Islamic charities under fire post 9-11

Amir Butler, Pascoe Vale South, Australia

Like most religions, Islam places an emphasis on the giving of charity and feeding the poor. However, since September 11, the U.S.-led War on Terror has dramatically affected the ability and willingness of Muslims to give charity. Ostensibly in the name of protecting Americans, the U.S. government has closed many of America's most respected Islamic charities, seizing donations and forcefully stopping their operations.

Islamic American Relief Agency, Holy Land Foundation, Global Relief Foundation, Help the Needy, Benevolence International and Haramain Foundation have all been closed, and yet, as the Sept. 11 Commission itself has concluded in its Staff Monograph, no terrorism-related prosecutions, let alone convictions have resulted from the broad campaign.

Required by their religion to give charity, Muslims find themselves in a difficult position. Historically, they have relied on charitable institutions to spend their money in parts of the world most at need.

However, there is a pervasive fear that a donation may invite the attention of the FBI; a fear not alleviated by the refusal of the U.S. Department of Justice to provide existing Islamic charities with guidelines nor publish a list of 'approved' charitable institutions.

In February, the U.S. Treasury Department froze the assets of Haramain Foundation, an Oregon-based Islamic charity. It's office was raided, computers seized and financial records confiscated. A lien was placed on the charity preventing the sale of any assets.

Although the raid on the charity was couched in terms of America's War on Terror, no terrorist-related charges have ever been laid. In fact, all investigations have centered only on irregularities in the filing of taxation and financial documentation.

Despite this, a Saudi national named Soliman al-Buthi, Haramain's treasurer, has been accused by U.S. officials of being a funder of terrorism, his name placed on a UN list of terrorist financiers and, two weeks ago, his assets were seized. However, there has never been nor is there currently any evidence that al- Buthi was involved in terrorism, political violence or indeed political activism of any stripe. Al-Buthi, an agricultural engineer, became involved with Haramain as a volunteer motivated by a desire to explain Islam to the people of the West.

Al-Buthi has been an outspoken critic of all forms of political violence: A vociferous critic of Bin Laden and someone who has dedicated thousands of hours to building bridges of understanding between the Muslim world and the West. In the aftermath of Sept. 11, when genuine terrorists and their sympathizers were hand-wringing with delight over the blow inflicted on the United States and her people, al-Buthi was lobbying the Saudi religious establishment to join his call for peaceful coexistence.

Although al-Buthi has neither been charged with a crime or appeared before a court, he has no right of appeal to his designation as a funder of terrorism despite the fact that this designation is based on his role with an organization that has itself neither been charged or prosecuted with any terrorism- related offense.

The treatment of these charities, those who dedicate themselves to run them, and those who have depended on them provide a powerful validation of the al-Qaeda critique that the United States is waging a war against Islam. The U.S. government is trading tomorrow's security for today's political gain and in doing so is ensuring that a pervasive, deep-seated and irreconcilable rage against America will be inculcated in the Muslim world for generations to come. Is it unreasonable to believe that the orphans thrown onto the street by American closures of Haramain orphanages will grow up desiring revenge against the one who sacrificed their future on the altar of political self-interest? Will anyone be surprised that a nation of one billion people who view America through a prism of injustice of the kind meted out to Soliman al-Buthi will always view the United States and her people as an inextricably hostile enemy of Islam and Muslims?

If the United States genuinely wishes to fight terrorism, then it must change its approach to Islamic charities. With charity a religious duty for the world's Muslims, the unwarranted hindrance of Islamic charities is an obstacle and hindrance to the practice of religion itself. By creating hardship for hundreds of thousands of poor Muslims, the United States has created a fertile atmosphere for the recruitment of terrorists and the radicalization of a generation. The consequences may not be felt immediately but will almost certainly be felt in the future.

Of course, no one can deny the United States its right to protect its people from terrorism, but the U.S. government must start to apply the same standards of justice to Islamic charities and those who run them as it does to other areas of public life. If not for the sake of America's own integrity, then at least for the sake of raw self-interest and preventing what seems like almost certain disaster.

The writer is executive director of the Australian Muslim Public Affairs Committee (AMPAC).