(RNS) — It began with a fatwa, a ruling issued jointly by the Fiqh Council of North America and the Assembly of Muslim Jurists of America that expanded the reach of who is eligible to receive zakat, the mandated alms that observant Muslims pay each year as one of the pillars of Islam.  The timing of the fatwa — it dropped about two weeks before the start of Ramadan — was notable because the holy month is one of the most concentrated times of giving for American Muslims. But the “who” particularly rocked those Muslim communities, since the giving of alms in broad strokes is reserved for those in need. The fatwa instead laid out an argument to allow for zakat to be given to politicians and campaigns to change or sway public policy. With Ramadan now at its conclusion, the pushback is still raging. Zakat is an important obligation applied to adult Muslims who meet the minimum threshold, or nisab, of savings and assets held for one year. Its eight categories determine who can …