Zakat and Terrorism

by Jerry Gordon (July 2009)

in Cairo, he spoke of the obligation of American Muslims to perform Zakat in the context of Religious Freedom:

There are those who will continue to want to divide by fear – to pit our national security against our civil liberties – but that is a false choice. We have a solemn responsibility to protect our people while we also protect our principles.

On May 20^th, a Dallas Federal District Court Judge Jorge Solis sentenced five defendants, officials of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) to more than 145 years for funneling more than $12 millions to Hamas, designated a foreign terrorist organization by our State Department. The FBI in a press release when the five defendants were convicted on November 11, 2008 noted:

“For many years, the Holy Land Foundation used the guise of charity to raise and funnel millions of dollars to the infrastructure of the Hamas terror organization,” said Patrick Rowan, Assistant Attorney General for National Security.

“This prosecution demonstrates our resolve to ensure that humanitarian relief efforts are not used as a mechanism to disguise and enable support for terrorist groups.”

Two of those convicted defendants,
On June 16^th, the ACLU released a AP news report noted:

The American Civil Liberties Union says federal laws targeting terrorism financing are vague and have given the government unchecked power over American Muslim charities.

An ACLU report issued Tuesday said many people who want to comply with their faith’s tenet of charitable giving have stopped doing that out of worry they could be swept up in a terrorism financing investigation.

The report is based on more than 120 interviews with American Muslim leaders and donors and with former Treasury Department officials.

Perhaps President Obama and Attorney General Holder had the preliminary ACLU report in mind when the Cairo speech surfaced the comment about loosening the bonds of federal counter terrorism laws that have allegedly intimidated American Muslims from performing the obligation of Zakat.

Jonathan Schanzer, former Treasury counter terrorism expert commented to the author that “US government seizures of Muslim charities assets were based on intelligence and investigations.”

This article will address the nexus between the Islamic obligation to perform Zakat and preservation of national and homeland security laws to prevent funding terrorism.

What are the Obligations of Zakat under Sharia?

Zakat, according to Sharia, is usually performed during the month long period of Ramadan in the lunar calendar. According to the entry concerning Zakat from the website, Mission Islam:

Zakat (alms) is the name of what a believer returns out of his or her wealth to the neediest of Muslims for the sake of the Almighty Allah. It is called Zakat because the word Zakat is from Zakaa which means, to increase, purify and bless.

The obligation of Zakat is mandatory on every Muslim who possesses the minimum Nisaab, whether the person is man, woman, young, old, sane or insane. Because the proof of Zakat in Al-Qur’an and Sunnah is general and does not exclude young or insane. Allah (SWT) stated that: “Of their goods take alms so that thou mightiest purify and sanctify them…” (Al-Qur’an, 9: 103)

In a famous Hadith reported by `Umar Bin Khattab (raa), the Messenger of Allah (saws) responded to Jibreel (as) and said: “… Islam is to testify that there is no deity but Allah and Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, to perform the prayer, to pay Zakat, to observe fasting in Ramadan, and to make pilgrimage to the house of Allah if you are able to do so….” (Bukhari, Muslim)

According to Shariah, payment of Zakat is to be drawn from the surplus assets left over after meeting normal expenses and provisions for economic activities such as farming, cattle raising, business merchandizing and salaries.

The minimum subject to Zakat is called Nisaab. There are rules for calculating the Zakat contribution:

The Nisaab should be based on the market value of the currency. If the money is hard currency, there will be no problem, but if the money is a non-marketable currency, like most currencies in the third world countries, the Nisaab should be based on the black market, which realistically reflects the value of the currency on the money market. In any case, the silver rate should be used to assess the Zakat.

If the Nisaab is determined, the Zakatable amount is 2.5%, or .025 multiplied by the amount. For instance, if the Zakatable amount is $56,000.00 it will be 56,000. x .025 = $1,400.00.

Zakat recipients would include the poor and needy, administrators of Zakat, debtors, converts to Islam, bondsmen, wayfarers and those fulfilling the “way of Allah”, Jihad. Note this comment:

By this is meant to finance a Jihad effort in the path of Allah, not for Jihad for other reasons. The fighter (Mujahid) will be given as salary what will be enough for him. If he needs to buy arms or some other supplies related to the war effort, Zakat money should be used provided the effort is to raise the banner of Islam.

It is the application of Zakat proceeds to Jihad, especially in the US, that is most problematic and made application of counter-terrorism laws troublesome in the eyes of critics like the ACLU.

What the ACLU report said.

The ACLU Al Haramain Islamic Foundation-USA (Oregon),

Benevolence International Foundation (Illinois),

Global Relief Foundation (Illinois),

Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (Texas),

Islamic American Relief Agency–USA (Missouri) and Goodwill Charitable Organization (Michigan).

A seventh U.S.-based Muslim charity was closed by a Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) blocking order: Kind Hearts for Charitable Humanitarian Development (Ohio).

The ACLU report laid out their case for removal of these federal counterterrorism restrictions with these arguments.

