To give or not to give
For Ramadan in Michigan, there’s a modern caveat in the tradition of giving.
IN the month of Ramadan, Rabih Najdi, the manager at the Super Greenland Store in Dearborn, prepares to be asked to give to charity – sometimes by the same people who told him the same story of misfortune the last time they asked for help.
One year, he said, a woman was begging for money with a photo of a boy in a foreign country who she said needed a kidney.
“I saw her 10 years later,” Najdi said. “She has the same picture in her hand. And I told her, ‘I mean, come on, we cannot do that. It’s not good for Ramadan and stuff.’ But, I don’t know if she’s a Muslim either. Some people, they try to abuse the situation.”
Charity is a tenet of the Islamic holy month, but in metro Detroit, and around the globe, religion and public safety are at odds. Do you give? As the prophet Muhammad did. Or refuse to give, to avoid being swindled?
Community and spiritual leaders are increasingly urging caution: Not everyone who appears to be in need really is. More and more, con artists – who might not be Muslim – are fleecing the faithful.
Fasting in Ramadan and Zakat, annual giving, are two pillars of Islam. Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, is observed by Muslims worldwide.
Najdi said the ethnic grocery store where he works tries to never turn people away because he can’t really know if a request is genuine or not.
“We should not be discouraged from giving simply because there are a few – very few – individuals who would elicit funds that are not really needed for them other than to fill their greed,” said Imam Hassan Qazwini, the spiritual leader of the Islamic Institute of America in Dearborn Heights. “When we know them, we give to them.”
But, he acknowledged, there is a modern-day caveat: “When we don’t know them, and we have no idea about their financial situation, we ask them to offer some documentation. Sometimes, we also require witnesses.”
In Surat al-Baqarah, the second chapter of the Quran, people are encouraged to investigate and to find those who are in need but don’t ask for charity out of modesty, said Imam Mohammad Ali Elahi of the Islamic House of Wisdom in Dearborn Heights.
Elahi said being asked for charity creates a moral challenge for the mosque because they don’t know everyone who asks and the mosque doesn’t have enough tools to investigate each case.
“But the whole point is more positive than negative,” Elahi said, adding: “Let’s say that some people may abuse it. But you know, if somebody gets to the point of coming and asking for US$50 or US$100 (RM198 or RM397), that means that there is a need. But, of course, we have to be careful that, if they get this help and they may abuse it, then, as much as we can be careful, we have to.”
Fleecing the faithful
Michigan – in part because the auto industry attracted Muslim immigrants – has one of the highest concentrations of mosques in the United States, with Dearborn as the home of one of the largest mosques in North America.
“Just like the Christian holiday season or the Jewish holiday season, it’s a time to give whatever wealth you have to those who are less fortunate,” said Rana Taylor, the director of communications for the nonprofit Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services in Dearborn. “It reminds Muslims that at the end of the day we have a responsibility to take care of one another.”
Still, the Prophet Muhammad, who was born in the 6th century, never asked for documentation.
“At that time, life was very simple. Everybody knew everybody in the community,” Qazwini explained. “Only when we have doubts do we ask for documentation, because, now, it is hard to know everybody in the community. We don’t live in a village.” Still, he said, it shouldn’t matter what religion the person in need practises. And, the imam added, withholding help when it is needed “could be a morally wrong act”.
Dave Abdallah, a Dearborn Heights city councilman and a real estate agent, said he gets 15 to 20 solicitations for donations in person and in the mail – some, from groups he’s never heard of with out-of-state addresses – every Ramadan.
“That’s when you are most vulnerable and more likely to donate to a particular organisation thinking that this is a good deed,” he said. “It is a good deed, but you meanwhile figure out the people you donated to had different intentions.”
Abdallah, an Arab American who has taken two Muslim pilgrimages to Mecca, said the city of Dearborn Heights doesn’t put out official warnings during Ramadan, but he cautions residents to check out claims before donating – especially when they don’t seem genuine.
“I’ve had beggars come to me that look a little suspicious,” Abdallah said. “I do a lot of things, but I don’t give somebody money just because they ask for it, especially nowadays. Any organisation that asks you for money, you have to do your research.”
Police in Hamtramck, where there is a large population of Muslims, do not have a record of Ramadan-giving scams. Still, they said, that may just be because the victims are too embarrassed to report them to police.
Charity Navigator – a Glen Rock, New Jersey, nonprofit organisation that offers advice on giving and an online guide to charities – gets questions every Ramadan from potential donors.
“One of the things we hear all the time is: ‘How do I make sure I’m not giving to a scam?’” said Sara Nason, a Charity Navigator spokeswoman. “If somebody asks for money, you want to ask some key questions that may pop up some red flags.”
Among them, she said, are: Is the charity a registered tax-exempt nonprofit? What are the charity’s expenses and goals? And what is the group’s rating by groups like Charity Navigator?
It’s also good, she said, to get a progress report a few months later.
When giving to individuals on the street, she added, you obviously can’t use the same vetting process.
“There’s charitable giving that commemorates the first few verses of the Quran and that’s, for a lot of people, very important,” she said. “If you see a need, and that’s the way you give back, and you feel that’s the most meaningful way, then that’s the option to take.”
In the United States, Muslims make up only about 1% of the population. Worldwide, however, Muslims are about a quarter of the population, and among the fastest-growing religious groups. Estimates expect Islam to surpass Christianity in followers by the end of the century, according to the Pew Research Center in Washington.
In the Middle East, authorities also aggressively patrol public places to crack down on begging, which, in some countries, is frowned upon and outlawed. In Abu Dhabi, the capital city in the United Arab Emirates, police have encouraged residents to report beggars and threatened to prosecute – and even deport offenders – if caught, according to the National, the city’s Englishlanguage news publication. – Detroit Free Press/Tribune News Service