By Basim Elkarra, Executive Director of CAIR Action
As Tax Day has passed, many of us felt the annual stress of filing and paying—while barely getting by amid rising costs of living, underfunded schools, and unaffordable housing. But there’s a more urgent and disturbing truth we need to face:
Our money isn’t going where it’s most needed. It’s funding war.
In 2023, the average U.S. taxpayer spent $5,109 on militarism —more than was spent on education, housing, healthcare, or environmental protection. A staggering $22.76 billion—went directly to the Israeli military and operations in one year since October 7, 2023, and most recently an expedited $4 billion in military aid by the Trump administration. That’s not speculation. That’s federal policy. And it has horrifying consequences.
This isn’t just statistics for me. It’s personal. I’ve lost 118 members of my family in Gaza during the Israeli bombardment. Our tax dollars helped fund the weapons that killed them. How can we reconcile that? How can we continue paying into a system that prioritizes destruction abroad while ignoring desperate needs at home?
Just imagine what $26 billion a year could do in our communities:
● Fund tuition-free college and debt forgiveness
● House every unhoused family in major U.S. cities
● Rebuild bridges, roads, and crumbling infrastructure
● Invest in mental healthcare, clean water, and renewable energy
Instead, we fund bombs.
At least 20% of every federal income tax dollar goes to military spending. Not to veterans’ care, not to disaster relief—but to weapons, drones, airstrikes, and endless war. Meanwhile, schools in our neighborhoods are overcrowded and under-resourced, and families are one paycheck away from homelessness.
Across the U.S., more than 2,000 Americans have filed formal complaints with the United Nations, demanding that our government stop using our tax dollars to fund genocide. Many of these Americans are refusing to be silent as Palestinians are slaughtered with weapons we paid for.
We must ask: Who decided that war is more important than our wellbeing?
We didn’t vote for genocide. We didn’t sign up to bankroll occupation. Yet we’re being forced to fund it—and punished when we speak out against it.
Just ask Mahmoud Khalil, Rumeysa Ozturk, Yunseo Chung, Momodou Taal, Ranjani Srinivasan, Mohsen Mahdawi, and others who have spoken out against the genocide and have been targeted by ICE. The message is clear: the price of speaking for justice is high. But the cost of staying silent is even higher.
That’s why CAIR Action exists—to ensure that American Muslims and our allies have political power and a voice that cannot be ignored.
We fight to:
● Protect the First Amendment (including revoking anti-BDS legislation)
● Change the laws that harm us
● Support candidates who defend our rights
● Stop funding genocide
Let this tax season be a wake-up call: our money funds the system. But our voices and actions can change it.
Let this be the last tax season where our dollars destroy lives abroad while our communities suffer in silence
