Like many Muslims, Southern California businessman Safi Qureshey plans to contribute to charity during Islam's current holy season of Ramadan, when it is said that the blessings of all donations are multiplied 70 times in the book of God.
But since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the U.S. heightened suspicions that some Islamic relief organizations were covertly funneling donations to terrorists, Qureshey is far more cautious about which charities he supports. Now, he says, he no longer contributes directly to individual charities but funnels his giving through the California Community Foundation and Citibank, which check the recipients for him to make sure they have a clean bill of health.
"We have all become much more cautious," said Qureshey, one of Southern California's leading Muslim philanthropists, whose largess includes a $1-million gift to UC Irvine for brain research and seed money for a new foundation to produce documentaries promoting understanding of Islam and harmony with other religions. "Now you feel much more of a burden as a donor that you have never felt. If you see an appeal that looks OK on the surface, how do you know the details? You just don't know where your money may end up."
For many American Muslims, the war on terror is forcing modern adjustments to Islam's age-old tradition of charitable giving. Their faith requires them to contribute a religious tax known as zakat, amounting to 2.5% of their assets, to the poor and other needy people listed in the Koran. In addition, Muslims are required to pay zakat fitr, or a fee to feed a family during Ramadan; without that contribution, many Muslims believe, their spiritual benefits gained from fasting and praying will be forfeited.
But the U.S. crackdown on Islamic charities has complicated this religious obligation and, some Muslims say, impeded the free practice of their faith. Since 9/11, the U.S. government has designated 27 Islamic charitable groups worldwide as supporters of terrorism, including five it shut down in the United States.
According to Hussam Ayloush, executive director of the Anaheim office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, many American Muslims are sending less money to international relief organizations and keeping more at home for U.S. organizations or such local projects as mosque renovations. His own organization, which promotes Muslims' civil rights and education about Islam, has benefited from the shift. He said the council's California budget has increased from $300,000 in 2000 to $1.1 million in 2003, and its staff has grown from two to eight.
