On May 8, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Muslim American Society's (MAS) Freedom Foundation held a news conference in front of a Wachovia bank in Washington, DC, urging community members to speak out against the recent closing of a Muslim charity's accounts. The Wachovia Corporation closed the accounts of the Foundation for Appropriate and Immediate Temporary Help (FAITH) in January of 2006, despite the organization having been charged with no crime and having not even been informed of any federal investigation into its activities. In response to the closure of the group's accounts without warning or explanation, CAIR and the MAS Freedom Foundation had planned a campaign against Wachovia that was to include protests and boycotts. According to CAIR officials, however, Wachovia recently contacted FAITH and CAIR directly to inform them that the case was being re-examined. Muslim community leaders welcomed this development, as months of discussions with Wachovia representatives had up to that point failed to change the bank's position. The campaign is on hold for the time being, as the charity and community await the outcome of this internal investigation. FAITH is a social service organization based in Herndon, Virginia, that provides emergency aid and crisis counseling to Northern Virginia residents of all faiths. In November of last year, the group received a letter informing them that its Wachovia accounts would be closed effective January 2006 despite its good standing as a customer. According to CAIR, bank officials failed to sufficiently explain the decision, instead writing the decision was in line with "the Bank's contract with FAITH [which] provides that the Bank can close any customer's account at any time..." (Muslims Urge Wachovia to Explain Account Closures, CAIR Press Release, May 8, 2006). Today, leaders of the Muslim community are calling the bank's actions "heavy handed" and discriminatory. CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad points out that "since 9/11, the American Muslim community has noticed disturbing trends within the national banking community where law-abiding American Muslims are seemingly and summarily being denied service based solely on their name, religion or ethnicity" (Muslims Urge Wachovia to Explain Account Closures, CAIR Press Release, May 8, 2006). Jeraldine B. Davis, Wachovia senior vice president and assistant general counsel, denies that discrimination drove the decision to close the account, citing instead certain account activity that "was significantly different from that which Wachovia would expect to see in an account established for a charity" (Wachovia Bank Action Riles Muslim Activists, The Washington Post, May 6, 2006). However, the bank has not elaborated on what it expects to see and what the unexpected account activities were. Current anti-terror financing legislation requires financial institutions to report suspicious activity to the Treasury Department. FAITH Treasurer Margaret Farchtchi told the Washington Post that a recent donation to the charity may have spark suspicion. In April 2005, the charity received $150,000, intended as an endowment, from M. Yaqub Mirza, a Northern Virginia resident. Although Mirza's home and offices were raided by federal officers in 2002, he has not been officially charged with any crime. Farchtchi argues that the "origin and purpose of the money could have been easily explained if bank officials had asked" (Wachovia Bank Action Riles Muslim Activists, The Washington Post, May 6, 2006). Since the bank has provided no additional information, FAITH is left to wonder what prompted the situation and what resolution if any it will find.