Supporters vow to continue fight for imam

northjersey.com ^ | 11.06.09 | ELIZABETH LLORENTE

[Coleus]

PATERSON — Supporters of a Muslim cleric whose deportation case is to return to Immigration Court after an immigration appeals panel remanded it, plan today to publicly denounce the panel’s decision and vow to fight for the imam. Aref Assaf, spokesman for imam Mohammad Qatanani of the Islamic Center of Passaic County, said that at today’s press conference he and others will ask for “continued financial and emotional support” for the imam as he prepares to fight again against efforts by the Department of Homeland Security to deport him.

“We will express our disappointment in the Board of Immigration Appeals’ decision,” Assaf said. “Now we must do everything all over again, provide more testimony, go back to court.” Since coming to New Jersey on a religious visa in 1996 to serve as imam of the mosque in Paterson’s East Side, Qatanani, 45, has become one of the state’s most prominent Muslims, garnering praise for his efforts to build bridges between Muslims and non-Muslims.

In 1999, U.S. immigration officials denied his application for permanent U.S. residency because they said he failed to disclose an arrest and conviction by Israeli security officials during a visit to the West Bank in 1993. Homeland Security officials say that Qatanani, according to Israeli information, had links to Hamas, a deemed by the United States and Israel to be a terrorist group.

Qatanani has denied ever having had links to Hamas or any terrorist group, and says that although he was detained by Israelis for three months, they never told him he’d been formally arrested or convicted of anything. The imam, as well as experts who testified on his behalf, said that at the time, Israel routinely detained Palestinian men in the West Bank without just cause. DHS provided documents by Israeli officials that they said proved Qatanani had been arrested and convicted.

In September 2008, Immigration Judge Alberto Riefkohl, sitting in Newark, rejected DHS’s allegations as weak, and said the Israeli documents that DHS submitted as evidence were unreliable. The judge granted the imam permanent U.S. residency. DHS appealed the decision to the Board of Immigration Appeals, which is part of the Department of Justice. In its 12-page decision, the Board of Immigration Appeals said that Riefkohl should accept the evidence that DHS submitted, including the documents by Israeli officials. The board also said that Qatanani should prove that he did not have links at the time to Hamas.