The ACLU’s research shows that U.S. terrorism financing policies and practices are seriously undermining American Muslims’ protected constitutional liberties and violating their fundamental human rights to freedom of religion, freedom of association, and freedom from discrimination.

The ACLU found that these policies and practices are neither fair nor effective, and are undermining American values of due process and fairness. This report outlines clear measures the Obama administration and Congress should take to ensure American Muslims can exercise their religion while protecting charities from mistaken targeting and abuse, and simultaneously promoting national security and humanitarian aid.

The government’s actions have created a climate of fear that chills American Muslims’ free and full exercise of their religion through charitable giving, or Zakat, one of the “five pillars” of Islam and a religious obligation for all observant Muslims.

In furtherance of these arguments, the ACLU notes what it calls evidence:

Among the ACLU report recommendations were the following:

Repeal Executive Order 13224, which creates mechanisms for designating individuals and groups as “specially designated global terrorists.”

Issue an executive order requiring watch lists to be completely reviewed within three months, with names limited to only those for whom there is credible evidence of terrorist ties or activities.

Set time limits on frozen funds. Create a process for release of frozen charitable funds to beneficiaries.

Adequately equip the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board and task the Board with conducting oversight of OFAC.

Issue an executive order prohibiting racial profiling by federal officers and banning law enforcement practices that disproportionately target people for investigation and enforcement based on race, ethnicity, national origin, sex or religion.

Order the FBI, Department of Justice Joint Terrorism Task Force, and other federal agencies to cease public raids of charities under investigation, to cease intimidating interview of Muslim donors without suspicion, and to cease

surveillance of charities and mosques without evidence of wrongdoing.

Direct the Attorney General to revise the Department of Justice ban on racial profiling in federal law enforcement to close the existing exemption for national security and border integrity activities.

 

Swiftly create and implement a process for releasing frozen funds to beneficiaries via another charity for distribution in accordance with the original donors’ intent and based on the nonprofit sector’s proposed procedures.

Ensure the right to counsel for designated charities, by allowing designated charities to use their own funds to pay for their defense.

Withdraw the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) Anti-Terrorist Financing Guidelines/ Voluntary Best Practices for U.S.-based Charities. Conduct public education and outreach with charities, so that charities can know how to carry out their missions while adhering to antiterrorism laws, and avoid being blindsided by government.

Criticism of the ACLU report

The ACLU recommendations mean “more money for Hamas,” said Dennis Lormel, who created the FBI’s terror financing section. Terrorist organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah use the charities to build hospitals and provide food to the poor to win the trust of local Muslims. They then use “this credibility to enlist children as suicide bombers,” Lormel said.

But if the ACLU had its way, the U.S. government would lose critical tools for preventing U.S. charities from sending money to terrorist organizations. Using the “least intrusive means” would make it much more difficult (if not impossible) to shut down terrorist- financing charities like HLF, Lormel told IPT News, because they could deny the government the ability to use methods like wiretaps which were critical to building a case against the group for providing funds to Hamas.

Ending the SDGT designations would take away a valuable deterrent to abuse. “We know from experience that people stop donating to these charities once they are designated as supporters of terrorism,” added Lormel, a 28-year FBI veteran who oversaw its stepped-up efforts to shut off the flow of funds to terrorist organizations after September 11.

The ACLU complaints about the “disproportionate” impact of these investigations on Muslims overlook the reality that most of “the terrorist violence we’ve seen the past eight years comes from the Muslim world,” says Jonathan Schanzer, who worked as a Treasury Department counterterrorism analyst in the George W. Bush Administration.

The ACLU suggests in its report that that the HLF, Global Relief Foundation (GRF), Al-Haramain and Benevolence International Foundation cases were little more than witch hunts targeting Muslims who were not involved in terrorism. But in each of these cases, the government has presented substantial information linking the groups to terror.

But in attempting to manufacture a case that the U.S. government is persecuting Muslims, the ACLU chose to overlook considerable evidence showing that these charities are involved in terrorism.

Investors Business Daily, in an editorial, The Jihad Cash Spigot” echoed Emerson’s concerns:

 

The ACLU whines that its choices are limited now that nine major U.S. Muslim charities have been shut down. In each case, however, evidence that the charities funneled money to al-Qaida, Hamas and other terrorist groups was overwhelming.

An email to the author, David Yerushalmi, a litigator and General Counsel to the Center for Security Policy, had this telling comment regarding the ACLU report:

President Obama’s new Muslim Outreach Partner’s connections to Terror Financing.

The Bush administration came under fire after ISNA official Muzzamil Siddiqi and other known supporters of Islamic terrorism appeared with Bush at a prayer service just three days after the 9/11 attacks. One of those leaders, Abdurahman Alamoudi, was later convicted on terrorism support charges and is serving a 23-year federal prison sentence. Alamoudi was identified in 2005 by the Treasury Department as the top al-Qaeda financier in the U.S.

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