....Federal investigators have shut down the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development in Texas, saying it was funneling money to the Palestinian terror group Hamas. According to the FBI, Cleveland Muslims hosted at least two fund-raisers for the charity in 2001. The director of Holy Land has said Damra has helped with fund raising.

Federal investigators are also probing more than 100 Virginia charities and businesses collectively known as the Safa group. Court records show that Safa gave money to both Holy Land Foundation and Sami Al-Arian. It appears some members of the Cleveland Islamic community have finally come to their senses regarding Damra:

as federal authorities describe him as a peer of Palestinian extremists, Damra's support is fading in the larger Muslim community.

Arab-American and Muslim civic leaders who previously rose to his defense stood mute or soft-spoken Tuesday when Damra was charged with violating federal immigration law by concealing ties to terrorist groups.

....Some community leaders privately said they hope Damra steps down. Mosque leaders asked for time.

"I really have to meet with leaders and discuss this," said mosque President Ali Halabi, a Brecksville doctor. He conceded the news is devastating to the Islamic Center of Cleveland.

....The indictment that led to Tuesday's arrest formally charges Damra only with lying on his application for citizenship. But the lie, according to the indictment, stems from failing to disclose his ties to terrorist groups that target Jews.

"This is sort of like how they got Al Capone; they caught him on a detail," said John Hexter, executive director of the local chapter of the American Jewish Committee.

Hexter said it is time for the Muslim community to produce a moderate representative other groups can work with. [Cleveland Plain Dealer]

And not call Jews pigs and monkeys, and urge for them to be shot, you mean?

While some Cleveland Muslims are waking up and smelling the cat food, others are not:

Haider Alawan, a member of the mosque's council of elders, claims Damra is being framed by "Zionists" for supporting a Palestinian homeland and perhaps inadvertently supporting groups wrongly labeled terrorist.

"Hey, I support the Hezbollah. I love them," Alawan said, referring to the Lebanon-based militant group that the U.S. government considers terrorist. "We know it's a harassment against him. For what? For his support of the Palestinians. And it's brought by the Zionists in America."

Alawan said he does not know who the Zionists are or where they are.

So right here in Cleveland, USA, we have THE spiritual leader of the local Muslim community calling Jews animals and advocating their murder, and raising money for terrorist organizations stretching from al Qaeda to Hamas, and we have a member of his mosque's council of elders openly stating his love for Hezbollah and blaming this whole damn mix-up on a conspiracy of Zionists.

If you are an American of whatever religion, nationality, or set of predispositions and this doesn't shock and chill you, you have lost the ability to be shocked and chilled. That terror-supporting conspirators operate with near impunity at the very core of the American Islamic community calls directly into question whether that core might not be rotten.