One Year After Freezing of Assets, American Muslim Charities Start to Fight Back

By Riad Z. Abdelkarim, M.D.

It now has been over one year since the Bush administration alleged that some of our country’s largest American Muslim charities were financial supporters of terrorism, with links to al-Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, and others. In December 2001—at the height of the Ramadan charitable giving season—President George W. Bush shut down the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF), the largest American Muslim charity. Not too subtly, the move occurred immediately following a White House visit by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Days later, the federal government acted against two more charities—Global Relief Foundation (GRF) and Benevolence International (BI).

A year later, the fate of these charities remains uncertain—as does the entire landscape of American Muslim charitable giving. Lawsuits filed against the federal government by all three charities continue to work their way through the tedious judicial system. To date, none of the organizations has succeeded in reversing any portion of the government’s orders effectively shutting them down.

Furthermore, the leaders of two of the charities have been jailed for months. Along with that of hundreds of other—mostly Muslim—detainees, the fate of GRF’s Rabih Haddad, who has been incarcerated since December 2001, was decided in closed, secret hearings in immigration court. On Nov. 22, a Detroit judge ordered that Haddad—who has not been charged with any serious crime—be deported along with his wife and three children to Lebanon. Denying Haddad’s request for asylum in the U.S., Immigration Court Judge Robert D. Newberry ordered the family’s deportation on the grounds that Haddad “presents a substantial risk to the national security of the United States.”

Benevolence International head Enaam Arnaout also has been imprisoned for months and charged with providing support to al-Qaeda—although the nature of the government’s evidence against him remains somewhat flimsy. To date, none of the leaders of the Holy Land Foundation have been arrested or charged with committing any crime.

Despite the lack of any credible evidence of criminal activity on the part of any of these American Muslim charities or their leaders, several million dollars of their assets—largely donations from American Muslims—remain frozen in the hands of the federal government. Intended to help the needy in such places as Palestine, Afghanistan, Chechnya, Bosnia, Africa and Kashmir, these funds instead have been held in a bureaucratic no-man’s land, accessible only to defense attorneys for the closed organizations.

Obviously, those who suffer the most from the denial of these funds are the intended recipients, largely needy women and children who form the most vulnerable segment of populations affected by violence, war, famine or natural disaster. The negative impact on these populations is immeasurable. In the case of the Palestinians, withholding relief funds could not have come at a worse time: repeated Israeli offensives throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip last winter and spring have resulted in a precipitous worsening of an already dire humanitarian crisis.

American Muslim donors have been largely silent concerning these funds—until very recently.

Vendors in the intended recipient countries have been left uncompensated. For example, legitimate food retailers who participated in HLF’s Ramadan food distribution program to the needy last year have been unsuccessful in seeking compensation through the frozen assets. Others adversely affected by the charities’ closures include their former employees, who have not been charged with any crime. Not only were they rendered virtually “unemployable,” but they also have been denied access to their pension funds and other benefits.

As for the American Muslim donors who contributed the bulk of these now frozen assets, they have been largely silent concerning the fate of these funds—until very recently.

At the beginning of November, leaders of the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) and Arab American Institute (AAI) wrote a letter to Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill. In their letter, ADC’s Dr. Ziad Asali and George Salem of AAI noted that “one of the effects of the actions taken by the administration in the aftermath of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 has been a chilling effect on charitable contributions to Arab-American and Islamic charities….Contributors are worried that their gifts will somehow result in questions of their charitable motives, or worse, an investigation into whether they are somehow attempting to fund terrorist activities.”

Seeking “guidance from the U.S. government as soon as possible,” Asali and Salem further wrote that “there is a serious need for clarity from the Treasury Department regarding these charities. At minimum, it would be helpful if guidelines could be provided for legitimate charities, so that they can advise their supporters to contribute with confidence. The humanitarian assistance provided by these entities is a critical source of aid. In addition, action now to clarify the government’s position is critical so that Arab-American Muslims and Christians can fulfill their religious obligations of zakat and tithing in a timely manner.”

“Voluntary Guidelines”

In the past few months, the Bush administration has made some small overtures to American Muslim leaders and organizations regarding the development of “voluntary guidelines” for Muslim charities. A recently released document, entitled U.S. Department of the Treasury Anti-Terrorist Financing Guidelines: Voluntary Best Practices for U.S.-Based Charities, covers four basic areas: governance of a charity; disclosure and transparency in governance and finances; financial practice/accountability; and anti-terrorist financing procedures. The first three are self-explanatory. The fourth area covers steps that should be taken by charities “before any charitable funds are distributed to foreign recipient organizations,” and includes recommendations regarding selection and oversight of foreign recipient charities/organizations to ensure that funds are not being “ultimately distributed to terrorist organizations.”

Along with representatives of other major American Muslim and Arab-American organizations, the country’s largest American Muslim organization, the Plainfield, Indiana-based Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), welcomed the release of the Treasury Department’s “voluntary guidelines.” In a statement dated Nov. 9, ISNA declared its intention to “to call a meeting of Muslim relief organizations, representatives of the federal government and experts from the independent sector to review the guidelines and suggest improvements and positive feedback.”

Of the major American Muslim and Arab-American advocacy groups, the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) recently has emerged as the most vocal, active defender of American Muslim charities and donors. On Nov. 20, MPAC executive director Salam Al-Marayati testified before a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing chaired by Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) on “An Assessment of Tools needed to Fight the Financing of Terrorism.” Al-Marayati testified that zakat, or almsgiving,is a religious duty for Muslims, who are obligated to pay zakat to the poor, especially during the holy month of Ramadan. “The First Amendment guarantees to all Americans the free exercise of religion,” Al-Marayati told the committee. “Creating obstacles to religiously mandated charitable giving, therefore, is unacceptable and is a violation of American Muslims’ constitutional rights. The United States government should not interfere in American Muslim charitable giving.”

