FRANCAISInternational Islamic Relief Organisation of Saudi Arabia (al-Ighata al-Islamiya al-'alamiya) - Comments
3) The financial resources
-Since the IIRO does not publish any financial statement, it is hard to know how much it is subsidized by the Saudi State. The Wahhabi kingdom does not clearly distinguish between public and private funds anyway. Foundations linked to the monarchy often subsidize charities. The IIRO is thus supported by the Al Rajhi Banking and Investment Corporation, which receives the zakat of the royal family, and the “House of Islamic Money” DMI (Dar al-Mal al-Islami), an agency created in 1981, established in Switzerland and chaired since 1993 by Prince Mohammad al-Faisal al-Saud, a cousin of King Fahd bin Abdelaziz and the brother of the chief of the Saudi secret services, Turki al-Fasal. Moreover, the NGO created its own investment fund, named Sanabil al-Khair (“Seeds of Charity”) in Riyadh in 1987 and Sana-Bell in Washington in 1989, in order to raise capital. Lastly, the IIRO can rely on various gifts in kind: clothes, food, medicines, etc. Those donations are subtracted from the Islamic compulsory alms, the zakat tax, which is managed by the authorities and equivalent to 2.5% of the annual revenue of a Saudi citizen.
