Alms

I wondered if the Land of the Pure (Pakistan) was as enthusiastic in their zakat as they are in being more anti-infidel-than-thou. The latter is cheaper, as a rule, and if you get a mob together there's virtually no risk involved.

It seems that the zakat is collected by the state at a rate of about 2.5%: not exactly voluntary. Some back-of-the-envelope calculations put the US voluntary donations to charity at 2.2%, not counting "charity" funded through taxation. I'm not sure if the quantities are exactly comparable: the ultimate usage patterns may differ. And a simple search didn't turn up any numbers for voluntary contributions in Pakistan over and above the legal requirements.

Interesting that the numbers are so similar, though...