and what are the benefits of contributing capital?
2. How do poor nations afford them? Is there some kind of global muslim body with an HQ which helps fund the muslim ministry, like the catholic church / protestant dioceses, or are mosques funded by the local community?
3. What about the salaries and running costs of the priesthood? Is the imam salaried through donations? Do more affluent communities have professional priests and poorer communities have semi-professionals?
4. If there are donations/spiritual taxes, how are these accounted for and disbursed?

[Nerfherder]

Muslims are required to donate up to 30% of their earnings to charity.... So I rate a chunk of it comes from there.

That new Citidal in Midrand was paid for by some turkish dude....

[LazerFazer]

Muslims are required to donate up to 30% of their earnings to charity....

Not sure where you're getting that from, but it's incorrect. Muslims are only REQUIRED to donate 2.5% of material wealth yearly, provided the value of said wealth is above a certain threshold (R5000 at this time). The remainder is voluntary.

As for mosque funding, usually it's a few wealthy individuals decided to pool resources and fund the majority of the costs to build a mosque, with the remainder coming from smaller donations.

[SYNERGY]

Locally- Wealthy members of community and donations (Lilah- not included in the 2.5%).

And as said above: 2.5% No one collects anything from you. It's upto you to calculate and donate to whoever you want to. It's important to note that Mosques are not eligible for Zakaat (Donations) thou.

Abu Dhabi and such countries are Oil rich. The government generally funds the Mosques. Generally one of the Princes thou.

[deweyzeph]

Islam is funded the same way as all religions are funded, by brainwashing and milking ignorant vulnerable people for everything they have.

[eehellfire]

Muslims are required to donate up to 30% of their earnings to charity.... So I rate a chunk of it comes from there.

That new Citidal in Midrand was paid for by some turkish dude....

Is there a Muslim population in Midrand large enough to use that centre properly?

[murraybiscuit]

Islam is funded the same way as all religions are funded, by brainwashing and milking ignorant vulnerable people for everything they have.

while that may be your opinion, it certainly doesn't add much value to the thread.

[murraybiscuit]

Locally- Wealthy members of community and donations (Lilah- not included in the 2.5%).

And as said above: 2.5% No one collects anything from you. It's upto you to calculate and donate to whoever you want to. It's important to note that Mosques are not eligible for Zakaat (Donations) thou.

Abu Dhabi and such countries are Oil rich. The government generally funds the Mosques. Generally one of the Princes thou.

right. this is what i was looking for. i knew there must be some level of theocracy involved in the opec nations.
i remember hearing that the former sheikh of dubai's vision was to have a mosque every 500m.
pretty ambitious, but the density of mosques is really high in dubai.

[SYNERGY]

Also see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_of_Saudi_Arabia

[ghoti]

God needs all the money he can get.

[Nicodeamus]

God needs all the money he can get.

he is like a government,

[RazedInBlack]

he is like a government,

A dictator would be more accurate.

[Nicodeamus]

A dictator would be more accurate.

government also takes money against your will and tell you it is for your own good.

God tells you that you need to give him money (he basically tricks you) so it can go for your own good.

[z@ng3tsu]

"Islam" is not a club that recieved funds from those that sign up.

Islam is the religion of Muslims, 1.5 billion people the world over that call their God Allah and believe in all the prophets and believe Muhammad is God's final messenger. Unlike to Christianity, where certain communities are required to contribute 10% of their salary to the upkeep of the church, in Islam, financially able Muslims are simply required to 2.5% of their savings, known as zakaat to the poor.

This is also one of the 5 pillars of Islam. The others are
1. Believing that there is only one God and Muhammad is His final messenger.
2. Five daily prayers.
3. Zakaat.
4. Fasting in Ramadaan.
5. Performing the Hajj.

Except for Pillar 1 and 2 which is non negotiable, the 3 remaining pillars are encumbent only upon abled believers.

Just because the majority of people in the oil rich countries you have visited purport to Muslim, does not necessarily mean these nations, as you put it, are Islamic. Firstly, unlike the Catholic Church, Islam rejects the notion of a clergy. Islam also rejects the institutional monarchy, secondly, these oil rich countries are run by amongst the most corrupt people who treat women as lesser equals.

In these oil rich countries, the government takes over the responsibilities of building mosques and paying the salaries of the Imams from oil revenues.
In poorer countries, like parts of Africa, ostentatious mosques are usually built by the same oil rich governments of the Middle East who sees these efforts of paying for the building of mosques and paying the salaries of Imams as a form of prosteletyzing / missionary work in these poorer countries.

[Safrica]

2.5 percent(zakaat) is not used for building of mosques but to assist other muslims that have assets below 14000 rand

Generally everyone living in the community that the mosque is being build contributes and the remainder is collected from people from other areas, there is no compulsory donation but people do it because they want to.