New Group to Help Muslim Charities Worldwide
by Kay Guinane, 3/24/2008
Today's Chronicle on Philanthropy blog reports on formation of the World Congress of Muslim Philanthropists, an international effort to help Muslim donors and organizations make the public more aware of their work and to increase organizational capacity.
The group held a two day inaugural meeting in Istanbul, and will set up offices in the United States and at least one Muslim country. The founder is Tariq H. Cheema, a Pakistani doctor living in Illinois. The blog said,
After years of nonprofit work, including assisting victims of the 2005 Pakistan earthquake, Mr. Cheema said he saw the need to bring together the world's Islamic donors....s part of its work, the congress plans to create a Web site, SecureGiving, to rank charities in Muslim countries based on an as-yet-undecided criteria of governance and management standards. Mr. Cheema said the effort will help donors make sure their money is not supportıng terrorists posing as Islamic charities, a concern that has grown since the September 11, 2001, attacks.
