The “Holy Land Five”, a reference to five men convicted of financing the Muslim terrorist group Hamas in 2008, has become a cause célèbre for militant Islamic and Marxist activists, including Zohran Mamdani, the “democrat” nominee for mayor of New York City.

Defenders of the Holy Land Five epitomize the Red/Green Axis, a convergence of Marxism and Islam. The Holy Land Five activists rewrite history, claiming that the Holy Land Foundation was simply a charitable organization, but that is a lie.

In fact, the 2008 trial resulted in guilty verdicts on all 108 counts, with sentences ranging from 15 to 65 years, upheld on appeal in 2011. The defendants underwent due process, including legal representation, a public trial, and appeals.

A former aspiring rapper, Zohran Mamdani’s anti-American 2017 song “Salaam” weaponizes the fabricated narrative of Islamophobia to glorify convicted Hamas financiers, rapping, “My love to the Holy Land Five. You better look ’em up,” and calling them “my guys.”

Should Non-Citizen Terrorist Supporters Be Deported?

As reported at RAIR, Tennessee Rep. Andy Ogles sent a formal letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi on June 26, 2025, requesting an investigation into whether Zohran Mamdani should face denaturalization proceedings under 8 U.S.C. § 1451(a) for misrepresenting pro-terrorist sympathies to obtain citizenship.

Zohran Mamdani identifies with the “most apocalyptic and dangerous sect of Islam – Twelver Shiism”. Further, Zohran Mamdani is a card-carrying member of the Democratic Socialists of America, America’s largest Marxist Organization.

Under the “Grounds for Revocation of Naturalization,” according to federal law:

A person is subject to revocation of naturalization if the person becomes a member of, or affiliated with, the Communist party, other totalitarian party, or terrorist organization within five years of his or her naturalization.

He also publicly expressed sympathy with the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in 2020:

Rep. Andy Ogles was asked about the status of his letter to AG Pam Bondi on July 2, 2025. He stated in part:

It’s not our job to make up any information about [Zohran] Mamdani. We’re simply going to look at, you know, did he fully disclose his information, his allegiances with the Communist Party, maybe his ties to the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, or whatever he was doing at that time, and was it fully disclosed on his naturalization papers? If they were not, we’ll give that information to Pam Bondi, and then we’ll let justice do what justice does. But that being said, obviously, my team, we’re on top of this, and we’re investigating every angle that we can.

Ogles also mentioned that he was “just with Pam Bondi yesterday [July 1, 2025] at the White House” where they discussed the “New York situation”.

Hopefully, this is a genuine quest to ensure that Zohran Mamdani is following the law of the land and not political theatre to inspire his supporters.

CAIR Leader Nihad Awad ranted about Ogle’s effort, stating that it was a “vile, racist attack” and called it “white nationalism”. Texas Imam Imam Yasir Qadhi declared that Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN) is a “racist bigoted Islamophobe” and stated “[W]e need tens, nay hundreds, of Mamdani-esque politicians…”

The Holy Land Foundation Trial: A Brief History

In 2008, the United States achieved a historic victory against terrorism financing by convicting five former Holy Land Foundation officials: Shukri Abu Baker, Ghassan Elashi, Mufid Abdulqader, Abdulrahman Odeh, and Mohammad El-Mezain, who conspired to provide material support to Hamas by funneling donations through Hamas-controlled “zakat” committees.

The Holy Land Five were sentenced in 2009, but only two are still in prison:

• Shukri Abu Baker: Former president and CEO of the Holy Land Foundation, brazenly advocated for deception at a 1993 Islamic conference, urging attendees to mask references to Hamas as “SAMAH” to undermine the Oslo Peace Accords while covertly advancing the group’s agenda, convicted in 2008 for providing material support to Hamas, sentenced to 65 years in prison.
• Ghassan Elashi: Former chairman of the Holy Land Foundation and founding board member of the Texas CAIR branch, convicted in 2008 for funneling funds to Hamas, sentenced to 65 years.
• Mufid Abdulqader: Palestinian-American engineer and Holy Land Foundation fundraiser, convicted in 2008 on conspiracy charges related to Hamas, served 16 years of a 20-year sentence, released in December 2024.
• Mohammad El-Mezain: Former Holy Land Foundation endowments director, convicted in 2008 on one count of conspiracy to provide material support to Hamas, served 15 years, released in 2022, and deported to Turkey.
• Abdulrahman Odeh: Holy Land Foundation’s New Jersey representative, convicted in 2008 for conspiracy to support Hamas, sentenced to 15 years and released in 2021.

