This week the federal government's largest trial to-date connecting the funding of the terror group, Hamas, with an American Islamic charity begins jury selection.
"The trial comes at the end of a long-running federal investigation that began with FBI agents surveiling officials of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development at a 1993 meeting in Philadelphia".
The group's intent was allegedly to "effectively reward past, and encourage future suicide bombings and terrorist activities" by Hamas.
"Not only did HLF operate to support the Hamas agenda, but it was created for that very purpose," a government brief contends.
The Holy Land foundation, its chairman of the board, Ghassan Elashi, its secretary and CEO (iand brother-in-law of Hamas deputy political chief Mousa Abu Marzook), Shukri Abu Baker, one of its top fund-raisers, Mufid Abdulqader, its director of endowments (a civil engineer for the city of Dallas until arrested in 04), Mohammed El-Mezain (a 53-year-old San Diego resident and the only defendant who is not a U.S. citizen, is Marzook's cousin. And the brother of co-founder Abu Baker is the current Hamas leader in Yemen, the indictment alleges), and its New Jersey representative, Abdulraham Odeh, are charged with conspiring to aid a terrorist group, Hamas, engaging in financial transactions with an embargoed group, money laundering, and other violations. Holy Land was shut down and had its assets frozen in 2001, but the criminal indictment was not returned until 2004 are listed in the court papers.
The reaction by the Muslim community may surprise you. Instead of applauding the U.S. government's efforts to weed our country of Islamic forces that help terror groups like Hamas, the Muslim community calls it Islamophobia as reported by the New York Sun.
"The prosecution is trying to criminalize humanitarian aid," the vice president of the Dallas chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Khalil Meek, said. "The Holy Land Foundation and its associates are not charged with any violence. They actually did feed, clothe, shelter, and provide medical support to humanitarian efforts all over the world."
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