Double-digit growth for Islamic Relief USA

Remember when Jennifer Turner from the ACLU told a conference of aging leftist academics that “I did 120 interviews with American Muslims in Michigan and Texas. People reported that they were unable to give Zakat. Some had stopped giving entirely. Some felt fear of deportation or denial of citizenship”?

Remember when 20 Muslim charities wrote a letter to Pres. Obama decrying the “legal hurdles that have chilled well-intentioned American Muslim charitable activities for too long”?

Recall that, upon repeated questioning by a Congress out for infidel blood, Treasury official Daniel Glaser claimed that he had no doubt that there has been a “chilling effect” on Muslim charity although he didn’t “have numbers”?

And remember, most famously, when Pres. Obama apologized to the Muslim world because, “In the United States, rules on charitable giving have made it harder for Muslims to fulfill their religious obligation”?

In fact, it has been so bad, especially in an era where overall charitable giving in the United States has plummeted during the recession, that revenues of Islamic Relief USA, the biggest zakat collector/Islamic charity in the U.S., have increased by 30 percent a year.

Oh, er, uh… what?  Increased?!  How is that possible with fears of deportation, denials of citizenship, draconian rules, and a nationwide chilling effect?

Here’s the data from Charity Navigator for Islamic Relief USA’s past three fiscal years available:

	FYE 2006	FYE 2007	FYE 2008
Primary revenue	$42,652,638	$60,611,813	$75,879,207
Contributions	$42,652,638	$60,611,813	$75,879,207
Program Services	0	0	0
Membership	0	0	0
Other Revenue	$981	$3,489	-$588,767
Total Revenue	$42,653,619	$60,615,302	$75,290,440

We should all be so fortunate to be so fearful, chilled, and restricted if it meant that we’d be able to increase our giving by 30 percent a year.