World Net Daily
written by Staff
Thursday June 23, 2011
The IRS has stripped the embattled Council on American-Islamic Relations of its tax-exempt status after the nation's most prominent Muslim group withheld donor records from the government.
The move by the federal agency follows an expose published by WND Books that revealed these and other violations by CAIR and triggered a federal investigation and audit.
As WND first reported in January 2010, CAIR's national office has failed to file financial records since 2007 as required by federal law. Registered as a 501(c)(3) organization, the group must detail its revenues and expenses to the IRS in annual reports known as form 990s to maintain its tax-exempt status.
Under a new federal law, effective starting for tax years ending on or after Dec. 31, 2007, if an organization fails to file either Form 990-N, Form 990 or Form 990 EZ for three consecutive years, its tax-exempt status will automatically be revoked.
As a result, the IRS earlier this month purged CAIR from its list of tax-exempt organizations. Donations to the group are no longer tax-deductible, even though CAIR continues to claim on its website that contributions are deductible.
The gross delinquency raises new suspicions that CAIR – identified in a recent terror-finance case as a front group for Hamas – is concealing from the American public details about its already shadowy financial activities.
CAIR is a regular staple of the cable news programs where it claims to be a "Muslim-American civil rights group."
The Washington-based group receives millions of dollars in donations, pledges and other support from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other terror-tied Arab states, as revealed in the bestseller "Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld That's Conspiring to Islamize America."
As WND has reported, CAIR has filed a lawsuit against "Muslim Mafia" co-author P. David Gaubatz and his son, Chris, who collected thousands of pages of CAIR documents destined for a shredder while working as an intern.
CAIR's complaint asks a federal judge to expunge all copies of "Muslim Mafia". A lawyer defending the Gaubatzes says CAIR is attempting to eliminate evidence that could lead to criminal prosecution.
Joseph Farah, editor and chief executive officer of WND and founder of WND Books, which published "Muslim Mafia," says "CAIR continues to think rules don't apply to them."
"CAIR filed suit against one of our authors without its attorneys noticing it was not even a valid corporation," he said. "The reason CAIR can afford to play fast and loose with the facts and the law is because of the way the media provide this terrorist front operation with open access to spew its lies and propaganda without accountability and by falsely billing CAIR as a 'Muslim civil rights group.' We'll see how many of their media friends bother to report that CAIR is still collecting tax-exempt donations despite losing its tax-exempt status."
The FBI has subpoenaed all the internal CAIR documents obtained by the authors of "Muslim Mafia."
Funding dries up
CAIR's grass-roots fundraising from Muslims in America has all but dried up in the wake of allegations the group is fronting for terrorists. CAIR must also report revenue from membership dues in its annual financial statements to the IRS.
"CAIR maintains an army of lawyers. There's no excuse for not filing three consecutive years of 990s. What's CAIR hiding?" asked terror analyst Paul Sperry, co-author of "Muslim Mafia."
Both CAIR and its outside auditor, Joey Musmar, declined comment.
Most of CAIR's 30 chapters have filed their 2007 returns, and many have filed their 2008 and 2009 tax forms. It's not clear why CAIR National has repeatedly failed to turn over its own financial records to the IRS.
CAIR in 2007 was named an unindicted co-conspirator in a criminal scheme to funnel millions of dollars to Hamas suicide bombers and their families, prompting the FBI to cut off all outreach to the group.
Please CLICK HERE to read the entire article...
No comments:
Post a Comment