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Dilemma of Muslim Charities:
In the post 9-11 era, even those who do follow
the govt guidelines to the letter do not receive
any assurances that they will be safe
MPAC Report
The Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), an American Muslim civil rights organization, sponsored a forum, in Washington DC on October 20, 2003, on the issue of charitable giving to Muslim charities. The forum preceded (only one week) the beginning of the month of Ramadan which is the traditional high-season of charitable giving.
The panelists at the meeting, which was moderated by MPAC's Executive Director Salam Al-Marayati, included Saeed Saeed, from the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), Peter Gubsner, President of the American Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA), Ladele K. George, Attorney at Law and advisor to American Muslim charities, Dr. Laila Al-Marayati, Board member of Kids in Need of Development, Education and Relief USA (KINDER USA) and Juan Zarate of the Treasury Department.
Dr. Saeed Saeed opened the panel by saying that the American Muslim community is waiting for a positive message from the American Muslim leadership. He added that ordinarily, money given during Ramadan that is intended to fulfill charitable purposes should not take longer than one year to reach the intended people in need.
Ladale K. George, an attorney with Foley & Lardner and an advisor to American Muslim groups concerned with the issue of charities, pointed out that he was consulting with American Muslim charities on the process of trying to comply with the United States Government's "best practices" guidelines well before September 11, 2001 or before increased scrutiny by the United States government. In the post 9-11 era, George pointed out that a fundamental problem is that even those who do follow these guidelines to the letter do not receive any assurances that they will be safe. George suggested that the government should provide more reasonable and modest guidelines to rectify this problem.
Peter Gubsner, president of ANERA, which conducted $20 million in business last year, offered a recommendation to the U.S. government on how to make charitable giving easier. Gubsner suggested that a consolidated list of terrorist organizations should be made public by the government to assist charities in distributing their funds to the appropriate sources.
Board member of KINDER USA, Dr. Laila Al-Marayati, touched upon some of the larger problems and issues faced by American Muslim charities, particularly ones, like KINDER, who do work in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Dr. Al-Marayati started by saying that some of the increased accountability as a result of greater government scrutiny has been good for donors, who Dr. Al-Marayati asserted may previously not have been adequately served by the charities to whom they donated. Dr. Al-Marayati expressed concern that intelligence may be provided to American officials from foreign governments condemning charities
from sources that are either corrupt, in the case of many Arab governments, or politically tainted, as in the case of intelligence from Israel. The impact on giving to organizations later deemed by the government to be a terrorist organization was another concern Al-Marayati raised, saying that the lack of assurance that donors will be protected in this instance, "punishes charities for not being able to predict the future."
In response to these concerns and others raised later by observers and guests around the table, Juan Zarate of the United States Treasury Department reiterated that the Bush administration felt strongly about the sanctity of charitable giving and the need to encourage American Muslim and Arab organization to take much-needed leadership on this issue. Zarate added that the administration saw American Muslim charities as a possible vanguard to help strengthen transparency in charities abroad. Zarate said that the government's guidelines, provided in November of 2002 provided guidelines as a challenge and benchmark for charities, and were never intended to have the force or effect of law. He suggested forming a committee of major members of the charitable community to form an internal vetting method that would be able to give community members a seal of approval for certain charities. Zarate ended by saying that the government's attempts to stop terrorist funds are not directed to donors themselves.
There was much discussion and disagreement, as well as areas of convergence, between Zarate's suggestions and many of the participants at the round-table. Salam Al-Marayati ended the panel by discussing the larger issues our nation faced in terms of national security, adding that failing to aid the most needy in countries in which terrorism takes place is counter to U.S. interests. There was agreement that more such forums would take place on a regular basis to iron out these concerns, and these meetings should include representatives from other government institutions involved in the issue of charities financing.
(Source MPAC News Bulletin Oct. 20, 2003)
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