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Advocacy Blog
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Interview with Salam Al-Marayati of the Muslim Public Affairs Council on Muslim American Charities
The Roundtable on Religion and Social Welfare Policy addressed the effects of September 11 on Muslim charities in an interview with Salam Al-Marayati, the executive director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council. Charity is especially important during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which begins tonight (Sept.12) at sundown. According to the interview Treasury has not had an open dialogue with Muslim charities for two or three years. Despite continued government suspicion of Muslim charities people will not stop donating to charity, but the donations will be made through informal outlets.
Al-Marayati comments during the interview; "I'm worried that a lot of money is going overseas without any regulation, without organizations accounting for those monies. In other words, maybe a lot of cash is now being transferred and so the government has, in effect, undermined its own efforts for trying to regulate charitable giving."
There are only a few Muslim-American charities left in the U.S. Before 9/11 Muslim organizations were learning how to apply for government grants, but now Muslim charities work with the government much less. According to Al-Marayati, "because of political concerns, the government is not supporting Muslim non-profits as much for fear of being attacked by the political and ideological right in America for supporting Muslim charities."
We always were concerned about the government's sledgehammer approach — if somebody from one charity does something that's questionable, they'll just go ahead and shut it down.
Posted by Amanda Adams
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