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What’s a charitable Muslim to do? Without guidelines on which Muslim charities are and are not suspected of links to terror, and with executive orders signed by the White House that criminalize donations to certain charities, American Muslims are once again holding back on charitable donations this Ramadan. This week, in response to requests from the Los Angeles-based Muslim Public Affairs Council and the New Jersey-based American Muslim Union for assistance in identifying Islamic charities that were free of suspicion of terrorist ties, the Justice Department called the request “impossible to fulfill.” “We’re not in a position to put out lists of any kind,” said DOJ spokesman Bryan Sierra. “If the government knows there are charities that are misleading the American Muslim community,” countered AMU lawyer Sohail Mohammed, “it’s their obligation to help protect these innocent Americans.” The rejection comes at a time when more Muslim charities are shutting down amid anti-terror investigations. Yesterday, the St. Louis-based Islamic American Relief Agency shut its doors in the wake of a massive FBI investigation that involved nearly half of the agencies national field offices. (Half the nations offices? Aren’t there borders that need protecting?) The IARA is suspected of links to al-Qaida, despite abiding by Treasury Department “best practices” guidelines. The group joins several other charities, including the Dallas-based Holy Land Foundation and the Chicago-based Global Relief Foundation and Benevolence International, although none of the raids has led to terrorism-related criminal convictions. Muslims observing Ramadan’s injunctions to donate to charity are left with local options, leaving many disappointed. “We are trying to do the right thing and we asked for a little help,” said AMU president Mohamed Younes of the effort to get DOJ assistance. “At least we tried.”
Shahed Amanullah is editor-in-chief of altmuslim.com.
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