ACLU Report Documents Ways U.S. Counterterrorism Laws Chill Muslim Donors, Charities

by Suraj Sazawal, 6/16/2009

Nonprofit Organizations and Counterterrorism Measures

A June 2009 report from the American Civil Liberties Union details how US counterterrorism laws deny Americans their constitutional rights and have jeopardized national security. Blocking Faith, Freezing Charity: Chilling Muslim Charitable Giving in the “War on Terrorism Financing”, calls on the President, federal agencies and Congress to rethink and redo laws and policies that make donating to charity and the humanitarian work of NGOs into suspect activities and provide little or no redress for the accused to respond to charges of supporting terrorism.

Along with the report the ACLU has created a Take Action webpage that allows visitors to sign a petition asking the President to commit to reform counterproductive and unfair counterterrorism policies and protect civil rights and liberties and a Resource Page that includes a video, interviews and an interactive map.

After the attacks on September 11, 2001, one of the responses from the government was to locate and cut the financial resources of terrorist organizations. Armed with the PATRIOT ACT and Executive Order 13224, President Bush had the tools to shut down any organization the government designated as a terrorist group or one of their supporters. In December three prominent U.S. Muslim charities were raided by government officials and had their assets seized and funds frozen.

The report recognizes "the need to ensure that humanitarian aid and charitable donations are not diverted to support terrorism", but says the means of doing so must protect constitutional and human rights. Several critical flaws with the current counterterrorism regime addressed in the report include:

laws that "allow the seizure and indefinite freezing of a charitable organization’s assets “pending investigation” without charges, opportunity to respond, or meaningful judicial review"
material support laws that do not consider the intent or character of aid provided, but instead "punish wholly innocent assistance to arbitrarily blacklisted individuals and organizations, undermine legitimate humanitarian efforts, and can be used to prosecute innocent donors who intend to support only lawful activity through religious practice, humanitarian aid, speech, or association."

Policies like these have created an environment of fear for many American Muslims and non-Muslim charities as well.

The report notes that only a small number of Muslim charities have been closed by the government "only three designated U.S.-based Muslim charities have faced criminal prosecution, and only one has been convicted." Despite this, Muslim charities and mosques have been repeatedly infiltrated by FBI informants and have had their members questioned and threatened with immigration problems or criminal charges.

President Obama addressed the importance for American Muslims to be able to fulfill their religious donation, or zakat in a June 2009 speech from Cairo, Egypt. According to the report, "the ACLU documented a pervasive fear among Muslim charitable donors that they may be arrested, retroactively prosecuted for donations made in good faith to legal Muslim charities, targeted for law enforcement interviews for exercising their religious obligation to pay zakat, subpoenaed to testify in a criminal case, subjected to surveillance, deported or denied citizenship or a green card, or otherwise implicated because of charitable donations made in fulfillment of their religious obligation to give zakat."

The report also finds that the measures taken against American Muslim charities are "undermin[ing]counterterrorism efforts…alienating Muslim Americans; are damaging America’s reputation and diplomatic efforts in Muslim countries by giving the appearance of a war on Islam; are fomenting fear that drives Muslim Americans’ charitable donations underground; and are creating a chilling effect on overseas humanitarian relief efforts."

The report provides numerous recommendations for the President, Department of Treasury, Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Department of State, and Congress. Implementation of these measures will protect the rights of American Muslims and promote national security interests. Several of the recommendations include:

Repeal Executive Order 13224
Set time limits on frozen funds. Create a process for release of frozen charitable funds to beneficiaries
Withdraw the Office of Foreign Assets Control Anti-Terrorist Financing Guidelines/Voluntary Best Practices for U.S.-based Charities
Permit defendants charged with material support to challenge the underlying designation in their criminal cases
Issuing transparent standards governing OFAC designations
Restricting the use of secret evidence

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