"I was just thinking, I have this money, to whom or to what am I going to give, this year?" said Dabajah, as she considered how to give zakat, a donation required of Muslims, especially during Ramadan.

Dabajah usually gives to al-Mabarrat, a popular local charity, but federal investigators raided its office this summer for reasons that remain untold.

"It is difficult because you want to be a good Muslim and at the same time you do not want to do anything against your country," Dabajah said.

Recent heightened scrutiny of Islamic charities by federal officials is running headlong into the determination of Muslims to donate to causes that serve the neediest and to abide by their holy book, the Quran. As fears intensify, community leaders have called on the government to create guidelines for safe contributions.

As for establishing charities that clearly do not benefit terrorists, many Muslims say they believe they have -- but the periodic raids have made donors leery.

Two long-established organizations -- Al-Mabarrat and Life for Relief & Development -- were targets of federal raids in the past year. Until then, many Muslims had considered them highly reliable, and because neither charity is banned by the federal government, contributing to either of them remains legal.

Nonetheless, many Muslims say they fear donating to them.

"Obviously, giving to non-Muslims is always an option, but, personally speaking, this is Ramadan," Dabajah said. "It is a Muslim holiday, and I never thought of it in any other way. Plus, there are plenty of Muslim people who are in dire need -- let's talk about the Palestinians and the Lebanese."

Some giving seen as risky

Many Muslims, especially those of Arab descent, believe that people in Gaza, the West Bank and southern Lebanon are among those most in need of their assistance. But Hamas and Hezbollah -- declared terrorist groups by the United States -- dominate the government and social services in those regions, and charitable contributions are deemed far too risky -- even if local Muslims fly into the areas with cash and hand it to someone they know, as some do.

Dabajah, too, tried to find other ways to give. She once supported an orphan in the Middle East.

"The name of the orphan was Rana al-Zarqawi, and I just thought: Oh, great!" said Dabajah, who stopped giving for fear of a perceived connection to the dead insurgent leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. "I am so involved in politics and, regardless, it is important to be careful."

For many Muslims, because of the tenets of their faith, redirecting charitable contributions to a local, secular food bank or the homeless is not as easy, spiritually, as one might think.

Muslims make clear that while zakat is given to secular social groups that benefit non-Muslims, in the Quran, an instruction is given to provide especially "those inclined to Islam" and for the "way of Allah." While Muslims, Christians and Jews believe they pray to the same God, the "way of Allah," is often taken as emphasizing Muslim beliefs.

Islam stresses charity

Imam Mohammad Ali Elahi of the Islamic House of Wisdom said acts of charity are so central to Islam that even prayer is considered incomplete unless accompanied by an act of charity.

"Zakat is one of the pillars of Islam," Elahi said. "It is mentioned in the Quran 34 times. We are told that you have to give to charity from everything that God has given you. And it starts with a spirit of giving and supporting the children, the needy, the hungry and those who suffer financially."

Muslim leaders say orphans are of particular concern in Islam. So, when local federal officials assert, as they did when they publicized the raid on Life for Relief & Development, that contributing to orphans is often a euphemism for supporting terrorists, Muslims say a significant portion of their spiritual practices, especially during Ramadan, was jeopardized.

"When assisting orphans in the region of the Middle East, Muslims will undoubtedly be aiding people who are related, somehow, to organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah," said Dawud Walid, executive director of the Council on American Islamic Relations-Michigan. "It is a fundamental problem: If someone has died defending their families or their land how can we not provide relief for their children? Even if a parent performed a terrorist act, are the sins of the parents visited on the sons and daughters?"

Burden is on donors

Arab and Muslim civil rights leaders continue to work with U.S. Attorney Stephen Murphy's office and officials of the Department of the Treasury to seek clear guidance on what charitable work and donations are permitted.

"Unfortunately, what we've been hearing puts more emphasis on the donor," said Imad Hamad, regional director of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. "The donor is expected to do research, from A to Z, on charities. But, believe me, there is no guarantee. What may be legal today may be illegal tomorrow. For this reason, I believe the Department of the Treasury should basically regulate the charitable network in the United States."

Treasury spokeswomen in Washington and for Murphy's office in Detroit essentially agreed that they provide little advice to donors. And treasury is not contemplating further regulations.

"I don't know of any federal guidelines specifically for donors," said Candice Pratsch, a spokeswoman for the office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence for the Department of the Treasury. "But it's always a good idea for donors to check our Web site for any charities that the Treasury Department has designated."

It's tough for charities

Federal law enforcement officials said that to divulge the reasons for the raids might expose information pertinent to investigations. Until such information is known, Muslims say too many questions exist about which zakat is allowed.

It makes for a difficult time to try to establish a Muslim charity that, in the eyes of federal officials, is on the straight and narrow. Najah Bazzy says that many donation boxes she sought to distribute for her recently established organization, Zaman International, were either not accepted by local groups or returned empty.

"It is a very sad thing and quite problematic when God's command is to take care of the most unfortunate in the world and our country's command is not to do that," Bazzy said.