A national charity that describes itself as Canada’s largest grassroots Muslim organization is launching a Charter of Rights challenge against the Canada Revenue Agency, claiming that a years-long audit of the charity has been tainted by bias and Islamophobia.
The Canada Revenue Agency's Ottawa headquarters in August 2021.
MAC said the audit, which began in 2015, poses an "existential threat" to the organization because it threatens to revoke its charitable status and raises the possibility of damaging sanctions. "We want to see an audit that is not discriminatory and we want to be treated like any other religious charity in this country," he added.
"From the Canada Revenue Agency to security agencies, institutions should support people, not target them."MAC describes the CRA audit of its finances as clear evidence of widespread systemic bias against Muslim-led charities. He said CRA auditors also have raised concerns about events to celebrate Eid — the holiday marking the end of Ramadan — by arguing that the events are social in nature, rather than religious.