Mainstream charities are unintentionally funding anti-Muslim groups in the US

Muslim civil rights and advocacy group the Council on American-Islamic Relations revealed in a report, published earlier in May, that mainstream charities in the United States are granting millions of dollars to anti-Muslim hate groups, NPR reported.

According to the same report entitled «Hijacked by Hate», between 2014 and 2016 around 1,000 largely mainstream charities sent money to 39 anti-Muslim groups. These groups called «Islamophobia Network» by the report received around $125 million during the same period.

These grants include money that was anonymously «given through charitable foundations of wealth management groups», the same source said. Hate groups that benefited from this money include pro-Trump advocacy group Act for American.

«Traditional charities and foundations — commercial foundations, community organizations, community foundations, religious foundations — these foundations in philanthropy that make America what it is have been undermined», said Abbas Barzegar, director of research and advocacy at CAIR. «[They are being] used, or in my mind exploited, to funnel anonymous money from wealthy donors to the Islamophobia Network», he concluded.