A research on the institutinalization of zakat in Turkey and religious staff's perspective (Kocaeli example)

Zakat is a financial way of worship performed by Muslims giving a certain percentage of their properties to those who need in order to attain Allah's consent and compassion. When regarded the historical process of Zakat, specifically during the Prophet Mohammed, it is seen that it become one of the worships by becoming obligatory in Medina period. During the Prophet Mohammed and Caliphs period Zakat payments were collected by Zakat officers employed by the state, but after this period was far behind, relation of Zakat-State became weaker and turned out to be performed individually in historical process. Regarded the applications of Ottoman State, it is also seen that there was not any institutionalization and citizens pay their zakat on their own. At the present time, in Islamic countries reveal institutional structures. While Zakat is made obligatory by introducing Zakat laws in some Islamic countries, Zakat payments are voluntary in some others. In these countries it is seen that funds piled up in Zakat foundations are an important source of finance in fighting with poverty. In our country, it is hard to say that there was a period of time that Zakat was collected in an institutional structure. In our country Presidency of Religious Affairs is authorized institution both in solutions of problems related to worship and informing the society about religious issues. Considering that Zakat foundation could be formed more easily, quickly and less costly under the umbrella of the Presidency of Religious Affairs, the thoughts of Religious Affairs employees are important at the point of institutionalizing zakat. In this study, the point of view of Religious Affairs employees in institutionalization of Zakat is researched. In this study conducted by survey technique, the attention grabbing findings are that Religious Affairs employees pay less amount of Zakat than they have to or their assents aren't counted as subject to zakat, they open up to institutionalizing of Zakat under the Presidency of Religious affairs, they think if Zakat is accounted as a tax, Zakat payment will increase, they are aware of the positive effects of Zakat on economy and they need in-service training on Zakat. It is revealed in this study that if made institutional like in other Islamic countries, Zakat can be an important source of finance and this could be achieved by making it an autonomous institution within the Presidency of Religious. This result puts forward an important scientific finding for policy makers.