American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) and the civil investigation by the Virginia Attorney General’s office

American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) and the civil investigation by the Virginia Attorney General’s office

 

American Muslims for Palestine has operated since 2006 as a fully domestic non-profit entity, which neither receives funds from outside the United States nor sends any funds to outside the United States. AMP operates for the lawful purpose of educating the Muslim-American community and others here in the United States as to the rich culture and history of Palestine.  

Along with its counterpart Americans for Justice in Palestine Educational Foundation (AJP, of which AMP is now a registered d/b/a), AMP works to inform and educate on this rich history and culture, as well as the religious heritage of Palestinians. Many of these educational events occur in conjunction with interfaith communities. AMP has always welcomed others to join in its events. 

AMP (and AJP) remain nonprofits in good standing in the eyes of the United States government. These entities simply exercise their First Amendment rights to free speech, and operate well within the laws of the United States.

AMP has no doubt in its ability to refute the inflammatory and baseless allegations contained in Attorney General Miyares’ press release. We also note that in support of its reference to “allegations” against these entities, the press release links only to the Investigative Project, hardly a neutral decision-making entity and not a branch of any government agency or office, and within that site to an order from May 2022 in a civil lawsuit first filed against AMP and others in 2017—in Chicago. That lawsuit remains ongoing and heavily disputed, with no rulings that the plaintiffs have proven anything they allege in their lawsuit.

Yet Attorney General Miyares relies on an order from a year and a half ago that simply holds that “if true,” the allegations in the complaint in that lawsuit could potentially lead to liability for a civil judgment in a different case against different defendants. The release points to nothing serving as the basis of this new investigation other than a seventeen month old order in a six year old civil lawsuit in another state, which only allows the case to proceed to discovery and does not find that those plaintiffs have proven any of their allegations.

We look forward to deposing Plaintiff Joyce Boim about the basis of the allegations in that lawsuit, as that Court has ordered AMP/AJP are entitled to do (despite the plaintiffs’ repeated attempts to avoid submitting to that standard procedure).

AMP looks forward to fully responding to all reasonable inquiries regarding this newly announced investigation.

And we have no doubt that American Muslims for Palestine will be able to demonstrate, with plain facts, that it and AJP are and always have been wholly U.S. non-profit entities operating for a legal purpose.

Va. AG Miyares will probe fundraising of pro-Palestinian group – The Washington Post

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