The Holy Land Five funneled $12.4 million through the Holy Land Foundation (HLF) to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization, under the guise of charitable aid. Operating within the Muslim Brotherhood’s Palestine Committee, HLF masqueraded as a humanitarian group while funding Hamas’s operations, including support for the families of suicide bombers.

FBI wiretaps exposed their deceptive tactics, revealing leaders discussing their Hamas ties and celebrating violent attacks. The 108-count conviction dismantled a sophisticated network that exploited American generosity to fuel terrorism.

Today, the legacy of the Holy Land Five persists through organizations like the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), which rose from the ashes of HLF and its sister groups. These organizations, staffed by individuals with direct ties to the original Hamas support network, drive anti-Israel activism, from campus protests to congressional lobbying.

Legal battles, including the Boim family’s lawsuits and new cases from October 7, 2023 victims, continue to expose this network’s ongoing efforts to sanitize terrorism as advocacy, posing a clear and present danger to American security.

Who Supports the Holy Land Five?

Within Our Lifetime

One of the most vocal supporters of the Holy Land Five is the group Within Our Lifetime, “a virulent antisemitic and anti-Israel group and offshoot of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) in New York City.” Prominent members include co-founder Raja Abdulhaq and Fatima Mohammed.

RAIR Foundation USA reported earlier this month that during a webinar about “Islamic Political Activism” moderated by former Zohran Mamdani intern Hadeeqa Arzoo Malik, Within Our Lifetime co-founder Raja Abdulhaq stated:

Hamas and others are part of the social fabric of Palestine. You don’t have to agree with them… but when you demonize the largest resistance movement, you’re demonizing the Palestinian resistance in essence.

Fatima Mohammed, former president of Brooklyn College Students for Justice in Palestine and activist with Within Our Lifetime, was also featured in the webinar. She gushed that Hamas is a beacon of jihad:

Hamas carries the torch of jihad for Palestine, showing us what it means to fight for Allah’s cause.

She has referred to the Holy Land Five as political prisoners:

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network

Within Our Lifetime allies, the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, are also supporters of the Holy Land Five. In October 2024, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated Samidoun as “a sham charity that serves as an international fundraiser for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization.”

As an aside, the reference to “Cop City” is a name militant left activists have given to a proposed police training facility, the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center. “Cop City” has faced opposition since 2021 from groups with anti-police sentiments, who have thrown rocks and Molotov cocktails at officers.

Max Blumenthal

Militant left activist and anti-Israel propagandist Max Blumenthal has been very vocal on social media in favor of the Holy Land Five, claiming that their only crime was “sending aid to Gaza”.

In April 2023, Blumenthal claimed (without evidence):

When the FBI was unable to find the ‘terror cells’ Americans believed existed after 9/11, they made some opportunistic arrests for PR purposes and destroyed many lives.

In the following X post, Blumenthal advertises anti-Israel activist Miko Peled‘s book “Injustice: The Story of the Holy Land Foundation Five”, which paints those convicted as victims of post 9/11 hysteria. This, despite the fact that the federal investigation into the Holy Land Foundation began in the early 1990s.

Notably, Miko Peled was featured on prominent communist Jackson Hinkle‘s podcast “Legitimate Targets” in May 2025 in an episode titled “Breaking: Israeli Apartheid State Must Be Demolished”.

During the podcast, Peled calls Israel an “apartheid state” committing “genocide” against Palestinians, stating, “the agenda for the Zionist is genocide front and center.” Peled called for “massive sanctions” and a “no-fly zone” against Israel to “bring the apartheid state to its knees.”

Omar Suleiman

Omar Suleiman is founder and president of the Irving, Texas-based Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research and a professor of Islamic studies at Southern Methodist University.

He is also an avid defender of the Holy Land Five.

