by Dora Muhammad
Staff Writer

BRIDGEVIEW, Ill. (FinalCall.com)�Muslim, Arab and Palestinian organizations stood outside the closed Illinois office of one of the nation�s largest Islamic charities on Dec. 7 to express their support of the group which was recently shut down by the government.

In an early morning raid three days prior, 15 federal agents confiscated records, supplies and furniture from the Bridgeview branch office of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) as well as in San Diego; Paterson, N.J.; and its headquarters in Richardson, Texas. The foundation�s funds were also frozen�$1.9 million in assets.

According to administration officials, after the recent suicide bombings in Jerusalem, which killed 26 people, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon asked President Bush to move on the group. Two days later, the U.S. Treasury Department accused the charity of funding Hamas, the Palestinian resistance group that claimed responsibility for the killings.

"If the Holy Land Foundation had violated any U.S. law, they would have charged us in a court of law," maintained the group�s president Shukri Abu-Bakr. "They wouldn�t need to seize our assets."

Joining the leaders in defense of the relief organization, members of the Muslim community in Chicago marched about one block after regular Friday congregational prayer at the Mosque Foundation to hold a press conference and rally. With a picture of a Palestinian girl named Luqna clasped in her hand, Tammie Ismail, a teacher at Al-Aqsa School, shouted, "Who will be sending her money now?"

Over 4,000 orphans have been cut off from funds and over 1,800 families will not be receiving food packets or charity donated by the humanitarian group, she said. For the past two years, through the foundation, she has provided monthly for the orphan, who has struggled to survive with her sister and two brothers after their father died of cancer.

The Islamic Association for Palestine, the Council of Islamic Organizations of the Chicago, the United Muslim American Association, The Palestinian Center and other groups issued a joint statement in response to the President�s decision to target HLF.

"For the President to come on TV and announce the closing of a charity organization, what kind of action is this?" asked Rafiq Jabaar, president of the Islamic Association for Palestine in North America.

An "atrocity" and a "crime" answered Rami Nashashibi during his statement on behalf of the Inner City Muslim Action Network. "Even with the greatest resources of the most powerful and rich country in the entire world, the United States, we have people who suffer in housing projects here in Chicago. We have people who are displaced," he maintained.

"Palestine and other marginalized places in the world, they don�t have the resources of America," he continued, "Their suffering is 10 times worse there and now we want to take away the few bread crumbs off the table? Do not stand and be duped by those who want to try and convince you that this is a war against anything other than our humanity," he pleaded.

According to President Bush, the move was against a direct financial arm of terrorists. "Money raised by the Holy Land Foundation is used by Hamas to support schools and indoctrinate children to grow up into suicide bombers," he said. "Money raised by the Holy Land Foundation is also used by Hamas to recruit suicide bombers and to support their families."

National Islamic organizations issued a joint statement the same day of the raids and seizures countering this charge. The Council on American-Islamic Relations, the Islamic Society of North America, the American Muslim Council and four other groups declared: "No relief group anywhere in the world should be asked to question hungry orphans about their parent�s religious beliefs, political affiliations or legal status. Those questions are not asked of recipients of public assistance whose parents are imprisoned or executed in the United States, and they should not be a litmus test for relief in Palestine."

The government�s "orchestrated" and "insidious" campaign did not begin with HLF but started years ago, charged Amer Haleem, of the Qur�anic Literacy Institute, an organization whose assets were seized years ago. He urged the public to come to terms with "the systematic and categorical oppression of the Muslim community for the sake of special interests and for the sake of political power."

Muslims, he said, have become the new dissident group in America out of "fear of the institutionalization of Islam in America."