FRIDAY PRAYER DONATIONS FOR PALESTINE

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 9 (Bernama) -- Starting Friday and for the next three
weeks, all donations collected during the Friday prayers at the mosques
nationwide will be handed over to the State Islamic Religious Department to
help the Palestinians in Gaza.

Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi
said the donations would be brought to Kuala Lumpur before being handed over to
the Foreign Ministry.

"I'm calling all Muslims to donate a little more than usual to prove our
concern for our Muslim brothers and sisters who have fallen prey to the
brutality of the Zionist regime in Gaza.

"Do not spare the donations collected during the Friday prayers for paying
the water and electricity bills or even the allowance of imams and religious
preachers. Please use other allocations for that purposes, just for the next
three weeks," he told a press conference here Thursday.

The donation was the government's latest initiative to help the Palestinians
after announcing that "solat hajat" (prayer of need) would be performed with
the Qunut Nazilah recited for the next three weeks.

All mosques had also been asked to read the sermon prepared by the Malaysian
Islamic Development Department (Jakim) to raise public awareness on the Israeli
brutality in Palestine.


Meanwhile, Zahid also said that the Cabinet had agreed to his proposal for
the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) to form a peace-keeping force.

He said Foreign Minister Dr Rais Yatim would take the proposal to
the next OIC Summit.

Earlier, Zahid who is also the Federal Territory Islamic Religious Council
(MAIWP) Chairman announced the property tithes collected by the MAIWP Tithe
Centre for 2008 was at RM206,261,147.28 (US$1=RM3.45), a 22 per cent increase
compared to the RM169,217,233.65 collected in the previous year.

Zahid also presented the tithe contribution totalling RM590,188 to 14
recipients, comprising eligible individuals and agencies.

-- BERNAMA