By Ed Stoddard

DALLAS, Sept 19 (Reuters) - Closing arguments were completed on Wednesday in the trial of what was once the largest Islamic charity in the United States, accused of illegally channeling money to the militant Palestinian group Hamas.

The defense made emotional pleas that the defendants were simply following their faith by providing for needy Palestinian children while the state depicted a dark conspiracy to fund suicide bombers waging war against Israel.

Jury deliberations in the two-month-long trial were expected to begin later on Wednesday or on Thursday.

The Holy Land Foundation and seven men linked to it face numerous charges including conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and money laundering. Only five of the men are on trial while the other two are believed to be in the Middle East and have been deemed fugitives.

If their activities can be shown to have caused deaths, the defendants could face life in prison.

Holy Land was the largest Islamic charity in the United States before it was closed in 2001. It stands accused of funneling over $12 million to Hamas before its closure.

The stakes are high as the U.S. government maintains that several Islamic charities have been used as fronts to channel cash to groups Washington has deemed terrorist.

In this case it claims that money was used for a number of terrorism-related purposes including to fund Palestinian schools where children were encouraged to become suicide bombers.

But defense lawyers have argued that Holy Land was just a charity and that it helped Palestinian orphans -- a task which the defense argued strikes a chord with Muslims as the religion's prophet was an orphan.

"What he supported was the sons and daughters of Palestine ... He is proud of the work that he did for the Holy Land Foundation," Linda Moreno, a lawyer for Ghassan Elashi, one of the accused, said on Wednesday.

The lawyers for the defendants also repeatedly stressed to the jury that the state's case was based on speculation.

The state maintains Holy Land's charitable works were a mask for its true intentions -- to help fund terrorism.

"Look at the origins and purpose ... of the Holy Land Foundation. Look at it. Does it fit?" said prosecutor Nathan Garrett in the state's rebuttal.

"They provided material support ... for a terrorist organization. They knew exactly what they were doing," he said.

Among other things in the Holy Land case the state alleges that three of the accused met with Hamas activists in Philadelphia in October 1993 to discuss ways to support the movement and oppose Israeli-Palestinian peace initiatives.

Cases involving charities can be difficult to prosecute.

"Where a terrorist organization ends and a sympathetically minded, but independent charitable group begins is a difficult to define line in the political sand," said Jeffrey Kahn, who teaches law at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

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