Imam Gets to Stay

Oh, Joy!

BREAKING: Imam gets to stay
Thursday, September 4, 2008
BY ELIZABETH LLORENTE
STAFF WRITER – NorthJersey.com

A prominent Muslim cleric, celebrated for his moderation, today won his bid to call the United States his permanent home under a decision issued by an immigration judge.

Many have seen the government’s deportation efforts against Imam Mohammad Qatanani – who pushed for moderation and embracing non-Muslisms — as evidence that Muslims and Arabs, regardless of their moderate views, are stereotyped as terrorist, or terrorist sympathizers.

“This will impact how our community deals with United States government officials,” aid Aref Assaf, head of the American Arab Forum, based in Paterson. “We have been working well with the FBI, the U.S. Attorney’s office, and immigration, mostly because of the imam and his encouragement to us to cooperate and work with the government.

“But if there is a negative decision, the cooperation will continue, but it will be different, not as close like before.”

A group of supporters, as well as the imam himself, were at today’s announcement. Last night, many of those supporters — among them, elected and appointed government officials — paid tribute to their spiritual leader during a service in Paterson to mark the beginning of Ramadan.

Qatanani, who came to New Jersey on a religious visa in 1996, unsuccessfully applied for permanent U.S. residency in 1999. U.S. immigration officials denied his application, contending that the imam once had  terrorist ties to Hamas, a terrorist group, and didn’t disclose an arrest and conviction by Israeli security officials during his visit to the West Bank in 1993.

Muslims and Arabs across the United States and overseas are watching closely, Assaf said.

Many have seen the government’s deportation efforts against the imam – who pushed for moderation and embracing non-Muslims — as evidence that Muslims and Arabs, regardless of their views, are stereotyped as terrorist or terrorist sympathizers.

The imam is esteemed far beyond the Arab and Muslim community, in great part because of his diligence in pushing his congregation, which he often says was insular, to become part of the larger American community and establish ties to other faiths.

His clout and popularity among U.S. officials and law enforcement authorities in New Jersey was evident last night, when dozens of them gathered at the mosque to mark the beginning days of Ramadan, Islam’s holy month.

Among those who attended were U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie, Rep. Bill Pascrell, FBI officials, immigra tion authorities and many local and county law enforcement officials from North Jersey.

Though the occasion was officially Ramadan, the evening turned into a tribute to the imam as speaker after speaker paid him homage, sometimes to standing ovations. Many said they had never been in a mosque before the imam reached out to them, and they credited him for helping them gain access to and an understanding of the Muslim and Arab communities.

“We hope for the best in this decision,” said Pascrell, who added that he recently prayed with the imam for his situation. “It’s in God’s hands. We can’t always be happy with every decision that is made, particularly by government.”

Pascrell praised the imam, saying , “You put so much time into bringing peace for all of us. . . Thank you, imam, for all that you’ve done for America since you’ve come here.”

Passaic County Prosecutor James Avigliano said to the imam, “No matter what happens, you will always be my friend.”

Qatanani, 44, argues that he did not disclose the incident because Israelis had led him to believe he was merely being detained, as often happened to many Palestinian males at the time. Qatanani maintains that the Israeli authorities never characterized the detention to him as being something of a more serious nature – specifically, an arrest. And he says that they never told him he was convicted.

The imam, who is Palestinian, was living in Jordan at the time, where he had obtained citizenship and taught at a university.

Qatanani was in detention for three months, during which he says he was tortured and, under duress, forced to sign a document in Hebrew that he did not understand.

Homeland Security officials, who are pushing for Qatanani’s deportation, say that Qatanani – according to Israeli information – had links to Hamas, a group deemed as terrorist by the United States and Israel. They say the document in Hebrew that Qatanani signed was a confession to having links to Hamas.

In the DHS summations presented to Riefkohl after four days of testimony in the spring, government officials wrote that the Israeli military court on the West Bank convicted the imam of membership in “an illegal association, to wit, Hamas…”

They argue that Qatanani is ineligible to stay in the United States because “he has by fraud or willfully representing a material fact, sought to procure a visa, other documentation, or admission into the United States.”

The imam and his wife, Sumaia, have six children, three of them born in this country.  The imam  has said that all will go if any one has to leave.

“We are hopeful that in this season of Ramadan, we will be blessed with a positive decision,” said Mohamed Elfalilali, the outreach director for ICPC.

E-mail: llorente@northjersey.com

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