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The Detroit News - Oct. 5, 2007
Muslims seek 'safe' charities for giving
By Gregg Krupa
DEARBORN HEIGHTS -- Kenwah Dabajah is in a quandary: How can she fulfill a central tenet of her faith, Islam, without putting herself in legal jeopardy? "I was just thinking, I have this money, to whom or to what am I going to give, this year?" said Dabajah, as she considered how to give zakat, a donation required of Muslims, especially during Ramadan.
Dabajah usually gives to al-Mabarrat, a popular local charity, but federal investigators raided its office this summer for reasons that remain untold. "It is difficult because you want to be a good Muslim and at the same time you do not want to do anything against your country," Dabajah said.
Recent heightened scrutiny of Islamic charities by federal officials is running headlong into the determination of Muslims to donate to causes that serve the neediest and to abide by their holy book, the Quran. As fears intensify, community leaders have called on the government to create guidelines for safe contributions.
As for establishing charities that clearly do not benefit terrorists, many Muslims say they believe they have -- but the periodic raids have made donors leery.
Two long-established organizations -- Al-Mabarrat and Life for Relief & Development -- were targets of federal raids in the past year. Until then, many Muslims had considered them highly reliable, and because neither charity is banned by the federal government, contributing to either of them remains legal.
Nonetheless, many Muslims say they fear donating to them.
Many Muslims, especially those of Arab descent, believe that people in Gaza, the West Bank and southern Lebanon are among those most in need of their assistance. But Hamas and Hezbollah -- declared terrorist groups by the United States -- dominate the government and social services in those regions, and charitable contributions are deemed far too risky -- even if local Muslims fly into the areas with cash and hand it to someone they know, as some do.
Dabajah, too, tried to find other ways to give. She once supported an orphan in the Middle East.
"The name of the orphan was Rana al-Zarqawi, and I just thought: Oh, great!" said Dabajah, who stopped giving for fear of a perceived connection to the dead insurgent leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. ……
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071005/METRO/710050411/1041/LIFESTYLE04
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