Muslims are supposed to give some of their wealth to charity in order to purify it, according to Islamic custom. But now the Bauchi State government has passed a law that forces the rich to give this tax, called Zakat, to the government.
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Now the Sharia Commission has started drawing up a list of individuals they believe should be paying Zakat. They have sent out letters to more than 3,000 people warning if they don't pay the tax to the government this year they could be arrested and jailed for three months, fined, or given 20 lashes.
"We have a good number of rich people in the state but right now we can say they are not responding," says Bala Ahmed, spokesman for the state Sharia Commission. "Now we have the law we can ask them to give it by force."['ask them to give by force' - don't we have a political party that subscribes to that idea too?]
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7213386.stm
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