JEDDAH, 15 November — The International Islamic Relief Organization said it will sue three American newspapers for libel after publishing reports implicating the Jeddah-based world body with terrorist organizations blamed for the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.
IIRO Secretary General, Adnan Khalil Basha, said they are working with other relief bodies in the Arab and Muslim world to bring to trial all those who, without proof, sought to tarnish the image of Islamic relief activities.
The three American papers — The Washington Post, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal — have published reports following the bombing of New York and Washington claiming that IIRO has links with terrorist organizations like Al-Qaeda, which the US accuses of having masterminded the attacks. IIRO said it is soliciting the services of two local lawyers to launch legal action against the papers.
“Such campaigns are meant to scare off donors by making them lose faith in charity bodies and thus dry out their financial resources. This will only compound the poverty problem in poor countries, lead to more frustration and provide fertile soil for terrorism,” Dr. Basha said.
He was talking in Jeddah before the launch of a new charity drive during the holy month of Ramadan to raise more money to finance IIRO activities in over 50 countries. In the new campaign, which will start today, money collected from Muslims as zakat (alms) will be used to finance IIRO projects including education, health, housing social welfare to benefit refugees and displaced persons.
Muslims account for 70 percent (15 million) of the world’s refugees and displaced persons.
IIRO will also launched its annual fund raising function on Sunday, led by Makkah Governor, Prince Abdul Majeed. Dr. Basha confirmed that IIRO were working closely with the World Council of Dawa and Relief, a Cairo-based umbrella organization grouping over 60 Islamic relief bodies, to bring to court all those who sought to link Islamic relief work with terrorism.
“We are amazed at the size and ferocity of attacks launched by the Western media against our charitable organization. They are using every conceivable means to get at us. However, what is even more amazing is that our Arab and Islamic media has remained silent in the face of these fabrications,” Dr. Basha added. He said that apart from in Albania, where the IIRO office was raided by local authorities who took away documents and equipment, no other IIRO office abroad has been subjected to any investigation.
Last year, IIRO spent SR121.23 million ($32.3 million) on humanitarian projects. This included SR42.8 million spent on social programs including supporting 39,434 orphans in 51 countries, SR29.7 to providing urgent relief assistance to 620,400 persons in 20 countries and SR22.9 million on digging wells to provide drinking water in rural areas and building mosques and other religious installations.
The rest of the money went to providing health care, education (37 schools, three colleges benefiting more than 31,000 students in addition to 712 Qu’ran teaching classes in 24 countries), vocational training programs and Iftar meals during Ramadan.
