UK Mosque Starts Accepting Donations in Cryptos, Receives More Cryptos than Fiat
In Dalston, East London, the Shacklewell Lane Mosque otherwise known as Masjid Ramadan, is now accepting cryptocurrencies as charity. Reports indicate that during the month of Ramadan, the house of prayer collected four times more donations in cryptos than fiat. It received £13,983 from cryptocurrency donations, as compared to just £3,460 from fiat donations.
“Many people at the mosque were initially skeptical about us accepting this new money, but the fact we received four times more in cryptocurrency donations shows how important it is to be open to these new digital currencies.” He added: “When the donations started to flow in, we were blown away. We received four times more in cryptocurrency donations than in cash from our local worshippers during Ramadan, and we are still receiving cryptocurrency Sadaqah [donations]. It is amazing!” Erin Guney, the Hackney mosque’s chairman told local media inews.
The mosque received donations in cryptocurrency from 24 people around the world. The donations included a transaction of more than £5,200. The funds were allocated to the facility, offering food and shelters to needy locals, and also supporting poor Muslim families with funeral costs.
The founder of London-based Islamic finance startup Combo Innovation, Gurmit Singh is the Mosque advisor helping with the cryptocurrency donations. When asked about the issue, Singh said, “I hope other mosques and charities will now follow Masjid Ramadan’s lead to take advantage of this important new revenue stream”.
Another example showcasing the support of the cryptocurrency community to all kinds of charitable organizations is Binance donation of $1 million to the victims of the recent Japanese floods, and Paxful, which has given academic scholarships to female Afghan refugees living in the US.
This mosque is not the first religious institution accepting cryptocurrency donations. In January the evangelical church, ICF Zurich of Switzerland started accepting voluntary offerings in the form of cryptocurrencies from members.
