Saudi charities have been stifled by a clampdown since the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States and donors are resorting to unregulated channels to give money, the head of a leading charity said. Saleh Wohaibi, Secretary General of the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY), said calls from Washington for greater scrutiny on money it says might be diverted to militants have actually driven the process underground. Under pressure from the United States, Saudi Arabia has shut down one of its largest charities, Al-Haramain Foundation, and stopped others from sending money abroad. The kingdom said last year it will replace them with a single state organisation.It has also stopped charities collecting in mosques, shopping malls and schools and said donations should be made through bank transfers, which are more easily traced. Saudi charities' activities include funding for orphanages, schools, grants and disaster relief.
Wohaibi said the moves, part of what he called a U.S. campaign to suppress charitable work in the Gulf, has cut contributions to WAMY by around 30 percent and left it powerless to respond to recent humanitarian crises in Niger and Pakistan. "We cannot make any international transactions," Wohaibi told Reuters in an interview this week. "We were the first organisation in the Gulf region to attract attention to the famine in Niger, but we were the last people to move. (Donors) will come to WAMY and find it is too slow. So the only solution for them is to find a young man to go there and buy tents for people. I'm sure that is taking place in Niger and it will take place in Pakistan and Kashmir".
He said Saudis who wanted to give money would do the same as they did during the 1980s war in Afghanistan "when people were going to Peshawar and giving aid directly to the mujahideen". Wohaibi said WAMY, which has representatives across Saudi Arabia and in countries such as the United States, Bosnia, Chad and Indonesia, had no objection to supervision and scrutiny. Its latest annual report, for the Islamic year which ended February 2004, says WAMY spent just over 105 million riyals ($28 million), much of it on programmes to bring up orphans, build schools and provide grants for students. It has had to cut some programmes as donations dropped and says some host countries have faced pressure from Washington to shut down WAMY offices. "We are not against regulating, but in the end this regulation will suffocate the whole thing," Wohaibi said.
He said WAMY has "no links at all with any terrorist organisation or activities" and said the only charges against it had come through the U.S. media and through lawsuits filed in Washington and New York against the charity. "We have been asking the Americans ... to show their proof against WAMY and Islamic charities. They never come to discuss this. They lack evidence."
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