In 2017, Suleiman took part in a panel discussion about perceived Muslim political prisoners, including the Holy Land Five.

As an aside, Georgetown University “Islamic Studies” professor and Muslim convert Jonathan Brown discussed his father-in-law, Sami Al-Arian, a Kuwaiti-born former University of South Florida computer engineering professor. Al-Arian was deported to Turkey in 2015 after pleading guilty to conspiring to provide services to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Brown’s wife, Laila Al-Arian, is a journalist for the anti-Israel news outlet Al Jazeera.

During a September 2021 protest in support of “Lady al-Qaeda” Aafia Siddiqui at the Federal Medical Center, Carswell in Fort Worth Texas, Suleiman referenced the Holy Land Five, and blamed “forged translation documents and some anonymous Mossad official” for their conviction:

Are we supposed to believe the system that put five of our men in this community, the HLF5, in these lengthy sentences for feeding Palestinian children on the basis of forged translation documents and some anonymous Mossad official?

In November, 2024 he posted about the Holy Land Five on Instagram:

On July 14, 2025 during a lecture for the Yaqeen Institute, Suleiman declared that the conviction of the Holy Land Five was “one of the most shameful episodes in the history of the United States”:

The Holy Land Foundation 5, it’s one of the most shameful episodes in the history of the United States where five innocent men who operated a charity that fed Palestinian children were thrown into prison…

Suleiman’s unwavering defense of Aafia Siddiqui and the Holy Land Five reveals a pattern of support for ideologically-driven convicted criminals.

CAIR-Florida

CAIR has tried to distance themselves from the Holy Land Five. In an article titled “Dispelling Rumors About CAIR”, a section titled “Urban Legend 2: The inclusion of the organization on a list of more than 300 unindicted co-conspirators in the Holy Land Foundation (HLF) trial implies that CAIR is somehow nefarious” CAIR blames “Islamophobic groups” attempting to “smear CAIR’s reputation” by pointing out their association with the HLF:

As the judge in the Holy Land Foundation trial noted during court proceedings, ‘This case is not about CAIR.’ Despite this clear statement from the bench, Islamophobic groups attempt to exploit the public’s unfamiliarity with the trial to use the unindicted co-conspirator listing to smear CAIR’s reputation.

But in 2020, CAIR-Florida referred to the Holy Land Five as “a group of wrongfully convicted humanitarians at the core of one of the biggest cases of US political persecution of the century.”

In summary, CAIR publicly distances itself from the Holy Land Foundation, condemning “Islamophobic groups” for linking the two, while simultaneously championing the “Holy Land Five” as “humanitarians”.

So which is it?

Supporters Worth Mentioning

Other prominent supporters of the Holy Land Five include:

• The “Muslim Legal Fund of America“, who platformed convicted Hamas financier Mufid Abdulqader’s daughter Sarah. The Muslim Legal Fund of America claimed that the Holy Land Five are “serving time for feeding orphans and widows in Palestine.” The Muslim Legal Fund of America (MLFA) has been actively involved in supporting the legal defense of the Holy Land Five.
• The Palestine Advocacy Project and the Brooklyn MAS Youth Center have celebrated Holy Land Five member Mufid Abdulqader’s release in 2024.
• Joe Biden commuted the federal prison sentence of Mufid Abdulqader (also referred to as Mofid Abdel Kader Mashaal or Meshal), the half-brother of Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal, on December 12, 2024.

Support for the Holy Land Five is a National Security Threat

Should Zohran Mamdani, who was born in Uganda, be allowed to keep his citizenship despite his terrorist and communist sympathies? Should other non-citizens who celebrate the “Holy Land Five” face denaturalization proceedings and potential deportation?

The brazen support for the Holy Land Five by subversive groups and figures like Zohran Mamdani, CAIR, Max Blumenthal, Omar Suleiman, Within Our Lifetime and others is a direct threat to American security, glorifying convicted criminals who funneled millions to Hamas terrorists.

Elected officials must act decisively by launching aggressive investigations into non-citizens who champion these convicted Hamas financiers, pursue denaturalization, and deport those who undermine America’s safety, ensuring no one escapes accountability for endorsing terrorism.