Treasury Dept’s New Charge: Muslim Outreach??

by Warner Todd Huston | August 12, 2010 12:20 pm

Is the U.S. Department of the Treasury undertaking a new role? Taking its newest press release[1] as an example, one could be excused to imagine that our Treasury Department has decided that it is now our next Department of Muslim Outreach.

Today, Treasury released this statement:

Treasury Department Statement Marking the Beginning of Ramadan

WASHINGTON — As Muslims in the United States and around the world begin their observance of Ramadan, the U.S. Department of the Treasury recognizes the importance of this period of intense devotion, reflection and charitable giving. Charitable giving and philanthropy are core American values, reflected in many faiths and traditions, and are of particular significance within the Muslim faith during the holy month of Ramadan.

The Treasury Department fully supports the ability of American Muslims — and Muslims worldwide — to fulfill their religious obligations through charitable giving and seeks to advance charitable giving at home and abroad, while protecting the charitable sector from the threat posed by those who seek to abuse this sacred obligation. In recent years, Treasury has strengthened its partnership with the charitable sector and donor community to promote transparency and to safeguard against such abuse.

The Treasury Department will continue to work closely with the charitable sector and Muslim American communities to promote our common goals of safe and effective charitable activity and to protect the sector from exploitation by terrorist organizations. We look forward to the continued development of this partnership.

For information about steps that donors and charities can take to guard against terrorist abuse, visit link[2].

OK, we all remember the incident from July where NASA administrator Charles Bolden announced that the Space Administration’s new role was to be “Muslim outreach[3].” We might also remember that the White House tried to pooh-pooh that claim even as it was later confirmed that our rocket scientists were more interested in the political gladhanding of Muslims than it was in, well… rocket science.

So what about Treasury?

A look over the Treasury’s website shows press releases about Ramadan going back at least to 2004. But there is an interesting difference between the 2004 press release and the ones in 2009 and 2010. The 2004 statement[4] made during the Bush administration provides the reader with a list of approved Muslim charities, charities that are certified as free of connections to terrorism. While the 2009[5] and 2010[6] statements don’t mention the approved charities at all.

It seems like a major change in intent between the G.W.Bush statement and the Obama statements, doesn’t it? With the Bush era statement we see a Treasury Dept. interested in helping Muslims find Islamic charities that are declared terror-free. Yet in the era of Obama we get an empty, bland statement that does not help inform Muslims of what charities are terror-free organizations.

Once again we see the fecklessness of Obama’s foreign policy. While Bush meant to help Muslims find ways to observe their faith and be good Americans (if that is possible) Obama is afraid to offend by linking terror to Islam.

It all just seems too descriptive of the differences between the two presidents, doesn’t it?

(Originally posted at GateWayPundit.com[7])