An individual associated with the Council on Islamic American relations (CAIR) has charged that the prosecution of the Holy Land Foundation and the naming of CAIR as an unindicted co-conspirator in connection with the financing of Hamas is politically motivated. Khalil Meek, vice-president of the Dallas CAIR chapter, told a local newspaper:
This politically driven indictment will break new ground and potentially make new law by attempting to criminalize humanitarian aid… They’re implicating mainstream, moderate Muslim voices all over the country…This is a politically driven crusade.
Most media coverage citing CAIR statements do not disclose the many connections between CAIR and Holy Land not the least of which are that start-up funds for CAIR appear to have originally provided by Holy Land and that both organizations grew out of an earlier organization known as the Islam Association for Palestine (IAP) which was part of the Hamas infrastructure in the U.S. Connections between CAIR and Holy Land continued until Holy Land was indicted in July 2004 and even after in the form of support for an organization known as KindHearts which appeared to act as a successor organization to Holy Land. CAIR is an important part of the U.S Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas is generally acknowledged to be closely related to the Brotherhood.