Through the 1990s and into the early 21st century, the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation (Mu’assasat al-Haramain al-Khayriyya) was the most pro-active Saudi charity operating in and around the trouble spots of the Islamic world. Under the flamboyant leadership of its founder, “Sheikh” Aqil Abdul-Aziz Al-Aqil, Al-Haramain presented itself as the Oxfam or United Way of Saudi Arabia, with collecting baskets and boxes outside almost every major Saudi mosque, and a reputation for delivering aid directly to sufferers in the most dangerous circumstances.

But on June 2nd, 2004 a joint US-Saudi press conference in Washington announced the closure of Al-Haramain, and an immediate ban on all cashcollecting boxes in the kingdom – along with the strict regulation of private Saudi charitable transfers abroad pending the establishment of “a new entity through which all private relief work abroad will be channeled” (Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia 2004). What impelled the Saudi government to take such drastic action against a major charity, and what has happened since? The removal of the kingdom’s cashcollecting charity boxes abruptly ended a cherished tradition of instantly reflexive giving at the place of worship – the Islamic equivalent of “putting money in the plate.” So is that tradition now dead? And will ordinary Saudis ever be able to send their charitable donations abroad with the speed, flexibility and directness that prevailed in the years of Al-Haramain – and with the anonymity that their religion requires?

1. Origins

Al-Haramain was established in 1988 against the background of the Soviet defeat and withdrawal from Afghanistan and, according to the United Nations, the worst refugee crisis in the world at that time, which had built up in the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan. Aqil Abdul Aziz Al-Aqil, a onetime official in the Saudi Ministry of Education, who had wide experience in charity and relief work from his days at the Saudi Red Crescent, set up the first office of the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation in the Pakistani city of Peshawar. Although he lacked business experience – his only job in the private sector had been as an assistant pharmacist – Al-Aqil had other credentials: he was from a renowned religious family in Al-Qaseem in north-west Nejd, the religious heartland of Saudi Arabia; he had studied under two of the most prominent Islamic scholars in the kingdom – Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul-Aziz bin Baz and the eminent jurist Sheikh Muhammad bin Salih al-Uthaymeen; he had experience in charity work from his time with the Red Crescent; and he presented himself in his community as a trustworthy Muslim, earning himself the honorific title of “Sheikh.” From a Saudi charitable perspective, he had the qualifications that counted. As one of his investigators later put it: “Aqil wore a bisht. “