CAIRO - Egypt's top Muslim cleric Thursday urged the Muslims to offer their zakat or alms to the victims of devastating floods in Pakistan. "The crisis has become too big for the Pakistani government alone to handle," said Ahmed el-Tayeb, the Grand Sheikh of Al Azhar, the Sunni Muslim world's most influential institution. "Assisting those victims through zakat is important, given that such assistance is one important channel of zakat," he added in Cairo. Alms-giving is one of the five pillars of Islam. Being the chairman of the World Islamic Council for Relief, el-Tayeb called on different organizations affiliated to the council to "set the example" and offer relief aid to the Pakistani people.
