COVID-19: MAIK encourages wearing of face mask in mosques, surau

KOTA BHARU: The Kelantan Islamic Religious and Malay Customs Council (MAIK) encourages the wearing of face masks to the mosque and surau to curb the spread of COVID-19.

Its chairman, Tengku Tan Sri Mohamad Rizam Tengku Abdul Aziz said a circular to the effect would be issued to mosques and surau in the state.

"If we look at the statistics released by the Ministry of Health, there is an increase (in COVID-19 cases), although the situation is under control," he told a press conference after the Corporate Zakat Payment ceremony at the MAIK Office, here today.

At the event, three corporate entities, namely Global Ventures Holdings Bhd (FGV), Land Surveyors Board, and Angkatan Koperasi Kebangsaan paid tithe amounting to more than RM1.1 million, RM1 million and RM130,493, respectively, while a private company, AnaZahra OEM paid tithe amounting to RM1 million.

Regarding corporate tithe collection by MAIK this year, he said RM36,344,683.05 had been collected as of yesterday, an increase of 5.4 per cent compared to RM34,480,828.96 in the corresponding period last year.

"Business tithe payments by corporate companies in Kelantan are quite good based on the amount of payments received by MAIK," he added.

In another development, Mohamad Rizam said many "asnaf" (those eligible to receive tithe) under MAIK have come out of the poverty line with the drop in the number of tithe recipients from 10,000 to 8,000 people.

-- BERNAMA