|
Detroit News – August 8, 2007
Charity probes worry South Asians
They fear raids on Muslim groups will hurt donations for flood victims
Gregg Krupa
There is concern in the large South Asian community in Metro Detroit that efforts to provide relief for flood-ravaged Bangladesh and India will be discouraged by recent federal investigations of Muslim charities.
"People are concerned about doing fund-raising and relief work amid some of these statements that, for example, contributing to orphans is used as a euphemism for supporting terrorists," said Dawud Walid, director of the Council on American Islamic Relations-Michigan.
In the past year, at least three local charities have been raided, including Life for Relief & Development in Southfield and Al-Mabarrat in Dearborn.
No charges have resulted, and contributions to both organizations remain lawful because neither is banned by the federal government.
But Muslims in Metro Detroit raising money for relief or other efforts remain wary.
And the recent raids are of particular concern to Metro Detroiters of Bangladeshi and Indian descent, who are mobilizing to send relief to both countries, where 1,500 people are dead and 19 million displaced in floods from monsoon rains this summer.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are about 208,000 people of South Asian descent in Michigan.
There are about 100,000 people of Indian descent and 20,000 people of Bangladeshi descent, according to leaders in both communities.
"We are aware that we need to be more careful," Ali Hyder, a physicist, businessman and a member of the Bangladeshi American Public Affairs Committee, who has helped previous relief efforts in Bangladesh.
"Two years ago, a large number of people who were sending money back to their families in Bangladesh were questioned by Homeland Security officials."….
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070807/METRO/708070356
Detroit Free Press - August 7, 2007
Federal agents look for Hizballah activity in charity raids
BY NIRAJ WARIKOO
Federal agents were looking for information on terrorist operations and Hizballah activity when they raided two Muslim charities last month, court records show.
The agents hauled away computers, files, money and other items from the Dearborn offices of Al-Mabarrat Charitable Organization and Goodwill Charitable Organization, two Muslim groups that raised money in metro Detroit.
On the same day, July 24, the U.S. Treasury Department said Goodwill was a front group for Hizballah and froze its assets, but Al-Mabarrat was not labeled, charged or placed on any terrorism list.
According to an affidavit filed with the search warrant for the raids, agents were looking for financial ties to "foreign Lebanese or Iranian affiliated charitable organizations" as well as "anti-United States or anti-Israel propaganda."
Hizballah, based in Lebanon, is considered a terrorist group by the U.S. State Department, but some Muslims in metro Detroit see it as a legitimate group that resisted Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon.
Agents also raided the homes of two men on the same day as the raids. As with the charities, agents were looking for material "dealing with Hizballah, martyrdom, suicide operations, bombings or other terrorist attacks," the affidavit says.
The men were listed as Mike or Majed Safiedine of Dearborn Heights, who is president of Goodwill, according to 2005 tax records the group filed, and Ahmed Ali Ghosn of Dearborn.
From the home of Safiedine, agents seized computers, checks, an Al-Mabarrat receipt, a Goodwill memo and a portrait of the late Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini.
Dawud Walid, head of the Michigan branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said, "we're concerned about Al-Mabarrat being able to function, being allowed due process and not being tried in the court of public opinion."
He added, "Al-Mabarrat emphatically denies any connection to Hizballah."
Regarding the photo of Khomeini, Muslim leaders said that's protected under the Constitution….
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070807/NEWS05/708070390
|
