OpEdNews - Article: Targeting Muslim Charities in America

Targeting Muslim Charities in America - by Stephen Lendman

In a December 2008 article, this writer explained that the Texas-based Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) was the largest American Muslim charity until the Bush administration bogusly declared it an enemy of the state and shut it down.

On December 4, 2001, the Treasury Department declared HLF a terrorist group, froze its assets, and falsely claimed they were being used to funnel millions of dollars to Hamas. HLF's appeal was denied.

It provided vital relief to Palestinian refugees in Occupied Palestine, Lebanon and Jordan as well as aid for the needy in Bosnia, Albania, Chechnya, Turkey, America, and elsewhere.

Its activities included:

-- financial aid to needy and impoverished families;

-- a sponsorship program for orphaned children;

-- numerous social services;

-- educational ones;

-- medical and other emergency work; and

-- community development, including helping Palestinians rebuild homes that Israel maliciously destroyed.

HLF described its work as follows. "We gave:

-- books, not bombs;

-- bread, not bullets;

-- smiles, not scars;

-- toys, not tanks;