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U.S. LAWS SUPPRESS MUSLIM CHARITIES
NY Times - The fight against terrorism has dealt a harsh blow to Muslim charities and interfered with their donors' religious freedom, a new report by the American Civil Liberties Union concludes. The report says statutes that it describes as overly broad and enforced in a discriminatory manner, coupled with a lack of due process, have starved Islamic charities of money and impeded Muslims' ability to fulfill zakat, their religious requirement to make charitable donations.
The report is based on interviews with more than 100 Muslim community leaders as well as experts on antiterrorism laws and regulations. Though it gives no estimate of the decline in donations to Muslim groups, it says a total of nine Islamic charities have closed as a result of government action against them since the Sept. 11 attacks.
That action ranges, it said, from declaring a group to be under investigation to designating it a terrorist organization and freezing its assets.
"While there is a legitimate concern about the use of charitable funds to finance terrorism, it does not outweigh the rights of American Muslims to fulfill their religious obligations or override constitutional requirements for due process," said the author, Jennifer Turner, the A.C.L.U.'s human rights researcher.
The report is based on interviews with more than 100 Muslim community leaders as well as experts on antiterrorism laws and regulations. Though it gives no estimate of the decline in donations to Muslim groups, it says a total of nine Islamic charities have closed as a result of government action against them since the Sept. 11 attacks.
That action ranges, it said, from declaring a group to be under investigation to designating it a terrorist organization and freezing its assets.
"While there is a legitimate concern about the use of charitable funds to finance terrorism, it does not outweigh the rights of American Muslims to fulfill their religious obligations or override constitutional requirements for due process," said the author, Jennifer Turner, the A.C.L.U.'s human rights researcher.
posted by TPR | 12:08 PM
1 Comments:
Research the demonization and prosecution of the Holyland Foundation-- the asset forfeiture (before any charge or conviction), the conviction after years of juries rejecting the charges, the relentless judge and venue-shopping before the sic justice dept. could badger some jury at a slanted judge's direction into a conviction of some sort. The whole thing is based on AIPAC's assertion that any organization helping one Palestininian orphan who might know someone affiliated with Hamas whom everyone but US and Israel see as a political party but AIPAC says is a terrorist organization. Who corrupted the US Congress and Presidency ? Who usurped American taxpayer dollars to further their territorial ambitions? Who is the terrorist organization?
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