NEW YORK: The US led war against terrorism has adversely impacted Muslim charities and affected the religious freedom of Muslim donors in the United States, a new report bythe American Civil Liberty Union said Monday.

The report says that broad and strict enforcement of the law in the case of Muslim charities has even impacted the Zakat donations obligatory for most Muslims.

The report is based on interviews with more than 100 Muslim community leaders as well as experts on antiterrorism laws and regulations. Though it gives no estimate of the decline in donations to Muslim groups, it says a total of nine Islamic charities have closed as a result of government action against them since the Sept. 11 attacks.

That action ranges, it says, from declaring a group to be under investigation to designating it a terrorist organization and freezing its assets.

‘While there is a legitimate concern about the use of charitable funds to finance terrorism, it does not outweigh the rights of American Muslims to fulfill their religious obligations or override constitutional requirements for due process,’ said the author, Jennifer Turner, the A.C.L.U.’s human rights researcher.

Earlier this month US President Obama mentioned the Muslim donations issue in his speech in Cairo . ‘In the United States, rules on charitable giving have made it harder for Muslims to fulfill their religious obligation,’ Mr. Obama said. ‘That is why I am committed to working with American Muslims to ensure that they can fulfill zakat.’

Natalie Wyeth, a spokeswoman for the Treasury Department, which is charged with oversight of charitable activity, said the department was working to address some of the concerns, the New York Times said Tuesday.

The report notes that independent bodies like the Sept. 11 commission have found that evidence used to seize assets is often secret, making it impossible to challenge, and has in some cases included hearsay or been based on news reports.

A spokespersonfor Muslim donors and organizations observed the rules governing charitable giving are opaque or poorly defined. Donors could, for instance, find themselves in trouble for past gifts to an organization newly designated a terrorist group.