Thread by @HenMazzig

Thread: Clearing up the abuse of charity & donations for Jewish causes by Linda Sarsour
Sarsour’s charity raised over $400,000 for Jewish causes in 2 fundraisers:
A. “Repair Jewish cemeteries” (160k)
B. "Support Tree of Life shooting victims (Funeral Expenses, Medical Bills)" >>

What you need to know:
-There were significant delays in disbursing the Colorado cemetery funds (A) (it took six months for them to receive anything). It raises legitimate questions about whether Sarsour and El Messidi can be trusted to manage funds for Jewish causes. >>>

-Out of the money raised for the cemeteries (A), more than a third still has not been paid out, a year and a half later and it's not earmarked for a specific recipient ($62,000)
-$10,000 was sent to the victims of the TOL attack so far from the Cemeteries Fundraiser (A). >>>

- $155,000 (B) “will be sent” to the Islamic Center of Pittsburgh to “distribute to the Jewish communities” (according to contract) by the end of the year.
- $86,000 (B) will be kept by Sarsour’s charity for "projects that help foster Muslim-Jewish collaboration & solidarity.">>>

-Interfaith efforts are important, but raising money under the guise of helping victims of tragedy (B), then repurposing to interfaith efforts is wrong.
- Similarly, it's important that there is accountability for $155K raised for Pittsburgh to get to victims (a month+ later)>>>

-The rest of the money from (B), $86,000, which is going to interfaith projects should also be accounted for.
-Sarsour's charity "CelebrateMercy" is a missionary organization- there should be scrutiny of what they consider to be Muslim-Jewish collaboration. Sarsour's work?>>

-If they invite the Jews to an iftar celebration where they preach about the prophet, is that really benefiting the Jewish community?
-In response to requests for transparency, Sarsour lashed out on social media at what she called “right wing Zionists and the alt-right”>>>

-In the same sentence, Sarsour claimed she was “using her brand” to help Jews. This hypocrisy and demonization are unacceptable.
Thank you @kweansmom for the amazing research and help on this.

-Radical Jewish publication (that investigates Jewish foundations&charities and Jews, while defended Sarsour for years) tried to twist the story, in extremely vague and misleading article, that was the reason for the confusion.
I am sorry for the inaccuracy of my tweet yesterday

-Celebrate Mercy is Tarek El-Messidi's charity, "Its aim is to teach the life and character of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon". They are based in Philadelphia. Sarsour helps to run MPower Change which is primarily political. She put their name on the fundraising campaign.

-When criticized, Sarsour insists she didn’t take their the money, it's CM that handles all of it, she's just lending her name to the project. While these are two separate organizations, both names are on the fundraising page.

On the fundraiser page CM updated that any donation over $150k will go to interfaith projects. We don’t know when that was added, but evidently they continue promote the campaign and money that was raised as “donations to the victims and their families”

UPDATE: following the public outrage because of my tweet, “The Islamic Center of Pittsburgh transferred the remaining $85,000 worth of donations Wednesday afternoon to the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh...”

Your outrage helped change the original decision of CelebrateMercy and Linda Sarsour to use the $86,000 to “brainstorm and be spent on projects that help foster Muslim-Jewish collaboration, dialogue, and solidarity.“ and not to be given to the victims.

CelebrateMercy still, apparently, hold on to the $63,000 that were raised to “Repair Jewish Cemetery” last year. They claim that they will use it for future Jewish emergency. I’ll keep watching.