A national Muslim civil rights group that’s been active in Middle Tennessee has regained its tax-exempt status.
The Washington, D.C.-based Council of American Islamic Relations and its related foundation were two of about 275,000 nonprofits that lost tax-exempt status last year for not filing tax returns for three years in a row. On June 23, the IRS sent a letter to the CAIR-Foundation Inc., saying that the nonprofit is now tax exempt.
Internal Revenue Service officials confirmed Thursday that group — known by its acronym CAIR — is tax exempt.
“We are obviously pleased that all the paperwork issues have been resolved and our tax exempt status has been restored,” said Ibrahim Hooper, communications director for CAIR. Hooper did not know the details of what paperwork, including tax returns, had been filed.
The Muslim nonprofit has been active in Middle Tennessee in recent years.
When vandals torched a Columbia mosque in 2008 and construction equipment at the new Islamic Center of Murfreesboro site in 2010, CAIR demanded authorities investigate both incidents as hate crimes.
The nonprofit actively opposed an anti-Shariah law bill and asked the U.S. Army’s Junior Reserve Officer Training Corp for a religious exemption after a Muslim cadet from Brentwood dropped out of the JROTC because she could not wear a head scarf with her dress uniform.
Critics have used CAIR’s lost tax exemption to criticize the group. Those critics also claim CAIR has terrorist ties because it and other Muslim groups were named as unindicted co-conspirators in a 2007 trial of the now defunct Holy Land Foundation in Texas. Holy Land Foundations officials were convicted in 2009 of diverting funds to Hamas.
The ruling comes in time for CAIR to raise funds during Ramadan, a significant time for Muslim charitable giving, known as zakat.
On Thursday the nonprofit sent out an email from its board chairman, Omar Zaki, announcing a fundraising goal of $670,000 for Ramadan in 2012. “I urge you to consider CAIR as a recipient for your donation and your zakat this Ramadan,” Zaki said in the email. “In the past, we have sought and received your support. And that support bore fruit.”