“Most people don’t understand what an unindicted co-conspirator is,” said Parvez Ahmed, CAIR’s board chairman, adding that the release of the list prompted death threats and hate mail against the council. “They think that being related to a terrorism case means we are terrorists.”  The unindicted co-conspirators were named in the case against the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, which opened July 16. The charity and five of its officers are accused of providing material support for terrorism by funneling millions of charitable dollars to the Palestinian organization Hamas. The federal government ordered the foundation shuttered in December 2001.  Technically, the prosecution can introduce statements made by any individual or organization named as an unindicted co-conspirator without such statements being dismissed as hearsay. Those on the list have not been charged with anything, but they are concerned that the label of unindicted co-conspirator will forever taint them, particularly if the Holy Land group is convicted, and that they will have no legal recourse.  On July 13, Judge Fish barred lawyers from discussing the case with reporters. A Justice Department spokesman, Bryan Sierra, said the order prevented him from commenting about the list, as did the spokeswoman for the United States attorney in Dallas, Kathy Colvin. Before the judge’s order, however, the prosecution, while acknowledging that the list was unusually long, maintained that the names of the organizations would have come up in the trial anyway. Defense lawyers accused the Justice Department of using the list to create the aura of a vast conspiracy where none existed.  Both the National Association of Muslim Lawyers and CAIR said they were working in uncharted legal territory, as they had been unable to find firm legal precedents about how an unindicted co-conspirator could be removed from such a list.  Many organizations named are foreign, but among the most notable in the United States are the Islamic Society of North America, the largest Muslim umbrella organization, and the North American Islamic Trust. The Islamic Society said in a statement that it, too, was seeking a legal recourse, while the North American Islamic Trust did not respond to telephone calls seeking comment.  A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A19 of the New York edition with the headline: Muslim Groups Oppose A List of ‘Co-Conspirators’. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe
Two prominent Muslim American organizations took steps to reverse what they called a Justice Department effort to smear the entire Muslim community.