ACLU on Muslim Charitable Giving
Friday June 19, 2009
The ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) issued a report this week regarding U.S. government restrictions on Muslim charitable giving. President Obama referred to this problem in his recent speech from Cairo: "...in the United States, rules on charitable giving have made it harder for Muslims to fulfill their religious obligation. That's why I'm committed to working with American Muslims to ensure that they can fulfill zakat."
According to the ACLU Report (titled "Blocking Faith, Freezing Charity"):
"The government's actions have created a climate of fear that chills American Muslims' free and full exercise of their religion through charitable giving, or Zakat, one of the "five pillars" of Islam and a religious obligation for all observant Muslims."In December 2001, in the middle of Ramadan of that year, the Treasury Department froze the assets of the three largest Muslim charities in the U.S. None had previously been on any government watch list. Since then, several others have also been designated as terrorist organizations, have been declared to be "under investigation," or have been raided. Individual donors, who made good-faith donations to legal charities, have been intimidated, questioned, or threatened with prosecution for "material support" of terrorism.
All of this has been done through the use of secret evidence, non-transparent procedures, and lack of due process. The ACLU states:
"Today, the Treasury Department has virtually unchecked power to designate groups as terrorist organizations. Terrorism financing laws are overly broad and lack procedural safeguards that would protect American charities against government mistake and abuse. They do not require the Treasury Department to disclose the evidence on which it bases decisions to designate charities, not even to the accused charities themselves."The Islamic institution of zakat is meant to help the poor, widows, orphans, and others in need. Government officials have acknowledged that many of the designated "terrorist organizations" actually do run hospitals, orphanages, and the like. Thus it is quite difficult for the average Muslim family to determine whether a donation intended for charitable causes is being rerouted to illegal activities. Most remaining Islamic charitable organizations report a severe decline in donations, and face difficulty ensuring the public that their programs are legitimate. The fear and lack of information about government actions makes Muslims in the U.S. hesitant to participate in this important aspect of their faith.
Comments
As Salaam Alaykom:
Being an American Citizen, I feel great sympathy for those trapped in war torn areas of the world.
One Woman I know is trying to help the poor, and after doing all the investigation that I could to insure that I was not contributing to terrorists, I sent her $3000.
Along the way, I learned things that make me sad. I had no idea that there were any restrictions on giving to others outside this country. I did make enquiry to my own Department of State, and the FBI. Neither offered any cooperation at all, nor did either tell me that I might be doing something illegal.
One postitive thing I did learn is that one should not send money via Western Union because I could be held responsible if there were criminal activity.
On the other hand, it is apparently OK to send it via Bank Transfer. I don’t understand half of what I now know.
For a long time, I have felt that Muslim’s complaints about this sort of thing are pretty lame, and even people who try to help them are viewed with suspicion.
M’salama
Hala
Tell us, Huda, does Saudi Arabia have a ban on Jewish charities collecting money for needy Jews? Oh, I’m sorry, keep forgetting. That’s different.
I don’t understand why Mulims have to donate to Muslim charities. There are plenty of poor, homeless, sick, etc people out there that aren’t Muslim, and there are many, many secular charities that go out and help and do not worry about the religion of the people that they’re helping. It would seem almost discriminatory to only donate money to Islamic charities that focus only on Muslim families. I would encourage people to donate to more than just a religious charity.
For miseshayek: No, not different. Irrelevant.
No. Zakat is only for muslim while other donation that are not zakat, they can choose whether to contribute to muslim or non muslim.
I am glad to know about Western Union. I do bank transfers to one I trust. I also think Obama wants to rule the world, not just US.
I had hope at first…but not now. If people set up a paypal account (like on ebay) u can send money to anyone as long as the address has ebay acct.
Greetings and salutations. I’m a small press author from New York State, and I have recently taken an interest in asking various religious organizations about the fairness and equitable treatment of their particular groups with regards to the White House’s Office of Faith-Based Initiatives. I’m interested to know the degree of difficulty, if any, these organizations have had from an Islamic standpoint. Having read the above, I think I already have my answer, but would simply like to know of specific organizations that may have applied for grants from this White House office, and how the process has gone from them, if they’ve been treated fairly and equitably. Thank you for your time.