Affin Investment Bank in Malaysia has distributed just over $800,000 in zakat funds to the “armed forces.”
One of the acceptable destinations for zakat funds according to Shariah is to those fighting in the way of Allah. Usually this is meant to apply to irregular combatants not on the army roster, but in this case, it appears that the charitable donations have gone to the armed forces…
http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v5/newsbusiness.php?id=619665
Corporate zakat is like corporate taxation. The costs are passed along to either shareholders (in lower returns), employees (in lower salaries), or customers (in higher prices).
Assuming Affin Investment Bank isn’t 100% percent Islamic and neither are its customers, from an Islamic standpoint Affin may consider a portion of their zakat to actually be jizya, in which case it’s proper for the payment to go to the regular military. At least that’s what their sharia advisors might be saying in private…