Open Letter to the Members of the US Congress
April 4, 2006

American Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO’s) are truly an unparalleled model of success worldwide and a backbone of the success of American democratic values. This model is the best expression of American freedom and we hope it will find its way beyond the North American frontiers to the countries of the southern hemisphere, and that it will not end with the end of the cold war. The practical way of spreading freedom and democracy requires more free and independent NGO’s in the third world and not the opposite. The members of the US congress are the guardians of the American values, they keep them from being hijacked inside America or transgressed upon outside, and they bear a great responsibility in protecting these values especially with regard to the rights of individuals and organizations.

The Islamic charitable organizations are part of the international NGO’s, and thus their scope goes beyond narrow national interests to work for the welfare of all humankind. Islamic NGO’s participated in the areas of international relief and development and their contributions were recognized worldwide especially by the beneficiaries and the supporters of humanitarian work. It is one of the requirements of the American values of freedom and democracy for the American government to work at increasing the number of these organizations and to condone their relief work aimed at solving the problem of poverty, their educational work aimed at removing ignorance and their efforts in the upbringing of younger generations that support security, the real pillar of world stability.

We believe that the Islamic charities are best able to regulate individuals and curb their transgressions. They are the best to ensure that money is transparently distributed to its legitimate recipients. They are building the schools that teach the warding off of turmoil and corruption, and protect those who seek security and tranquility in a turbulent world. They teach to give each one their due by building a watchful conscience and a merciful heart. The Islamic charities and the religion they sprang from are not a marginal factor in the international arena to be ignored or their programs and goals to be fought.

The Islamic charities with their programs and works constitute a real fulfillment of human rights in speech and in deeds and not mere slogans or political weapons or tools of diplomatic pressure. They help the oppressed and the destitute, they treat the sick, teach the illiterate, and guide to the true religion of Allah. The principles of freedom and democracy consider such organizations as the safety valve and the guardians of societies, peoples, and nations. Besides these works, the Islamic charities are consolidating the rule of law with the religious principles of self-control before enforcement, moral principles before desires, to bring in benefits and ward off mischief through their legal rights and freedoms gained during the cold war. Beyond that, the world at large is benefiting from the programs and works of these organizations that greatly contribute to world stability.

Where would the people’s conscience in the world and in America in particular stand with the regard to the following statement of Former Secretary of State Colin Powell about the increase of poverty worldwide: “Half the people on this planet, about 3 billion human beings, live in destitute poverty. More than a billion people lack clean water. Two billion lack adequate sanitation and electrical power”[1]?

Where are the justice and the human rights when we know that eleven million people in the horn of Africa are threatened to die because they are under the poverty line according to a statement of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on January 7, 2005. And how does the practice of freedom and democracy in the 21^st century stand when the international Islamic organizations are discriminated against because of their religion and as a result many places stricken by disasters are deprived of their participation in spite of the great need for extra governmental and popular resources. Countries such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kashmir, Iraq, Palestine, Indonesia and Bangladesh that were stricken by wars, earthquakes and Tsunamis have been deprived of the relief that the Islamic charities could have offered because of the measures that were taken against them, including arrests, freezing of accounts, and administrative and financial bureaucratic measures that burden the charities preventing them from offering clothing to the poor, shelter to the refugees, medical help to the sick, food to the hungry, and education to the illiterates. People in need of relief are cursing these freedoms and democracies that are not standing at their side and that are preventing them from getting relief. Who will be responsible for the three million victims of the 2005 famine in Niger, and who are actually dying now?

Poverty, sickness, and illiteracy are increasing in the world, while the US Administration is preventing numerous relief and development organizations from playing their role, increasing hatred toward the US. US discrimination against Islamic organizations is practiced even inside the Muslim countries where they are based. This discrimination has resulted in a sharp increase in hatred among the poor, the orphans, and the rich and poor populations alike toward the US. What is the benefit of the US administration from this bitter harvest?

The policy of the US administration seems to be at the hands of people blinded by arrogance and hubris from seeing the damages incurred to the US, and who lack the foresight to assess the outcomes of this policy. This trend confirms that there is a hidden power working to isolate the United States and prevent it from fulfilling the global humanitarian benefits, and goes even further to exploit the international organization for its interests at the expense of the international law, the United Nations and its organizations, and other peoples’ rights. It is a power that has no concern for your interests and the interest of your people, but is only concerned in kindling the war so that freedoms are curtailed and democracies weakened. It seeks to reduce tolerance and encourage a clash of civilizations.

The major factors that contributed to the fall of the former US foe – the Soviet Union – are being espoused now by the US, which has become a single pole of hegemony, arrogance, and terror. Your previous success of enduring power against the Soviet Union was due to the slogans you raised championing justice, freedom, and democracy during the Cold War.

