Many religions want peace, and will advocate it. Islam does have peaceful principles; in fact, one of the five pillars of Islam requires followers to regularly make donations to the poor (if they can afford it), usually in the form of spare coin. People, however, will always find ways to focus one principle found in religious texts and only zoom in on that and not consider the whole message. What matters more than the material is how it is interpreted. Unfortunately, there are many more ways to twist a religion than there is to simply accept it on largely peaceful terms. Most of the people who twist the message are looking for excuses to act poorly and so they turn to outdated principles used to advertise the religion. You see it with most philosophies.
Additionally, I would like to point out that many of the current Middle-eastern conflicts are not directly due to religion but social oppression. Religiously, the groups are slightly different (look up Shia and Sunni Islam if you wish to know how they are), but it's more a lengthy power-gain fistfight than a radical religious disagreement gone haywire, even though religion played into the divide in the first place.
Numerous hadith also mention giving to the poor (within the Muslim community). This is the
zakat, or almsgiving, that has become one of the "five pillars" of Islam.
The
zakat (almsgiving) may be one of the five pillars of Islam, but the Hadith only speaks of it as a requirement to help fellow Muslims (
"taken from among you and distributed among you"). Non-Muslims are not entitled to the
zakat by virtue of their need, and mainstream Islamic teaching forbids Muslims to give this to unbelievers. The website
TheZakat.org, for example, lists unbelievers along with the wealthy, strong and healthy as being prohibited from receiving
zakat (although some Muslims may personally disagree with this).
While Islamic scholars forbid giving zakat to non-Muslims in physical need - including the victims of Islamic terror - it is acceptable to use zakat in
defense of accused Muslim terrorists.
Interestingly, the Quranic verse that is said to be the basis for
zakat (9:103) comes from the most violent and intolerant of suras. Its context also appears to be that of a penance taken from the property of 'hypocrites' for their sinfulness and failure to participate in battle against unbelievers.
Islamic charities that raise funds openly in the West are savvy enough to downplay the fact that beneficiaries of their assistance are selected by ethnicity, which would not go over well with non-Muslim donors. They are also known to advertise "window dressing" projects on their websites or literature, in which they claim a role in prominent disasters or causes (in disproportion to their actual contribution or concern). It is usually enough to fool others into not looking deeper.
Generally speaking, international Islamic charities are better known for funding terrorism and hate than in meeting the actual needs of natural disaster victims (bankrolling Jihad through charitable giving is mandated by the Quran
9:60). In 2014, the UAE
determined that fifteen well-known Muslim charities - including the world's largest - were actually sponsoring Islamic terrorism.
Even at its most legitimate, Muslim charity to the poor is heavily tainted by ulterior political and racial agenda, such as lopsided support for Palestinians to the exclusion of Darfur victims, who suffer much worse. The latter are also Muslim, but they don't count since they are Africans being oppressed by an Islamic-Arab regime. (The rule is that Muslims generally ignore the suffering of other Muslims unless non-Muslims can be held responsible).
Islam, Charity and Disaster Relief
