Before last week, Abu Sayed Mahfuz didn’t hesitate to donate to Life for Relief and Development, an international Muslim humanitarian organization that is active in Iraq and Afghanistan and has partnered with the US government. But an FBI search of the organization’s Southfield, Michigan headquarters is making Mahfuz think twice about future contributions.Just as the holy month Ramadan, which began Saturday, has many Muslims thinking about their religious obligation to give alms, the investigation of the prominent Islamic aid group has prompted fears that giving to charity could bring scrutiny from the US government. FBI agents assigned to a terrorism task force last Monday searched Life’s offices, taking computer servers, donor records and other financial documents. They have also searched the homes of the charity’s chief executive, an ex-employee and two board members. “After hearing this, I don’t feel secure at all,” said Mahfuz, a computer consultant and editor of a Bangladeshi community newspaper. He said he would still consider supporting the organization, but the investigation would force him to weigh that decision carefully. No charges have been brought in the case, and Life has sought to reassure the community that it is perfectly legal to donate money to the organization, which was founded in 1992 by Iraqi immigrants.
It is not the first time a Muslim charity has come under investigation. In the months after the Sept. 11 attacks, the government froze the assets of the Texas-based Holy Land Foundation and Illinois-based Global Relief Foundation and Benevolence International, effectively shutting them down. The government has accused those groups of funding terrorists. The search at Life’s offices five days before the start of Ramadan, the month when Life gets about half of its donations, prompted anger among Muslim activists in the Detroit area. They questioned the timing and the involvement of the terrorism task force, which they said led media to draw unfair conclusions. On Wednesday, Arab-American and Muslim leaders vented that anger at a previously scheduled meeting with federal and local law enforcement officials in Dearborn, Michigan — home to America’s largest concentration of Arab-Americans, many of whom are Muslim — as part of a dialogue that began after the Sept. 11 attacks.