WASHINGTON, 2 May — A major US Islamic rights organization charged yesterday that the US government was aggressively targeting all Muslim organizations in the country in its war against terrorism.

This follows the arrest on Tuesday of Enaam Arnaout, the director of Benevolence International Foundation, after the FBI and the Attorney General’s Office accused the foundation of perjury. Prosecutors say the organization lied in court records about its ties to terrorism.

“I think that the government has targeted Islamic organizations in this country, and there has been some disturbing statements coming from some government officials, namely John Ashcroft, against Islam,” said Nihad Awad, executive director of CAIR, the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations.

“This sends a negative message to the Muslim community that some of its highest officials, who are in charge of conducting law enforcement in the US, have extremely biased views towards Islam, and that doesn’t give us any assurances that some of these agencies treat Muslims fairly.”

Before its assets were frozen in December, Benevolence International collected money to feed and clothe Afghan orphans, to help widows and feed refugees. But US prosecutors say this was all a front, they say the charity is linked to Al-Qaeda, and that its Arnaout, 39, is a friend of Osama Bin Laden. The two men are so close, they say, that Arnaout was once entrusted to bring one of Bin Laden’s wives to Pakistan.

FBI agents arrested Arnaout on Tuesday at his home, in a suburb outside Chicago called, ironically, Justice. He was charged with lying about his ties, and that of his charity, to international terrorism.

Agents say they found proof of his terrorist ties in a raid they conducted last month on Benevolence International offices in Bosnia. It was there, according to US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, that agents found guns and military manuals and other evidence linking Arnaout to Bin Laden.

“There were also documents, as set forth in the complaint, that were recovered in that search in Bosnia indicating correspondence between Bin Laden and Arnaout. So, that obviously indicates a relationship between the two, dating back to the 1980s,” said Fitzgerald.

Back to the time of the Afghan war with the Soviet Union. During that time, the US supported Afghan and Arab fighters and Arnaout was a student in Pakistan.

The attorney who represents Arnaout’s charity, Matthew Piers, admitted Arnaout knew Bin Laden. “He was somebody that he knew 10 years ago, causally. According to what he has told the tribune, and according to what is in the government’s affidavit, there is no reason to believe that it was a more substantive relationship than that.”

And regardless, Piers says, that doesn’t prove that Arnaout, or the Benevolence International Foundation, ever supported terrorism.

The group filed a lawsuit against the US government in January. It denied a connection to terrorism, and demanded that its assets be released. It was that lawsuit that provided the basis for Tuesday’s criminal charges.

Federal prosecutors did not charge Arnaout, or his charity, with participating in terrorist acts. They allege Arnaout, and Benevolence International, have links to people who have committed terrorism, and that they lied about their connection in the civil lawsuit.

Piers, the charity’s lawyer, says he feels good about beating that kind of a charge. “The charge is simply making a material false statement. That false statement was made in our statement against the government. That lawsuit will continue, and we are confident that when these charges are heard in court that we will be able to establish that there was no such material false statement made.”

The government’s complaint focuses on the charity’s allegedly false assertions on its fundraising and what it did with the money.

The Internal Revenue Service shows the organization raised about $3.5 million last year, in part from Muslim community leaders in Chicago.

Fitzgerald says the donors are not the targets in this case. “This is a charge of people diverting money given by donors who thought they were giving to help poor causes. The donors have done nothing wrong. This is a prosecution that alleges, in effect, that the donors were victims. This is a prosecution aimed against fraud and perjury; it is not aimed against charities. It is certainly not aimed against the Muslim community.”

Regarding the Benevolence International Foundation’s lawsuit against the US government, Awad said: “The fact that some of these organizations have sued the government, and the courts so far are sympathizing with these organizations, has put the government in a difficult position to come up with evidence. To the point that many believe this is retaliatory action by the government against these organizations to disable them politically in the court of public opinion before they get to the court of law.”

Arnaout is being held without bond. If convicted for perjury, he faces up to five years in prison, and a $250,000 fine.