The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights

By force and intimidation, “Tahrir al-Sham” and the General Authority of Zakat collect 5% of olive crop without carrying for the Sharia law of Nisab  

Olive compressors in areas of Hayyaat Tahrir al-Sham in Idlib and Aleppo are witnessing the presence of members of the General Authority of Zakat, to apply the decision of collecting olive zakat, where the members are collecting their share by force under security accountable by members of Hayyaat Tahrir al-Sham, and contrary to the decision issued by Zakat Authority; the members are collecting zakat without achieving the Nisab as stated in the resolution, where zakat collectors in the olive compressors are getting a fixed rate of 5%, whether or not the olives achieved the condition of Nisab or not.

Reliable sources told the “Syrian Observatory” that members of Hayyaat Tahrir al-Sham do not distinguish between poor who doesn’t have more than several trees, and another who has hundreds of trees, where in Armanaz olive compressors a collector took 15 kg of olive oil, Also another collector did not take the zakat share from another person who compressed 13 kg of olive oil, so he was relieved of his work after his colleague told the officials that he was going easy with some people.

The Syrian Observatory published on the 20th of September 2019 that the Rescue Government in the Syrian north issued a circular addressed to all waqf directorates within the areas that are under its control, requesting that Muslims be reminded in the next Friday sermon about “the zakat of olives and its oil and the evidence of most of Sharia scholars about this matter and the punishment of those who do not pay the Zakat in considering the interest of the poor people, and clarifying the Shari rules about Zakat of olives that the Muslim cannot ignore, and that the Zakat is to be payed to the General Authority of Zakat in its branches located in the liberated areas”, thus, the Rescue Government continues to clamp down on people of Idlib province in light of the tragic humanitarian conditions that the people are living there, where the decision issued by the General Authority of Zakat sparked resentment among the citizens, and many of them did not pay due to the difficult conditions they are living, so the Rescue Government escalated its tone through the mosques.

The Syrian Observatory published on the 14th of September 2019 that the General Body of Zakat which belongs to the Rescue Government in the Syrian north; issued written pledge for owners of olive compressors in its controlled areas, under which the owner of the compressor is required to pay “zakat” of olives converted to oil, the pledge also stipulates to record the received quantities and how much of it should go to the zakat benefits within the daily work schedule issued by the General Body of Zakat, and earlier the Rescue Government issued that zakat to be taken to the so-called “General Body of Zakat” based on fatwa of the Sharia Office in the Body, to take zakat (olive, oil), and obliged owners of olive crops in the liberated areas to pay zakat to its benefit through its departments and sub-committees, and imposed half of the ten which is 5% of it if the crop is irrigated by rain or human, also it determined and separated the amount of zakat from the olive and its oil at the time of reaching the Nisab, all of this is under penalty and responsibility in front of the judicial accounting, which prevented traders from buying except after they make sure that the zakat was payed in accordance with the official receipts approved by the Body, also olive shops in the markets must cooperate with the Body and provide them with a statement of all the sales that take place in the markets and other places.