Fox smears Park51 investor as "terror contributor"

Trumpeting an article headlined, "Mosque Investor was Terror Contributor," Fox Nation continued its attack on Islam and the Park51 project by smearing a financial backer of the proposed Islamic cultural center as a "terror contributor." The website highlighted the Fox 5 article using the headline, "Ground Zero Mosque Investor was Terror Contributor":

The article, by Fox 5 New York reporter Charles Leaf, reported that, in 1999, one of Park51's financial backers, businessman Hisham Elzanaty, "sent money to an organization that would later be deemed by the U.S. government to be a terrorist group," identifying the organization as the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF).

While Leaf noted that "Mr. Elzanaty's attorney tells Fox 5 News exclusively his client believed he was making contributions to an orphanage," he went on to report that, according to a representative of the anti-Muslim group Investigative Project on Terrorism, "[i]f you gave money (to HLF) in 1999 you probably had some inkling that HLF was giving money to Hamas and therefore to terrorist operations."

But as Leaf himself reported, Elzanaty donated money to HLF two years before the government alleged the group had ties to Hamas. During a trial of former HLF officials in 2007, the U.S. attorney reportedly told jurors that "[f]or 13 years, the defendants deceived the American public into believing" HLF was "a good charity." And in a 2008 indictment against the group, the Department of Justice stated:

In furtherance of HAMAS' goal of garnering support of the Palestinian people, the HLF sponsored orphans and needy families in the West Bank and Gaza. While the program was mantled with a benevolent appearance, the HLF specifically sought orphans and families whose relatives had died or were jailed as a result of furthering HAMAS' violent campaign, including suicide bombings.

As we noted earlier, Fox & Friends also strained to tie the Park51 project to Hamas.