Another Terrorist Case Bites the Dust
October 22, 2007
Mistrial in Muslim Charity Case, but Retrial Is Expected
By LESLIE EATON
DALLAS, Oct. 22 — In a major setback for the government, a judge declared a mistrial today in the case of several former leaders of a Muslim charity who were charged with financing Middle Eastern terrorists, after jurors failed to reach a verdict.
The decision came during a morning of confusion for jurors and those on both sides of the case, in which federal prosecutors were trying to show that the charity, based in a Dallas suburb, was not simply trying to help poor Palestinians, as officials said, but was in fact an arm of the radical Islamic group Hamas.
. . . The judge had announced that Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development fund-raiser Mufid Abdulqader was acquitted on all counts, and two co-defendants — Mohammed El-Mezain, former chairman of the group, and, Abdulrahman Odeh, the group’s New Jersey representative — were acquitted on most counts, according to The Associated Press. . . . The government did not allege that the foundation’s money paid directly for attacks, but rather that the money — more than $12 million — that the foundation sent to charities controlled by Hamas had increased public support for Hamas and had helped it recruit terrorists and spread its ideology. --more-- _____________________________________________________________ One might expect that the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development would have some difficulty delivering charitable support to Palestinians without helping Hamas. It's the dirty little secret of Hamas that it gets its support from Palestinians by helping rather than annoying them with checkpoints and ripping down their houses. That's what charity is all about--helping people who need help.
Charity (noun) A foundation created to promote the public good (not for assistance to any particular individuals)
Palestine being the particular place the public good was being achieved, one might expect that children upon whom Hamas looks with kindness might occasionally get sick or hungry, right along with those other Palestinians. Our government has trouble with that concept, to our everlasting shame.
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