Friday, May 17, 2013

IRS Was Far Easier On Muslim Groups Than On Conservatives, Evangelicals

Corporate and tax attorney Maryam Khan Ansari who specializes in helping groups obtain tax exempt status from the IRS wrote an article in Illume magazine entitled "Do Muslim Nonprofits Have it Easier Than Tea Party Groups?" that sheds some interesting light on a few things. I'd provide a direct link which was here, except it's mysteriously disappeared into the memory hole:

Per the PJ Tater:

Having spent most of my legal career working with tax exempt entities, the IRS scrutiny on the Tea Party isn’t news to me. In my days at large law firms, I handled a portfolio of nonprofit Tea Party organizations and saw firsthand how the IRS treated them when it came to granting exemptions.

In many cases, the organizations fight tooth-and-nail to get through IRS scrutiny, often facing pages of questions from the IRS on their activities.

In some instances, the IRS went about it in a more roundabout way, calling into question the organization’s use of funds, its outside grants and operational issues.

Several of the applications were even sent up to the IRS’ National Office for elevated scrutiny.

The experiences mirror the allegations of the American Center for Law and Justice, who represented 27 organizations.

On the flip side, I’ve worked with numerous Muslim organizations as well. And every single application of a Muslim nonprofit has gone through the IRS, with less scrutiny. Of course, they still did get scrutiny– after all, Islamophobia is still pretty rampant everywhere and it’s inaccurate to say that they got a free pass. But truth be told, they never got a 10-page questionnaire on each and every one of their grantees.

And guess what?The IRS has also granted The Muslim Brotherhood front group  CAIR its tax-exempt status back  again despite their foreign-funding, status as an unindicted co-conspirator in terrorism  and numerous failures to report.

Some animals are very much more equal than others, especially when it comes to the Obama Administration and the IRS.



2 comments:

B.Poster said...

The IRS and the government at all levels have been unfairly singling out Conservatives, evangelicals and others of simillar beliers for at least 70 years now. For them to do this has been as natural as breathing, eating, or sleeping.

As such, they would not expect there to be any thing wrong with what they are doing. I'm having a hard time understanding why this is news worthy all of the sudden/ After all it is no different than its been for 70+ years. Why apologize now?

On the one hand its nice to see even this limited attention drawn to this, but I'm forced to wonder just what these people are up to. After all when one's enemy suddenly feigns regret for harm they have done, one would do well to show caution when dealing with this enemy.

Even more puzzling about the timing of this situation, is America is a politically left of center nation and has been moving farther in this direction for quite some time. While conservative groups have been unfairly targeted for 70+ years, during all of this time the country was not nearly as politically left leaning as it is now.

Why bring this up now? Why bring it up at all? What is the media and the government up to by all of this? I think we should be asking ourselves these questions. Might the IRS, the news media, and the government be trying to spring a trap on us.

While I appreciate the candor of "P J Tater", in his last paragraph he or she dissembles. Muslim organizations have not received any scrutiny to amount to much and no, Islamaphobia is not rampant. In fact to even be accused of such a thing, is a career ender in any mid to large organization be it government or private. As such, policies will always and always have favored Muslim groups.

Additionally, since the powers that be have been targetingconservatives for the last 70+ years, they tend to view groups like followers of Islam as a way to suppress these conservative groups they are not oomfortable with.

During the 1990s the US government viewed its number one enemy as conservative christian groups who they considered to be simillar to teh "tea party" of today. during this time groups like Al Qaeda were neglected and grew in strength and capability. Had the government's priorities been directed in the correct direction, might some tall buildings still be standing? While we cannot say for certain, I think it is a real possibility.

Of course CAIR gets tax exempt status as it is the opposite of the groups the government targets. While the media is obssessed with a relatively minor organzation like AIPAC, the real power in terms of media support, friends in industry, friends in government, funding, and lobbying influence is CAIR. AIPAC comes no where close to having the power and influence that CAIR has.

Unfortunately little has changed from the 1990s in how the government conducts its business to now. Meanwhile enemies who pose a much greater threat to us than Nazi Germany ever did or ever could have gain in strength while the government chases phantoms.

Perhaps someone can explain why it suddenly becamse news that the IRS and the governemnt target conservative groups. This is what they've always done. Why did it become news now?

Anonymous said...

I'm surprised that no one has come to the conclusion re: the IRS scandal that this is the best argument for some kind of flat tax system that would allow for the dismantling of the IRS.
It should be obvious that what we have in the IRS is an incipient police state.