Kuwait Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs is a

cabinet department A cabinet department or prime minister's department is a department or other government agency that directly supports the work of the government's central executive office, usually the cabinet and/or prime minister, rather than specific ministeria ...

of the

executive branch The Executive, also referred as the Executive branch or Executive power, is the term commonly used to describe that part of government which enforces the law, and has overall responsibility for the governance of a State (polity), state. In poli ...

of the

government of Kuwait Kuwait is an emirate with a political system consisting of an appointed judiciary, appointed government (dominated by the Al Sabah ruling family), and nominally elected parliament. Executive branch The Constitution of Kuwait was approved and p ...

dedicated to spreading tolerant

Islamic culture Islamic culture and Muslim culture refer to cultural practices which are common to historically Islamic people. The early forms of Muslim culture, from the Rashidun Caliphate to the early Umayyad period and the early Abbasid period, were predomi ...

. Specifically, it seeks to spread awareness and expand the influence of

Islamic faith Faith, derived from Latin ''fides'' and Old French ''feid'', is confidence or trust in a person, thing, or In the context of religion, one can define faith as "belief in God or in the doctrines or teachings of religion". Religious people often ...

Islamic history The history of Islam concerns the political, social, economic, military, and cultural developments of the Islamic civilization. Most historians believe that Islam originated in Mecca and Medina at the start of the 7th century CE. Muslims r ...

, and

Islamic sciences The Islamic sciences ( ar, علوم الدين, ʿulūm al-dīn, lit=the sciences of religion) are a set of traditionally defined religious sciences practiced by Islamic scholars ( ), aimed at the construction and interpretation of Islamic relig ...

Activities

The ministry handles all religious affairs in Kuwait, including regulating all places of worship in the country, overseeing religious groups and activities, issuing

fatwa A fatwā ( ; ar, فتوى; plural ''fatāwā'' ) is a legal ruling on a point of Islamic law (''sharia'') given by a qualified '' Faqih'' (Islamic jurist) in response to a question posed by a private individual, judge or government. A jurist i ...

s through its Fatwa Committee, and organizing and regulating the annual

Hajj The Hajj (; ar, حَجّ '; sometimes also spelled Hadj, Hadji or Haj in English) is an annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the holiest city for Muslims. Hajj is a mandatory religious duty for Muslims that must be carried ...

for Qatari residents. The ministry's Moon Sighting Committee is responsible for determining the dates of

Islamic holidays There are two official holidays in Islam, Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, which are celebrated by Muslims worldwide. Both holidays occur on dates in the lunar Islamic calendar, which is different from the solar-based Gregorian calendar, so they are ...

such as

Eid Al-Fitr , nickname = Festival of Breaking the Fast, Lesser Eid, Sweet Eid, Sugar Feast , observedby = Muslims , type = Islamic , longtype = Islamic , significance = Commemoration to mark the end of fasting in Ramadan , dat ...

. The ministry actively promotes tolerance and moderation in Islamic faith. It promotes memorization and recitation of the Quran. It funds the building of mosques both within and outside of Kuwait. The ministry includes the

Zakat Zakat ( ar, زكاة; , "that which purifies", also Zakat al-mal , "zakat on wealth", or Zakah) is a form of almsgiving, often collected by the Muslim Ummah. It is considered in Islam as a religious obligation, and by Quranic ranking, is ne ...

Fund, which collects

Zakat al-Fitr In Islam, Zakat al-Fitr (''Zakat of Breaking the Fast of Ramadan''), also known as Sadaqat al-Fitr (''Charity of Breaking the Fast'') or Zakat al-Fitrah (''the Alms of Human Nature''), is an obligatory form of alms-giving required of every able ...

. The Islam Presentation Committee is a division of the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs which encourages

proselytizing Proselytism () is the policy of attempting to convert people's religious or political beliefs. Proselytism is illegal in some countries. Some draw distinctions between ''evangelism'' or '' Da‘wah'' and proselytism regarding proselytism as invol ...

