Q: How much concern is there in the Muslim community about the situation for Muslim charities today?
A: I think there are a lot of concerns, mainly because people feel like they're working in the dark, that the government really hasn't provided avenues to give donations, especially when it comes to relief work overseas, in a safe way, in a way that people feel like they're not going to be harassed by the government. The government has said that they are going to make sure that money doesn't go to the hands of terrorists, which I think is very good. It's a laudable effort on their part. But, at the same time, we cannot sacrifice the ability to give to those in need, especially in places like the Palestinian territories, Kashmir, and Chechnya that are the hot spots, that need the relief the most in terms of the Muslim world. And what we have done is told the government we need to do something in partnership with you to make sure that, while there is no terrorism financing, haritable giving for the needy is not sacrificed as a result.
Q: Is there fear within the community and among individual donors that they might come under suspicion?
A: I think a lot of people have fear about giving, and I think it's justifiable. I was at a hearing in the Congress one time when a senator says, "We're not just going to go after the charities, we might also go after donors." And so now if it's an issue of donor rights, then I think we should be very concerned, and also from an American geopolitical standpoint I think the United States government has to think about, and think carefully about what it's doing, because it does not want to cut itself off from the people of the Muslim world, because we're trying to win hearts and minds. And if the people of the Muslim world see that the U.S. government is against the relief efforts that are supposed to help the people in that region, then the whole campaign to win hearts and minds will be sacrificed as well.
Q: Is there a perception that the U.S. government is unfairly going after, or perhaps taking a look at, some of these groups?
A: Definitely the perception is that Muslim charities are going through more scrutiny, and I think that's understandable. Nobody is saying we shouldn't, and that's just a reality of the post-9/11 era. The question is can we allow a safe harbor for Muslim charities to operate under without the fear of getting harassed, targeted, and shut down by the U.S. government? I'll just give you an example. We formed a national council of Muslim nonprofits, with Treasury in the discussion, with a number of Muslim charities at the table, and with a number of other Muslim organizations working with us on that issue. And after two or three years, one charity after another got shut down, and we had no more organizations to form the nonprofit association. So that project unfortunately died as a result of these groups being shut down without any explanation, without giving us proper information or recourse on what to do if we want to form a coalition that works with the Treasury Department on trying to provide relief for those in need overseas.
Q: What reverberations or shock waves did that send when some of these organizations just all of a sudden--
A: I wouldn't say that there were reverberations or shock waves. It's like we've just gotten used to it. We know that this is the reality of the post-9/11 era, and we're trying to adjust. We're just trying to continue working, meet our religious obligation, because the Qur'an, the whole theme of the Qur'an is social justice. Without social justice, religion becomes just a means of exploitation, and that's what the extremists are doing. They are promoting religion without justice, which is mainly exploitation. And so now to have our government tell us that charitable giving is going to be more narrow, or could be even cut off, that is taking away from people's feeling that they are just performing their religious obligation. So that's one problem. Then the second problem is, well, how are we going to work with the government? We want to develop a partnership between the Muslim community and the U.S. government. Treat us as partners, not as suspects. And we feel that we can work together on meeting the U.S. government goals and, at the same time, allowing Muslim Americans to perform their religious obligations, and to give to those in need. Whether they want to give here in America or give abroad, it's their right to do so, and to protect the donor, because now you have another situation where about $12 or 15 million were frozen when the United States government shut those charities. That money now has disappeared for legal costs, for administrative costs, so it didn't go to the needy. And there is a group of nonprofits now that are calling for the Treasury Department to return money to the donors, or to send the money to the intended recipients through a third party, through another charity that is already operating in the region. So we're willing to adjust, but we feel that the Treasury Department and the U.S. government in general have not adjusted as well. They're still trying to figure out what to do.
Q: Do you sense that the Treasury Department or the U.S. government isn't willing to enter into the partnerships you're proposing?
A: I think there is an intention to work in partnership with us, and there's a desire to have dialogue at a certain level, at the low level, if you will, of staffers in our government. The policy people are the ones that are not in dialogue, so when it comes to Treasury, it should be the Secretary of the Treasury. It should be Stuart Levy, who is in charge of the whole operation, that should be in dialogue with us. With the F.B.I. we have dialogue with the director, with his assistant directors. With the Justice Department we've met with [former] Attorney General Gonzales on a number of occasions. We've even met with the president on three occasions. But the Treasury Department still has not sat down with us, other than one time, to say "Yes, we're willing to have a dialogue with you," and then provided some very broad guidelines to us, and then that was it. We really haven't had much movement in terms of working out a healthy partnership with the Treasury on this issue.
