Posted on 01/10/2007 8:46:45 PM PST by PRePublic
Former Ohio imam's deportation to Israel angers US Muslims
AP, JERUSALEM Thursday, Jan 11, 2007, Page 6 Israel arrested the former imam of Ohio's largest mosque after he was deported from the US last week, the Shin Bet internal security service confirmed.
Fawaz Damra, 46, was arrested because of his ties to Islamic Jihad, a militant Palestinian group classified by Israel and the US as a terrorist organization, Shin Bet said on Tuesday. It gave no other details.
Smadar Ben-Natan, an Israeli lawyer retained by Damra's family to represent him, said Damra was being held at the Kishon prison and she planned to meet with her client yesterday.
Damra's family, friends and members of the Islamic community in Ohio reacted with outrage on Tuesday and demanded that the US government be held accountable for Damra ending up in Israeli custody.
Damra, a Palestinian originally from the West Bank city of Nablus, was deported by US authorities last week because he concealed his ties to Islamic Jihad when he applied for US citizenship in 1994. Relatives expecting him to enter the West Bank on Friday reported he never showed up and said they had been told by the Red Cross he was detained, but there was not any official Israeli confirmation until Tuesday.
"We waited for him all day and he didn't come," said Nabil Damra, the imam's brother.
"He is not an extremist and we don't understand why he was arrested. My mother is crying. Our house is sad. My father, who is 83, is waiting for his son. We pray that my brother will come home and see his father before he dies," he said.
Islamic Jihad, a small radical group with links to Iran and Syria, has carried out dozens of suicide bombings and rocket attacks against Israel.
During his trial, jurors were shown evidence that Damra raised money for the organization, along with footage of a 1991 speech in which he called Jews "the sons of monkeys and pigs."
He later apologized for making anti-Semitic statements.
Damra, whose wife and three daughters remain in the US, served as the imam, or religious leader, of the Islamic Center of Cleveland in suburban Parma.
His supporters gathered at the mosque on Tuesday along with his wife and children, expressing concern for his safety.
"There seems to be widespread speculation that my husband's disappearance has him in a place where there is no due process, where he is likely to be tortured or worse," said Nesreen Damra, barely able to read her prepared statement through tears.
A US Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman denied accusations that the government's intent was to hand Damra over to Israeli authorities.
Today it's the TERROR-IMAM, yesterday it was the Pope, before that, the newspapers' articles in France, before that the cartoons, much earlier: Salman Rushdie, it's always something.
Outrage is an Islamic specialty. It would work better if they were not so violent.
How come his wife and children didn't leave with him??????
These people are entirely too negative. They should think more positive thoughts. They always seem to be upset about something.
Let's pass the hat...anything to be rid of them!!!
one down and a few million more to go
exactly what should have been started on 9/12/2001.
and one more terrorist attack in America and every muzzie swingin' dick in America will have to pack up his koran and family and go back to whatever hellhole they originated from.
I have a student who was raised by a Catholic mother and an Islamic father. The father was an elder at this Cleveland mosque. The father left the mosque after this mosque leader made these kinds of statements shortly after 911.
The guy was a terrorist supporter - therefore he has blood of innocents on his hands. He is a terrorist himself. Good riddance to bad rubbish.
I hope Israel loses the key to his cell.
I don't have too much patience or good will for those who help terrorists.
Can we give all the Muslims prozac.....maybe?
And if you dare say that they preach violence, you are "offending" them...
you got that right.
Galena pills are much cheaper.
bttt
If we promise them that they will "see" (things... like) 72 virgins...
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