In Saudi Arabia, donations for iftar meals for the needy will be only made through "license charities".

RIYADH, October 2, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Charity donations in Gulf countries during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, a favorite season for charity work and fund-raising, will be marred by the newly-clapped restrictions.

In Saudi Arabia, donations for iftar (breaking the fast) meals for the needy will be only made through "license charities", Tewfik Al-Sedeiri, Islamic affairs ministry undersecretary, told the Saudi daily Asharq Al-Awsat.

Donations during Ramadan reach some 400 million dollars on average, according to a spokesman for the semi-official Islamic Relief Agency.

Charity is a dominant theme of the Muslim fasting month, where organizations, corporations and the wealthy vie in funding fast-breaking meals for the needy.

Since the beginning of 2004, Riyadh has issued several regulatory resolutions that reduce the activities of charity institutions in the kingdom.

Al-Haramain Charity, the largest among Saudi charities, has been dissolved on October 5, 2004, after Washington accused it of financing "terrorism".

Saudi Arabia also began to close all charities and relief organizations outside the kingdom and place their funds and properties under the control of a newly established governmental body.

Fellow Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries also followed suit in placing more restrictions on charitable donations during the dawn-to-dusk fasting month, said Agence France Presse.

In Kuwait, charities will be allowed to receive donations only in mosques and community centers through stamped coupons and under government supervision.

Under the new regulations, cash donations will also be totally banned during the holy fasting month.

In neighboring Qatar, authorities are preparing to clamp down on people they believe to "take advantage" of the spirit of charity that marks the holy month to engage in organized begging.

"There are some who exploit the compassion that prevails in Ramadan in an illegal way," an interior ministry source said.

Charitable donations in Muslim countries usually surge during Ramadan.

Since the 9/11 attacks, the US has put pressure on Muslim countries to clamp down on charities under the pretext that they were channeling funds to terrorists and extremists, a charge vehemently dismissed by many charities.

The charities have complained that restrictions were affecting their work to reach out to the Muslim poor and needy.

In August 2003, thousands of Palestinian orphans and destitute families took to the streets of Palestinian cities to protest freezing the bank accounts of 18 charities suspected of having links with the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas.