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Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board
| Congress Endangers Muslim Zakat Money |
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| sabri |
| 11/27/02 at 15:04:42 |
| [slm] Congress Endangers Muslim Zakat Money Friday, November 22, 2002 WASHINGTON D.C., The United States government has frozen the assets of three American Muslim charities since September 11. The Department of the Treasury has now tied up about $8 million of American Muslim zakat funds that were intended to help the needy. Congress passed legislation that will make available frozen American Muslim assets to victims of terrorism, lawyers and special interests. 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 and injunction. 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 1st 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 US has not frozen money from churches 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. Now the US Congress, knowing that American Muslim already woefully limited lobbying efforts are consumed with civil liberties violations, detainees, hate crimes, and mandatory fingerprinting and photographing, to name a few issues, 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. These lawyers are not that different from ambulance chasers; they are just more expensive and more sophisticated. 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 September 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. Therefore, 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 US 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 US 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. MPAC is coordinating with all American Muslim organizations to speak as one voice on this important matter. Finally, MPAC is inviting all interested parties to convene on December 21st at Long Beach Convention Center where we will announce our full action plan aimed at restoring the rights of all American Muslims to make unfettered zakat contributions to the most destitute in the world. http://www.mpac.org/home_article_display.aspx?ITEM=287 [wlm] |
| 11/27/02 at 15:53:58 |
| sabri |
| Re: Congress Endangers Muslim Zakat Money |
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| panjul |
| 11/27/02 at 23:33:29 |
| salams, man that is scary!!!!! i have to give zakat this year. i don't think i want to give it to any organization. i will just send it to a relative in pakistan and tell them to distribute it among the poor there. |
| Re: Congress Endangers Muslim Zakat Money |
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| Aadhil |
| 11/28/02 at 19:03:39 |
| [slm] Man! Where is this country going to? We gotta fight back (Nonviolently of course) and maybe lodge a protest. America already has taken their natural rescources, and noow their zakat too ??? >:( I definitely would not want to be in Bush's shoes. [wlm] ;-) |
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