Material-support law criminalizes religious charity implicated in Palestinian solidarity

Evidence

The charge of “material support” for terrorism has been used against people for a wide range of activities from donating to charitable organizations to participating in anti-war activities. Charity or zakat is one of the five pillars of Islam and is considered a religious obligation for all Muslims. After 9/11 the Bush administration shut down major Muslim charitable organizations operating in the United States and froze their assets, allegedly to prevent the flow of money to “terrorists.” Muslims who made contributions to charitable organizations that then donated money to groups the US government designated “Foreign Terrorist Organizations” (FTOs) were tried in court for providing “material support” to terrorists. As lawyer Michael Ratner of the Center for Constitutional Rights explains, even limited contact, such as providing blankets to a hospital associated with an FTO or teaching nonviolent forms of conflict resolution to an FTO, is seen as material support. Zakat has an element of political solidarity with struggles elsewhere, especially Palestine, which the security state has sought to control. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 590

Categorization

• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 590
• XREF: connects to: Anti-terror material support laws criminalize religious charity and political solidarity; Charity aid to needy Palestinians was prosecuted as material support for terrorism — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 579; Charity to Palestinian civilians was prosecuted as terror financing without violence evidence. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 579 (+9 more)

Broader Connections

• US law criminalizes even giving blankets to a hospital affiliated with a terrorist-listed group #exemplifies (0.95)
• Charitable aid to Palestinian civilians was criminalized as terror financing #corroborates (0.92)
• The Bush administration criminalized a mandatory Islamic religious practice by shutting down Muslim charities #exemplifies (0.90) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 465
• Aid routed through Hamas-controlled charities was prosecuted as terror support despite no violence #exemplifies (0.90)
• Charity to FTO-linked hospitals is criminalized as material support. #exemplifies (0.88)
• Muslim charity donations for sanctioned civilians became presumptive evidence of disloyalty #expands (0.80)
• Same public charitable works by religious actors are criminalized once they challenge secular authority #expands (0.75) — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 968
• Anti-sharia experts framed Islamic charity as criminal material support for terror #expands (0.75) — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 408