Saudi charities open first meet on restructure

A three-day conference on the management and reorganisation of charities in the Kingdom was organised in Riyadh yesterday.

This first meeting of the Saudi charities is taking place in the backdrop of recurrent allegations by the Western media, particularly the U.S., that Saudi charities are "financing terrorist organisations."

Only last week the U.S. Foreign Relations Council in its report alleged that Saudi Arabia was not doing enough to prevent funding Al Qaida and other similar organisations.

Western media has also been accusing Islamic charity organisations operating in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere of funneling funds to such organisations throughout the world.

Senior U.S. Treasury Department officials were recently quoted as saying that they are not getting the required cooperation from the Saudi government in blocking the funds of people involved in financing terrorist organisations listed by the U.S.

The officials identified 12 wealthy Saudis among others as still channeling funds to such organisations. The U.S. authorities were reported to be requesting European governments to freeze the assets of those Saudis.

Earlier, Saudi Labour and Social Affairs Minister Ali Al Namlah was reported as saying that the Saudi charities will (now) only focus on their activities within the Kingdom.

He added that his ministry is not responsible for the humanitarian activities of certain Saudi charities abroad.

"We directly supervise the activities of charitable organisations within the Kingdom but we are not responsible for their activities abroad," he explained. Al Namlah, however, denied that the three-day conference is reaction to the current international outcry over their activities.

"We have been planning for this conference for the past two years," Al Namlah was quoted as saying.

Scholars of Islamic learning and finance will present 55 research papers on the meeting. It is expected that scholars will explore ways to invest funds. Participants will also discuss the problems faced by the charitable societies and new rules regulating their activities.

There are 241 registered charitable societies in the Kingdom, including 23 women's organisations and 23 private foundations. Some 31,262 people, including 2,929 women, are members of these organisations.