Towards A Unified Zakat System

years. Twenty-three percent revealed that they had occupiedtheir previous posts for between 6-10 years. Twenty-onepercent, however, said that they had remained in previousposts for less than one year. It is obvious that themajority had gained experience of between 5-10 years of workand this implies that the respondents who participated inthis study were in a good position to give informed opinionson Zakatissues.6.1.1 Investments and their valuesThis question required respondents to identify the value oftheir investments according to the following categories:less than US$5,000; US$5,001-10,000; US$10,001-15,000; and,aboveUS$15,001.Table 6.2Respondents' investments and their valuesDo you holdBahrain Kuwait Saudi Arabia United Arab emirates TotalinvestmentsF P F P F P F P F PYes 6 10% 17 28% 18 30% 19 32% 60 38%No 27 27% 22 22% 31 31% 19 20% 99 62%Kind of investmentCompany shares 1 2.7% 12 33% 10 28% 13 36.3% 36 46%Government bonds 0 0% 0 0% 3 100% 0 0% 3 4%Islamic bank 3 33% 3 33% 2 22.2% 1 11.8% 9 11%Land 1 7.1% 3 21% 3 21.4% 7 50% 14 18%National bank 4 24% 6 35% 4 23.5% 3 17.5% 17 21%Investment valuesLess than US$5,000 2 13% 5 31% 5 31% 4 25% 16 18%US$5,001-10,000 0 0% 2 13% 5 33% 8 54% 15 16%US$10,001-15,000 0 0% 1 17% 2 33% 3 50% 6 7%US$15,001 and over 9 17% 16 30% 9 17% 10 36% 54 59%Investment yearsLess than one year 0 0% 2 33% 3 50% 1 17% 6 10%1-5 2 7% 7 25% 9 32% 10 36% 28 48%6-10 1 8% 6 46% 2 15% 4 31% 13 21. %More than 10 years 3 23% 2 15% 4 31% 4 31% 13 21%F= Frequency P= PercentageTable 6.2 shows that 38 percent of the respondents heldinvestments. Of those who held investments, a significant206