Hizbullah:
Dilemma for the American Muslim Charities
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
CA
Attracting
charities to help rebuild Lebanon in the aftermath
of Israeli rampage has once again highlighted
the problem faced by the Muslim charities in the
post-9/11 America.
While various groups and organization were busy
in easily raising millions of dollars for Israel,
Muslim and Arab groups were facing serious difficulties
in raising money for the reconstruction of Lebanon
devastated by attacks on mainly civilian targets
such as residential buildings, bridges, industries
and infrastructure.
Since the Israeli attacks on Lebanon, the Arab
and Muslim charities were able to collect only
two million dollars nationwide, according to Buena
Park, CA-based Islamic Relief.
It was an atmosphere fueled by fear that hindered
their efforts. "A lot of people are afraid
of donating to Middle East causes because they're
afraid they'll be accused of supporting something
other than humanitarian causes," said Duston
Barto, spokesman for the Zakat Foundation of America.
The Illinois-based charitable group pledged to
raise $250,000 for Lebanon, but it was able to
collect about $140,000 because many Muslims and
Arabs fear that writing a donation check could
bring FBI agents to their doors. An estimated
$40,000 has come from Chicago donors. Although
the Charity Without Fear law, enacted last spring
by the Illinois Legislature, prevents donors from
prosecution if their contributions are used unlawfully
without their knowledge, the law could not calm
donors' fears.
Yet in the case of Lebanon donors are particularly
cautious that their donations may not land in
the hands of Hizbullah which the US government
considers a terrorist organization. Ironically,
the Hizbullah has ministers in government, members
of parliament, mayors in small towns and a network
of thousands of volunteers who have been ferrying
aid supplies to devastated areas since a cease-fire
took effect earlier last month.
So far, the government has not issued specific
guidelines for operating in Lebanon and instead
has encouraged charities to practice "due
diligence" to ensure that their assets are
used for charity and not diverted to “finance
terrorism.”
After Sept. 11, 2001, the government issued general
guidelines meant to help charities maintain transparency
and prevent money from being diverted to groups
or individuals that the government has designated
as terrorists. It also created a list of some
400 individuals and organizations, including 43
charities, that it accuses of funding terrorism.
In May 2005, the Illinois General Assembly passed
bipartisan resolutions calling on the federal
government to create a list of Muslim charitable
organizations to which one can safely donate.
"Americans giving charity to Muslim charities
need assurance that the charitable contributions
they make in good faith to charities in good standing
will indeed go to humanitarian purposes and will
not give rise to potential retroactive criminal
or immigration prosecution," read the advisory
resolution, which was passed by voice vote. The
resolution also cited legislation - known as the
REAL ID Act of 2005 - that threatens to deport
immigrants who make a donation to a charity that
was in good standing at the time but is later
linked to terrorism.
The Council on Foundations in Washington, which
represents more than 2,000 philanthropic groups
in humanitarian work around the world, has also
called on the Treasury Department to reconsider
its “antiterrorism financing” guidelines
issued in 2002. Calling the guidelines "unrealistic,
impractical, costly, and potentially dangerous,"
the council said they discourage organizations
from efforts to relieve suffering at a time of
great need.
Instead of a list of acceptable charities, the
Treasury Department endorsed and guided the creation
of a National Council of American Muslim Non-Profits
(NCAMNP), which would be a self-policing organization
working for transparency, accountability and the
safe delivery of charitable funds to the proper
recipients. But soon after its creation, the government
froze the assets of a Toledo, Ohio-based charity
on the NCAMNP steering committee called KindHearts.
The Treasury Department says that issuing a list
of "safe" charities is not the government's
responsibility. "Basically the United States
government can't be put in the position of picking
a preferential group. It would be inappropriate
for the government to choose charities at the
expense of not choosing others.”
To intimidate the Muslim community, the Senate
in June 2004 launched a witch-hunt of Muslim organizations
by seeking the IRS tax and donor records of 24
American Muslim charitable, youth and civic organizations.
To quote the Council on Arab-Islamic Relations
“the Senate Finance Committee's investigative
net has been cast so wide that it seems to target
all American Muslims as terrorism suspects. Its
indiscriminate scope smacks of a McCarthyite witch
hunt and creates the impression that the presumption
of innocence no longer applies to Muslims.”
Interestingly, after two years investigations,
the Senate Committee could not find anything "alarming"
in tax records to tie them to terrorism. However,
it insisted that its lack of action does not mean
the groups had been "cleared."
Over the past five years, federal authorities
have raided and shut down three major Islamic
charities: Dallas-based the Holy Land Foundation
and Chicago-based Global Relief Foundation and
Benevolence International. Since 9/11, millions
of dollars in donations have been seized and frozen,
leaving Muslims with unfulfilled religious and
moral obligations. Some have found FBI agents
at their doors, asking about specific checks they
have written.
The fear of ending up on some government watch
list for aiding terrorism threatens donations
to American Muslim charities that usually benefit
from zakat – a religious obligation to give
two and half percent of their assets as alms -
given during the month of Ramadan that begins
in North America on Sept 23/24, 2006. Muslim organizations
say members are afraid to give money to Muslim
charity organizations and many more of those who
do donate are opting to give cash instead of checks.
(Abdus Sattar Ghazali is the Executive Editor
of the online magazine American Muslim Perspective:
www.amperspective.com)
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