Muslim charitable giving shifted to domestic causes after 9/11

Jeremy Hobson: All this week, we’re looking at the economic consequences of 9/11. Today we focus on charitable donations.

Charitable giving is one of the ‘five pillars of Islam’ but a U.S. government crackdown after the 9/11 attacks led the biggest Muslim-American charities to shut down.

And donors have been left scrambling, as Marketplace’s Mitchell Hartman reports.

Mitchell Hartman: Before 9/11, most of the charity raised by Muslims in the U.S. went to Muslims abroad — refugees from Afghanistan, school kids in Gaza.

Then came the U.S. crackdown on charities, which continues to this day. Jennifer Turner of the A.C.L.U. says it’s scared many Muslims away from giving ‘zakat.’ — that’s the religious obligation to donate 2.5 percent of your income to charity.

Jennifer Turner: A large number of people have also shifted their giving, and no longer give to humanitarian relief organizations or Muslim charities, but instead are giving to the building of mosques locally, or to local soup kitchens or shelters.

Some Muslim immigrants still send ‘zakat’ directly to poor family members, schools or orphanages back home. But overall, much less money is flowing abroad. And that has an upside for domestic charities like the Inner-City Muslim Action Network on Chicago’s South Side, which hosts evening discussions about Islam.

IMAN class: Does anyone know the name of the brother in the hadith, he comes to the prophet…

Rami Nashashibi founded the group, which has grown in the post-9/11 charitable vacuum. The budget’s up from $200,000 to $2 million. They run a free medical clinic, arts and anti-violence programs.

Rami Nashashibi: 9/11 led to an increase in funding from individual donors, who felt like this is really an important part of our work that quite frankly we were neglecting.

Another fundraising winner is civil rights groups that fight discrimination against Muslims. Nihad Awad says his group, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, has expanded from eight offices to 30. With so much money staying in the U.S., he says American Islam is getting a makeover.

Nihad Awad: Mosques that used to be built with maybe $500,000 now are being built with $5 million.

And Awad says don’t be surprised to see lots of cash in the collection box.

Awad: In some functions people do not give credit card information or don’t give checks. They just safely give cash.

That’s to keep your charity humble before god, and invisible to U.S. government investigators.

I’m Mitchell Hartman for Marketplace.