Muslim Groups Want to Be Removed from Holy Land Co-Conspirators List

The Dallas Morning News reported that the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a request in Dallas federal court to have two Muslim organizations removed from a list of unindicted co-conspirators compiled by prosecutors in a case known as the Holy Land Foundation terrorism financing case.  The list originated from the case, which was tried last fall and involved the trial of five former organizers of The Holy Land Foundation, once the largest Muslim charity in the U.S., for funneling millions of dollars to a U.S. designated terrorist group. 

The Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) is a national community-based Muslim group and the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT) is a charitable trust that holds deeds on mosques and Islamic centers across the U.S.  The leaders of both groups say that they were blindsided by their inclusion as unindicted co-conspirators, noting that they were told by government authorities before last year’s public release of the list that they were not suspected of any criminal activity.

According to the prosecutors, the list of 300 individuals and entities was compiled so that the statements from people in the named organizations could be used at trial without them being considered hearsay.  The ACLU lawyers filed papers with the U.S. District Judge Jorge Solis, arguing that ISNA and NAIT are mainstream Muslim organizations that have been unfairly branded as criminals by being included on the government’s list of individuals and entities allegedly linked in some way to the Holy Land case.  The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Muslim civil rights group, made a similar request in August to have it’s name removed from the list, which is still pending.

  The government’s list says that ISNA, NAIT and CAIR have been tied to the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood. Prosecutors at last year’s trial called it an Islamist group that is the parent organization of the Hamas movement.

Its unclear when Judge Solis will issue rulings on the three groups’ requests.  The Holy Land Foundation case ended in mistrial last fall and the retrial is set for September 8

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