We realize that the extent of errors and transgressions is increasing and spreading inside the US and out, and this necessitates a revision of your government’s policy. Christopher Patten, the European Commissioner for External Affairs said: “The US gains more by working with the grain of international opinion than she loses in freedom of action by accepting external disciplines.” He also mentioned former US President Kennedy as saying: “My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.”[2]

Two thousand American intellectuals, academics, and artists have appealed to you through a communiqué entitled Not in Our Name, and released on September 11, 2003, in commemoration of the 9/11 attacks, condemning the so-called “War on Terror”, and where they say: “We believe that people of conscience must take responsibility for what their own governments do – we must first of all oppose the injustice that is done in our name. Thus we call on all Americans to RESIST the war and repression that has been loosed on the world by the Bush administration. It is unjust, immoral, and illegitimate. We choose to make common cause with the people of the world.” And they asked: “What kind of world will this become if the U.S. government has a blank check to drop commandos, assassins, and bombs wherever it wants?”[3]

It seems that peace and stability are not a goal of some people in your administration who have hidden interests. What would happen if the US administration allocated the budget of one year of the expenditures on the war in Iraq for the eradication of poverty, famine, and diseases such as AIDS in Africa? How big would the material and moral gain be? How much respect would the world’s nations have toward the US power and moral legitimacy to the leadership of the world?

We have no explanation for the motives of the campaign against the Islamic charities, especially that analyses and studies of the issue of the alleged Islamic organizations terror-support have arrived at the opposite, to the point that the culprits are in fact the victims, and are now entitled to sue for moral and material damages they have incurred. The book Innocent Victims in The Global War on Terror presents examples and results of the positive contributions of these Islamic organizations. A reading of the seventh chapter of the famous 9/11 commission report reveals the explicit emphasis that accusations against the Islamic charities are not only false but inexistent. Judging by this report, it becomes apparent that the US administration has no evidence whatsoever for these accusations; the report being devoid of any facts or events that inculpate them. The case study that was used to prove the culpability of the Islamic charities has on the contrary proven their innocence, according to the rule: “innocent until proven guilty.”

The practice of religious freedoms requires that no pressure be applied, whether directly or indirectly, on the Islamic humanitarian organizations, and that discrimination against Islamic charities because of their religious affiliation be abandoned. For these organizations are major representatives of religious freedom for the Muslims (both donors and recipients).

It is only the repetition of these false accusations in the mass media that has conveyed the understanding that they were proven facts. As a result, a large number of Islamic organizations have been destroyed, marginalized, or weakened. The field of competition has been diminished because of the quantitative, qualitative poor presence of the Islamic organizations. For their human and financial resources have been dwindled, and thus the goal of the war on these organizations has been realized and is apparent in the suffering of the recipients among the poor, the refugees, the sick, and the victims of earthquakes and other disasters, and the hatred toward America has increased, and the likelihood of revenge has multiplied.

The world is witnessing a political and administrative revival, thanks to the US administration which has contributed to this before the 9/11 events. There is no more monopoly of knowledge and information, and everyone has a better understanding of what is good and what is evil, and can distinguish between truth and falsehood. Everyone knows what the world has reaped through the unwise policies adopted after September 11, 2001. Wise people in America and around the world are seeking an end to this new craziness, and end to the one-polar vision of the world; a vision that destroys the wide space shared by diverse religions, cultures, and civilizations which seek competition - not conflict -, peace, justice, and freedom. Wise people of the world are seeking a new beginning that will put an end to the wars that contribute to the increase of poverty, disease, and illiteracy. They seek to stop all political pressures exerted on governments so that the Islamic relief and humanitarian organizations can freely and democratically play their role, and participate with the other humanitarian organizations in bringing a better world.

Finally, we call all sensible people in the US administration, and the representatives of the American people to realize that the first people who are victimized are the American people and the United States in general because of the new McCarthyism and generalization. Therefore they should not be misled by the extreme right and the Zionist lobby, for the generalization engenders an extension of the circle of hatred towards America, and a fall of the principles of freedom and democracy, upon which it was built and to which it calls. The renouncement of these American principles will lead to adverse consequences as mentioned by Jerrold Post, a Georges Washington University professor, who said at the Madrid Conference: “In this struggle, the moral high ground needs to be maintained…To depart from these standards is to lower ourselves to the level of the terrorists and to damage liberal democracy.”[4]

FOCA Members

[1] Colin L. Powell, “U.S. Has Moral Obligation to Help Develop Poor Nations: By 2006, U.S. Aid Will Be As Great As Marshall Plan,” Global Viewpoint/ Foreign Policy (Dist. Tribune Media Services, 1/3/05)

[2] Christopher Patten, America and Europe: an Essential Partnership, speech delivered at Chicago Council on Foreign Relations, Chicago, October 3, 2002.

[3] A Statement of Conscience: Not In Our Name, available from: www.notinourname.org

[4] Jerrold Post, Psychology, Addressing the Case of Terrorism, p. 7, Volume 1, The International Summit on Democracy, Terrorism and Security, March 8-11, 2005, Club de Madrid.

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