Material Support on the Ropes?

"There was so much jaw-slacking stuff in Obama’s Cairo stemwinder that this fleeting bombshell dropped unnoticed:

Freedom of religion is central to the ability of peoples to live together. We must always examine the ways in which we protect it. For instance, in the United States, rules on charitable giving have made it harder for Muslims to fulfill their religious obligation. That’s why I’m committed to working with American Muslims to ensure that they can fulfill zakat.

Zakat is the obligation of giving alms. It occupies a central place in Islam (one of the religion’s five “pillars”), just as it does in religious traditions more familiar to the West — you know, the charitable giving that Obama wants to saddle with less favorable tax treatment.

Do we really have “rules on charitable giving” that, as the president claims, make it especially difficult for Muslims — as opposed to others — to give? No. What we have are federal laws against material support for terrorism. These were enacted by Congress in 1996. They have been the bedrock of the DOJ’s anti-terrorism enforcement ever since." [National Review]