Verdict Against Holy Land Charity Could Have a Chilling Effect on the Muslim Community

By Laila Al-Arian, AlterNet. Posted November 26, 2008.

William Neal, who served on the first Holy Land jury, raised disturbing questions about the prosecution's tactics in an interview with Dallas radio station KRLD 1080. "They never proved -- they kept trying to show us stuff around the case, not the case. They presented to the jury, you know these committees, these organizations controlled by or on the behalf of Hamas, but they kept showing us blown-up buses and they kept showing us little kids in bomb belts reenacting Hamas leaders," he said. "It had nothing to do with the actual charges. It had nothing to do with the defendants."

I went to Dallas a week before the verdict to cover the case, and found a group of Holy Land supporters a block away from the federal courthouse where the case was being prosecuted. There, I met Diane Baker, a 62-year-old ordained minister with blonde hair and a rail-thin frame. On her lunch break from her job as a hospice chaplain, she came to the vigil wearing blue hospital scrubs and her colorful Reverend's stole.

"When we carry the burden of others, we wear this," she said, pointing to the cloth wrapped around her neck. "There were days when I left the courtroom with tears in my eyes, but I'm hopeful."

I called Diane a day after the verdict and asked her how she felt. "I was shocked," she said. "And I felt a great deal of grief, especially for the families, who I know." Speaking of the defendants, she said, "These people have done what their hearts has called on them to do."

Hadi Jawad, a member of the Hungry for Justice coalition, an umbrella group of Holy Land supporters, said the U.S. government has taken sides in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict through their prosecution of the Holy Land Foundation.

"It's about demonizing an entire people -- in this case, the Palestinian people," Jawad told me. "They're saying that they're not worthy of aid and help, even when they're destitute, hungry and need medical attention."

Holy Land was the largest Muslim charity in the United States when the Bush administration shut it down in December 2001. On the heels of the September 11th attacks, Bush, Ashcroft and company wanted to show they were fighting the "war on terror" by pointing to the Holy Land case, and the arrest of its five officials. In an unusual move, prosecutors unveiled the list of more than 300 un-indicted co-conspirators, something that is kept secret under normal legal protocol. Many of those on the list were respected Muslim leaders who were shocked to find they were under suspicion for involvement in terrorist acts.

Mustafaa Carroll, the director of the Dallas chapter of the Council of American-Islamic Relations, warned the Holy Land verdict could send a chilling effect over America's already traumatized Muslim community. "Muslims are concerned about how this is going to affect them," he told me. "By criminalizing charity, it may even have an impact on American charities in general. People are really afraid."

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Laila Al-Arian is a Washington DC-based journalist. A graduate of the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, she has written for The Nation, United Press International, Huffingtonpost.com and the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. She is the author, with Chris Hedges, of Collateral Damage: America's War Against Iraqi Civilians (Nation Books). She can be reached at Lailaa@gmail.com.

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