News broke last week that the U.S. government had moved to seize four U.S. mosques and a skyscraper on Fifth Avenue, which are owned by an Iranian Muslim non-profit organization. The Alavi Foundation, the non-profit organization in question, provides many extremely important services to the Shiite Muslim community in America. Because of this, the Alavi Foundation has a lot of influence in this community.

The services that Alavi provides include: buying property for U.S. mosques, donating to Iranian schools, donating and loaning to Islamic organizations, translating books on Islam, granting money to universities and colleges, donating to disaster relief funds and sending imprisoned Muslims in the U.S. educational literature. But just last week, federal prosecutors filed a civil complaint saying that the Alavi Foundation has illegally funneled millions of dollars in rental income to Iran’s Bank Melli. A U.S. treasury official has accused Bank Melli, a state-owned bank, of funding Iran’s nuclear program. In the U.S., it is illegal to do business with Bank Melli. In all, feds are seeking to seize more than $500 million in Alavi assets.

But the implications of this situation lie far beyond state relations between the U.S. and Iran. If the U.S. government were successful in seizing this property (the case has to go through court), many Shiite schools and mosques that are dependent on Alavi money would be faced with financial shortfalls, and might not be able to continue operating. This move is an attack on the Muslim community in America. More specifically, it is an attack on the Iranian community and the Shiite Muslim community. Legal scholars have pointed out that such a move against religious institutions is extremely rare in this country.

This move against the Alavi Foundation has been termed as a “counterterrorist” seizure. However, by examining the entire situation, one will realize that the U.S. government is basically making a case that Iranian and Shiite communities across America are dependent on an organization that is linked with a bank across the world, thereby also sponsoring a nuclear program all the way across the world. This seems to imply that the Iranians and the Shiite community at large in America are indirectly connected with Iran’s nuclear program. Thus, the U.S. government has found a way to connect the Iranians and Shiite Muslims in this country with what the government would define as terrorism.

But let’s take a closer look into the real dynamics here. Essentially, the Iranian community and the Shiite Muslim community are heavily supported by a non-profit organization that provides many services to communities in this country. However, the non-profit organization has also allegedly been supporting a state-owned bank on the other side of the world. The U.S. government has accused this bank of helping to fund a nuclear program, and more specifically, Iran’s nuclear program. Here is the kicker: Iran’s nuclear program was launched in the 1950s, with the support of the U.S. and western European countries. This, of course, was before the 1979 revolution in Iran, which changed the relations between Iran and the West drastically.

So this is where we stand today. Iranians and other Shiite Muslims in America stand trial for a nuclear program that was initially supported by the U.S. I say that an entire community of Iranians and Shiite Muslims stand trial because it is this very community that could be bankrupted by the actions of the U.S. government. This is a racially and religiously motivated economic purging of Iranians and Shiite Muslims. In this day and age, it seems that the U.S. government can do anything it wants to eliminate the freedom of Muslims in the name of counterterrorism.

The “T” word plagues Muslims all across the world, but nowhere does this effect take place more so than in America. I don’t even have to tell you what the “T” word is, because that stereotypical label has become so deeply embedded in our society, and attached to all Arabs, Iranians or Muslims living in the United States. But not only has it become a racial signifier to describe these groups, counterterrorism efforts continue to further embed themselves at all levels of social and government bureaucracies in the United States. Because of this implementation, in the name of terrorism the legal system can easily take away the rights of Arabs, Iranians and Muslims.

This is exactly what has happened with this specific case. Now one may argue that the rights of the Iranian and Shiite Muslim community haven’t really been taken away. One could further argue that these mosques haven’t even been shut down yet because the case has to go through court. U.S. attorney’s office spokeswoman Yusill Scribner has said, “No action has been taken against any tenants or occupants of those properties. There are no allegations of any wrongdoing on the part of any of these tenants or occupants.” The properties she refers to are the mosques in question. But the reality is that if no action is being taken against these people, then why are these mosques and schools at risk of being forfeited to the government? In effect, the actions taken by the government will continue to limit the charitable giving of Muslim organizations and the institutional and community development of the Muslim community in the United States.

Navid Farnia is a senior in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. He may be reached at nfarnia@cornellsun.com. Over the “Line” appears alternate Thursdays this semester.