CAIR; fighting the unindicted co-conspirator label

News coming from the unindicted co-conspirator CAIR has been light this past week. I did however find a nugget of news that caught my eye.

In a Thursday whine-o-gram, CAIR highlights a report published in the WSJ. The article details the fight launched by the ACLU on behalf of 2 groups named in the Holy Land Foundation trial as unindicted co-conspirators. The Islamic Society of North America and the North American Islamic Trust are suing the American government. ACLU lawyers claim the government allegedly violated the Fifth Amendment in providing no explanation for its description of them as unindicted co-conspirators. The organizations argue that, under Fifth Circuit law, “no legitimate governmental interest is served by an official public smear of an individual when that individual has not been provided a forum in which to vindicate his rights.”

As I read over the memo filed on behalf of the NAIS and NAIT one word stuck out, waqf. The term was used to describe the North American Islamic Trust, stating
'Petitioner NAIT, an Indiana non-profit corporation, is a “waqf,” which is “the historical Islamic equivalent of an American trust or endowment.” Declaration of Muzammil H. Siddiqi, Chairman of NAIT, dated June 17, 2008, and attached hereto as Appendix B (“Siddiqi Decl.”), NAIT holds in trust titles to mosques, Islamic centers, schools and other real estate belonging to Muslim communities across this nation, enabling these communities to safeguard and pool their assets in accordance with Islamic principles and U.S. Petitioner NAIT also develops Islamic financial products that address the investment and financial needs of the American Muslim community; it has established and sponsored SEC-registered mutual funds that invest in companies on U.S. stock exchanges that comply with Islamic principles.'

Now, I don’t want to rehash the Holy Land Foundation trial, the posts of my opinion are here, here, here and here. What I find interesting is all islamic property in America is, for all intents and purposes, held by this organization. All islamic centers, mosques and schools belong to the muslim community. This tactic enables the ummah in America to strengthen their collective wealth. And there’s power in wealth.