Muslim Leaders Back FBI-Targeted Charity

California Muslim leaders Thursday stood behind an embattled Islamic charity shut down this week for alleged ties to terrorists, questioning the veracity of the federal charges and accusing the government of conducting a pro-Israel witch hunt.

The Treasury Department this week froze $5 million in assets of the Texas-based Holy Land Foundation, one of the largest and most successful Islamic charities in America. Federal authorities charged that the foundation funneled money to Hamas, the Palestinian militant organization that claimed responsibility for last weekend’s suicide bombings in Israel.

According to a 49-page memo released by the FBI, Holy Land officials raised money at a Muslim youth conference in 1994 at which a man reportedly identified as a Hamas military official called for the extermination of all Israelis. Relying extensively on Israeli government information, the FBI memo also detailed financial links between Hamas and the foundation.

Holy Land has steadfastly denied all financial ties to Hamas, saying its funds only support needy Palestinian families, and many of the group’s Muslim supporters Thursday continued to back it.

“I think it’s shameful that our country’s best known and most trusted American Muslim charity has been so horribly lynched by President Bush and offered as a sacrificial lamb to Israel,” said Riad Abdelkarim, an Anaheim Muslim activist who said he would not resign from the Holy Land board. “I’m confident [that] when the Holy Land Foundation is allowed its day in court, it will be vindicated.”

Abdelkarim said the foundation was considering a lawsuit against the government.

The Muslim Public Affairs Council in Los Angeles took a more cautious stand, calling for the Holy Land case to be tried publicly so that Muslims would know the truth about where their donations are going. The council has also asked the U.S. government to make Holy Land funds available to needy Palestinians through the Red Cross or other trustworthy organizations, according to Aslam Abdullah, council vice president.

“If these charges are true, why did Holy Land put the [Muslim] community in this position?” Abdullah asked.

Jewish Groups Voice Dismay

Jewish organizations expressed outrage at charges by some Muslim spokesmen of an Israeli conspiracy. “I find it odd that not only are [Muslims] not distancing themselves from Holy Land, they are almost engaging in anti-Semitic baiting by suggesting there is a Jewish conspiracy out to get the foundation,” said David Lehrer, Western regional director of the Anti-Defamation League.

The battle over Holy Land has become a key symbolic issue between American Muslims and Jews. For years, the ADL and other Jewish organizations have charged that Muslim American support of Holy Land aids Hamas terrorism against Israeli civilians. Many Muslims, however, believe that Holy Land is being smeared by pro-Israel groups in order to stop its successful programs to aid needy Palestinians.

Many Muslim leaders Thursday questioned the FBI’s reliance on Israeli intelligence. Confessions by Hamas supporters were probably extracted under torture, the Muslim groups alleged. Until outlawed by the Israeli high court in 1999, methods that the Israeli government calls “physical pressure” and that opponents call torture were often used in interrogations of terrorism suspects.

The Muslim spokesmen also maintained that the FBI memo contained numerous inaccuracies, such as charges of meetings between Holy Land and Hamas that foundation officials say never occurred.

Some Muslims also questioned whether Holy Land should be held accountable for the remarks of the 1994 speaker who urged the extermination of Jews. The speaker, Sheikh Muhammed Siyam, was invited not by Holy Land but by the Muslim Arab Youth Assn., which organized the conference, they said, adding that Siyam was one of several speakers.

Hussam Ayloush of the Anaheim office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations described Siyam as a fiery speaker, poet and teacher who was misidentified in the FBI memo as being affiliated with a militant group that is actually an educational organization.

Ayloush said speakers from overseas have been known to spew out offensive rhetoric, which is one reason his organization has informally decided to no longer give them a podium. But he said he has not been persuaded by the government’s case against Holy Land.

“I’ve donated to Holy Land in the past, and if they are reopened I will do so again,” he said. “The Palestinians have suffered enough.”

Professor Will Suspend Giving

Khaled Abou El Fadl, a UCLA law professor, said he has donated to Holy Land in the past because it is one of the few Islamic charities with professional accountability and documentation of its hospitals and humanitarian activities. He also said he trusted the organization because it is one of the few allowed to raise funds in such countries as Egypt, which he said has jailed Hamas supporters for fear they would stir up unrest.

“This suggests that the Egyptian government views Holy Land as apolitical,” he said.

But the law professor said he will suspend his donations until the case is settled. The remarks of speakers like Siyam are immoral, he said, but he questioned whether the rhetoric rose to a level that warranted shutting down the organization.