Holy Land Foundation trial was a disaster, but it did reveal a dangerous and covert Islamist agenda behind some Muslim organizations

What an embarrassment the Holy Land Foundation mistrial was. Yes, it was a disappointment for us who wanted to see that Hamas-loving bunch convicted. But no matter which side you were on, the jury's deadlock and post-trial revelations of utter cluelessness made our system look shabby and pathetic.

Trial observers had noted all along that some jury members appeared to be as glazed and placid as a box of Krispy Kremes. At least one repeatedly dozed off. After the trial ended, frustrated juror William Neal, who voted to acquit the defendants, revealed that only a handful bothered to discuss the evidence in deliberations, and that one clod spent her time snacking and napping, as if, in Mr. Neal's words, "this was her vacation."

Think about that. The U.S. government's signature terrorist financing trial – the culmination of 15 years of investigation – depended on people like that woman. The defendants' freedom and their families' welfare depended on people like her. Like I said, an embarrassment.

But the trial – which, don't forget, did not produce an exoneration for most defendants – was by no means a wash. Despite the absence of verdict, what emerged was highly valuable and deeply damaging evidence that the radical Muslim Brotherhood is the guiding light behind the U.S. Muslim community's leadership. It is impossible for any intellectually responsible person to regard as positive or even benign organizations like the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Islamic Society of North America, Islamic Circle of North America, Muslim American Society or others who presume to speak on behalf of all American Muslims.

As Douglas Farah, the former Washington Post reporter who now works as a counterterrorism consultant for the nonprofit Nine Eleven Finding Answers Foundation, put it after the Holy Land verdict, the evidence shows "definitive proof that CAIR, ISNA, ICNA and all the Muslim Brotherhood groups in this country came here with a markedly different purpose from what they claim, and they have gone through decades of deceit to conceal their true identities and purposes."

(For an eye-opening look at government evidence from the Holy Land trial, including the infamous Muslim Brotherhood "general strategic memo" outlining the organization's strategy to use front groups to wage a "civilization-jihad" against the West, see www.nefa foundation.org/hlfdocs.html).

But don't take it from an infidel. Earlier this month in Washington, a handful of prominent Muslims gathered to explain to an American audience why the Muslim Brotherhood was a clear and present danger both to American Muslims and the nation. Naser Khader, a Muslim parliamentarian from Denmark living under death threat for speaking out against Islamic radicals, even called U.S. government officials "useful idiots" for continuing to succor extremists.

The Muslim Brotherhood, founded in Egypt in 1928 and dedicated to promoting a worldwide Islamic state, now exists in at least 70 nations. Boston University professor Husain Haqqani told the conference that the Brotherhood established itself in the U.S. when Muslims began coming here in significant numbers to work and study in the 1950s and 1960s. Those immigrants needed mosques and other services. The Brotherhood saw an opportunity – as did the Saudis, who funded its missionary work in America.

One of the most important things the Brotherhood did back then, Mr. Haqqani explained, was translate key radical Islamic texts into a wide range of languages and make them available to mosques and Islamic centers across America. When the foreignness of American life understandably prompted ordinary Muslims to reconnect with their faith, the version of Islam on offer at local Islamic institutions was a radical one.