A lengthy new report from the ACLU adds substance to President Obama's remark during his Cairo speech that some U.S. policies had negatively impacted Muslims' ability to fulfill zakat, the charitable giving obligation of Islam.The NYTimes reports:
Advocates for Muslim donors and organizations say the rules governing charitable giving are opaque or poorly defined. Donors could, for instance, find themselves in trouble for past gifts to an organization newly designated a terrorist group.
“It’s absolute madness how this policy has been put together and practiced,” said Maja Freij, chief financial officer at Access, a large Arab-American social services group based in Dearborn, Mich. “It makes you guilty by association, offers no due process and lacks checks and balances.”
You can read the report, "Blocking Faith, Freezing Charity: Chilling Muslim Charitable Giving in the 'War on Terrorism Financing'", here. Its conclusions are summarized this way in the introduction:
The ACLU’s research shows that U.S. terrorism financing policies and practices are undermining American uslims’ protected constitutional liberties and violating their fundamental human rights to freedom of religion, freedom of association, and freedom from discrimination. These policies and practices are neither fair nor effective, and are undermining American values of due process and fairness.