Islam to non-Muslim prisoners and

foreign worker Foreign workers or guest workers are people who work in a country other than one of which they are a citizen. Some foreign workers use a guest worker program in a country with more preferred job prospects than in their home country. Guest worker ...

s. The Kuwait Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs funds a variety of other activities, including promoting Islamic science and technology,

humanitarian aid Humanitarian aid is material and logistic assistance to people who need help. It is usually short-term help until the long-term help by the government and other institutions replaces it. Among the people in need are the homeless, refugees, and ...

after natural disasters around the world, and the Kuwait Islamic Arts Center.

History

In 2005 and 2006, the ministry funded studies of Western perceptions of Islam and Islamic perceptions of

Western culture Leonardo da Vinci's ''Vitruvian Man''. Based on the correlations of ideal Body proportions">human proportions with geometry described by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius in Book III of his treatise ''De architectura''. image:Plato Pio-Cle ...

, and sought to improve the relationship between these cultures. In 2008 and 2009, the ministry sponsored the development of a

Muslim Seven Year Action Plan on Climate Change The Muslim Seven Year Action Plan on Climate Change is a climate action plan for the global Islamic community, meant to run from 2010 to 2017. It was developed by the British Earth Mates Dialogue Center and the Kuwait Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic ...

. Since 2015, the ministry has sought to promote

moderate Islam Moderate Islam and ''moderate Muslim'' are labels that are used within counterterrorism discourse as the complement of "Islamic extremism" and imply that supporting Islamic terrorism is the characteristic of a "radical" faction within Islam, and a ...

against

Islamic extremism Islamic extremism, Islamist extremism, or radical Islam, is used in reference to extremist beliefs and behaviors which are associated with the Islamic religion. These are controversial terms with varying definitions, ranging from academic unde ...

. The ministry includes a Supreme Commission for the Promotion of Moderation. In 2015, the ministry undertook a purge of members of the

Muslim Brotherhood The Society of the Muslim Brothers ( ar, جماعة الإخوان المسلمين'' ''), better known as the Muslim Brotherhood ( ', is a transnational Sunni Islamist organization founded in Egypt by Islamic scholar and schoolteacher Hassan ...

from its staff. In 2016, the ministry made an administrative decision limiting the appointment of foreigners in Kuwait government positions. , there were 4,028 expats working in the awqaf ministry. In 2017, the ministry laid off 2,032 employees in order to reduce its expenses. The cuts were especially significant in the office of the Assistant Undersecretary for Quran and Islamic Studies, which lost the vast majority of its staff. In 2018, the ministry changed its policies to allow

women A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or Adolescence, adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female hum ...

in senior positions. In 2020, Former Kuwait Minister of Oil Ali Ahmed Al-Baghli accused the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs of excessive spending in its

fiscal year A fiscal year (or financial year, or sometimes budget year) is used in government accounting, which varies between countries, and for budget purposes. It is also used for financial reporting by businesses and other organizations. Laws in many ...

2020/2021

budget A budget is a calculation play, usually but not always financial, for a defined period, often one year or a month. A budget may include anticipated sales volumes and revenues, resource quantities including time, costs and expenses, environmenta ...

, attributing the spending to

nepotism Nepotism is an advantage, privilege, or position that is granted to relatives and friends in an occupation or field. These fields may include but are not limited to, business, politics, academia, entertainment, sports, fitness, religion, an ...

Ministers

* Yusuf Al-Hadji, 1970s * Yaacoub Abdulmohsen Al-Sanaa, 2015 * Mohammad Nasser Al-Jabri, December 2016 – December 2017 Available with photographs fro
MENAFN
* Fahad Mohammad Al-Afasi, December 2017 – December 2018 * Fahad al-Shaala, December 2018 – December 2019 * Fahad Mohammad Al-Afasi, December 2019 –

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kuwait Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs

Kuwait Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs Kuwait Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs is a cabinet department of the Cabinet of Kuwait, executive branch of the government of Kuwait dedicated to spreading tolerant Islamic culture. Specifically, it seeks to spread awareness and expand the i ...