Al-Marayati went on to discuss the relationship between American Muslim charities and national security, saying, “In an ideal setting, American Muslim charities serve a national security interest by promoting a positive image of America throughout the Muslim world. Unfortunately, the view that American Muslims are a harassed or persecuted religious minority is gaining ground overseas, particularly because of the blockage of American Muslim charities...Muslim charities, which meet the urgent development and subsistence needs of many of the Muslim world’s poor, dispossessed, and destitute can be used to enhance our national security interests by helping to mitigate some of the factors that breed extremism and violence.”

Lewin’s Legal Fees

Also testifying at the hearing, however, was attorney Nathan Lewin, who represents an American Jewish family whose son was killed in a Hamas attack on a West Bank settlement. On behalf of the Boim family Lewin has sued HLF and a host of other American Muslim organizations which, he claims, “support” Hamas, for millions of dollars in damages. During his testimony, it became quite obvious that Lewin was seeking to gain access to the seized assets of the Holy Land Foundation. Following Lewin’s testimony, MPAC issued an impassioned statement: “The Department of the Treasury has now tied up about $8 million of American Muslim zakat funds that were intended to help the needy. There was no opportunity for a hearing before the decision was made to shut down the three charities, who can now either file for an administrative appeal through the Department of Treasury, the same department that initiated the executive order to shut down our charities in the first place, or ask for a federal judge to file an injunction.”

The statement continued: “American Muslims consider the diversion of the funds of these charities, intended to fulfill American Muslim religiously-mandated zakat (almsgiving) and other forms of charitable contributions, a clear violation of our First Amendment right for the free exercise of religion. If any violation of the law did indeed occur, then individuals should be held accountable for their actions, not innocent donors who gave their hard-earned money to the needy. The U.S. has not frozen money from churches which unwittingly co-mingled humanitarian assistance with the financing of weapons intended to help the Irish Republican Army, or money from Irving Moskowitz casino funds in Southern California who supports extremist Israeli settlers near Jerusalem. Nor has the government looked into Hindu lobbyists who support Tamil Tiger terrorism in Sri Lanka and donate money to support the RSS, a Nazi-inspired movement responsible, according to Human Rights Watch, for the genocide of over 2,000 Muslims earlier this year in Gujarat.”

Responding directly to the newly raised possibility that these funds may be diverted away from their intended use, MPAC stated that “the U.S. Congress…has passed legislation that makes it easier for families of victims of terrorism to collect from the frozen assets of Muslim charities. Furthermore, some high-profile attorneys have publicly indicated that they seek to divert the funds to their own pockets to pay their legal fees. This is an outrage.…Congress, in passing this unconscionable legislation, has enabled the public to confuse zakat from American Muslims, intended for the most poor and destitute (Muslims make up the largest percentage of the refugee population in the world), for terrorist funds. Our zakat money had nothing to do with Sept. 11. Our zakat money does not cause suicide bombings. Our zakat money is intended for the poor and destitute, and any diversion of that money to sources other than the needy (high-priced Washington D.C. attorneys not included) is an outrageous violation of our First Amendment rights that American Muslims will fight tooth and nail. The war on terrorism has been exploited by special interest groups to create an industry that funnels charitable donations to more lobbyists and lawyers.”

The statement concluded by noting that “MPAC is launching a campaign aimed to effectively mobilize American Muslims, who will demand that money belonging to them that has been frozen by the U.S. government be returned to the donors or given to legitimate American Muslim charities that are acceptable to our community. Otherwise, it will be viewed that the U.S. government is funneling zakat contributions, which are sacred in Islam, to finance special interests in America. We will fight this scenario by any legal means available to us.”

The intent of the Bush administration’s recent overtures to American Muslim leaders and the Treasury Department’s “voluntary guidelines” remains unclear, and it is not certain whether they will amount to any substantive change in the government’s “closed door” policy vis-à-vis American Muslim charities over the past year. Several American Muslim charities established within the past year have reported unusually long waiting periods prior to the issuance of the all-important 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status.

In addition, it is unclear whether these guidelines are intended for all U.S.-based charities (including Christian and Jewish organizations) that operate overseas, or whether they represent yet another double standard being applied by the government only to American Muslims and their institutions. Specifically, the question arises of whether these guidelines will be enforced against U.S.-based Jewish groups that provide overt funding and support of extreme right-wing Israeli organizations which include violent settler groups that promote the killing and “transfer” of Palestinian Arab Christians and Muslims.

A Difference in Kind

As for charitable giving during this past Ramadan, the responses of representatives of American Muslim charities to the question, “Have you seen a decrease in donations compared to past years?” were somewhat surprising. Several veteran fund-raisers and long-time humanitarian workers representing American Muslim charities that provide aid in such places as Palestine and Iraq reported that donations by American Muslims were not significantly diminished compared to previous years. All those queried, however, reported a difference in the way Muslims were dispensing with their zakat money this year: many more are giving cash—and giving anonymously—rather than contributing by check or credit card. One Muslim leader who recently met with FBI officials in Detroit reportedly told the government agents that “Nothing will stop Muslims from giving their religiously mandated zakat money.” The government’s heavy handed tactics against Muslim charities, he suggested, unwittingly were promoting the contributions of hard-to-track cash.

This, however, begs the question of whether the government’s actions to date really have benefitted the “war on terrorism” or instead resulted in a cosmetic, artificial “victory”—while only making it more difficult for American Muslims to practice a crucial pillar of their faith. Only time will tell.

Dr. Riad Z. Abdelkarim is a physician, American Muslim activist, and writer who lives in Southern California.