The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today called on PayPal to stop freezing and denying transactions involving common Muslim names.
CAIR sent a formal letter requesting an urgent meeting with PayPal’s executive and compliance teams after receiving detailed data showing a pattern in which tuition and other routine domestic transactions involving Muslim-identifiable names were disproportionately placed on lengthy “compliance review” holds or denied.
In its letter to PayPal, CAIR wrote in part:
“Access to modern payment systems is indispensable to full participation in American civic and commercial life; when Muslims alone encounter opaque barriers, the resulting chilling effect undermines both civil rights and marketplace fairness.”
BACKGROUNDER:
CAIR’s request follows the receipt of a comprehensive dataset from Compass Homeschool Enrichment, a Virginia-based educational program that serves a large population of Muslim families and relies on PayPal to process standardized tuition payments.
According to Compass’s records, PayPal held 88 transactions over the years; 72% of those holds involved parents or students with common Muslim names. All of the transactions that PayPal ultimately denied, or left in limbo for months to years, involved common Muslim names. By contrast, identical tuition payments for the same classes made by non-Muslim parents reportedly cleared within minutes.
Some of the affected payments reportedly remained pending from seven months to nearly three years, creating cash-flow uncertainty for the school and hardship for families. In one instance, a PayPal representative allegedly requested a child’s birth certificate to clear a routine domestic tuition payment.
CAIR noted that the Compass dataset aligns with similar reports received from around the country involving Muslim-owned small businesses, religious nonprofits, and individual donors. CAIR is seeking an immediate meeting with PayPal to identify corrective actions that protect Compass and other similarly situated customers.
CAIR’s mission is to protect civil rights, enhance understanding of Islam, promote justice, and empower American Muslims.
La misión de CAIR es proteger las libertades civiles, mejorar la comprensión del Islam, promover la justicia, y empoderar a los musulmanes en los Estados Unidos.
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CONTACT: CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell, 404-285-9530, e-Mitchell@cair.com; CAIR Government Affairs Director Robert McCaw, 202-742-6448, rmccaw@cair.com; CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-744-7726, ihooper@cair.com; CAIR National Communications Manager Ismail Allison, 202-770-6280, iallison@cair.com