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Toledo Blade - May 11, 2006
Group claims snub by U.S. Treasury
Guidance sought on how to keep giving
By CHRISTOPHER D. KIRKPATRICK
American Muslim leaders claim pleas to U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow for guidelines on how to financially aid the Palestinian people without being accused of terrorism have been ignored.
The American Muslim Taskforce on Civil Rights and Elections, a coalition of the largest U.S. Muslim groups, was angered by the closure of Toledo’s KindHearts charity in February.
In response, the group sent Mr. Snow, a Toledo native, a letter asking for guidelines but claims it has been snubbed.
“There’s not clear communication and that is keeping the whole community nervous and on edge,” said Agha Saeed, the national chairman of the group and founder of the American Muslim Alliance.
“Our community wants to be on the right side of the law, but it’s not clear what is the right side,” said Mr. Saeed, an activist who is also a professor of political science and communication at California State University, East Bay.
A public relations battle is continuing between the treasury department and the nation’s largest Muslim organizations — whose leaders say their charities have been shut down without cause since the War on Terror began after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Toledo’s KindHearts, a $5 million-a-year charity with headquarters in West Toledo and branches in Lebanon, Pakistan, and the Gaza Strip, says it has given money for water treatment plants and orphanages. The charity was padlocked under executive order in February amid allegations that it was aiding the militant group Hamas.
Hamas was the political party victorious in the recent election to run the Palestinian Authority, but also is considered a terrorist group by the U.S. government and Israel.
Two days after KindHearts was shut down, three Toledo-area men were arrested and charged with plotting terrorists acts. The U.S. Attorney’s Office said the investigations were separate but connected. The suspects, including two men with KindHearts connections, are being held in a federal prison in Milan, Mich.
KindHearts leaders, including Cleveland attorney Jihad Smaili, say the group has done nothing improper and that $1 million in assets have been frozen by the U.S. Treasury. He also said the stigma of being accused of financing terrorism is too great to ever hope to resurrect the charity.
KindHearts and American Muslim officials say they have asked the treasury secretary for guidelines on what Muslims are supposed to do to meet religious charity requirements.
Mr. Saeed said his group, which sent the letter, has not heard from the government on the issue. He added that he could not personally say if KindHearts was innocent or guilty.
“If there is evidence then throw the book at them,” Mr. Saeed said. “But why is it they have been shut down without any formal trial or court of law? This has become the easiest way — accuse them of something, keep them in the cold storage for a while, and then they are dead.”
Treasury Department spokesman Molly Millerwise said that two e-mails were sent previously in response. One offers a face-to-face meeting with the “Treasury’s most senior official on terrorist financing matters,” she said in an e-mail response to The Blade.
“The Treasury Department responded on two separate occasions to the request for a face-to-face meeting, the first of which came within five days of receiving the request, and the second response followed three days later,” Ms. Millerwise said. She declined to provide copies of the e-mails.
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