Muslim cleric who aided law enforcement faces deportation to Jordan

The Associated Press

Published: March 29, 2008

PATERSON, New Jersey: In the weeks and months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, few Muslim leaders were more active than Imam Muhammad Qatanani in reaching out to other religious groups and law enforcement authorities with a message of openness and understanding.

His mosque, the Islamic Center of Passaic County in New Jersey, welcomed politicians and religious leaders, held a blood drive to aid victims of the attacks and made headlines by hosting a law enforcement recruiting drive.

All of that makes it particularly frustrating now for the 44-year-old cleric as he faces possible deportation in a dispute centering on a 1993 military court ruling in Israel that Qatanani said he was unaware of when he applied for U.S. citizenship.

He faces a trial in May in Newark that will determine whether he and his wife and six children will be forced to return to his native Jordan.

In the meantime, the sizable Muslim community in northern New Jersey has donated more than $100,000 (€63,300) to Qatanani's defense, according to spokesman Aref Assaf.

Some public officials have taken up his cause as well. U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, a New Jersey Democrat, called Qatanani "a gentleman who's had a tremendous positive influence" and wrote a letter in support of the imam to immigration Judge Alberto J. Riefkohl, who will hear the case.

Others, like former FBI agent John Paige, who had regular contact with Qatanani as the FBI's supervisory special agent in West Paterson, and New Jersey Gov. Jon S. Corzine, who spoke at Qatanani's mosque in 2006, have declined to comment.

Weysan Dun, the special agent in charge of the FBI's Newark office, also did not comment on the case because it is an immigration matter, but said agents would not be prohibited from testifying at Qatanani's trial.

Their reticence does little to lower Qatanani's anxiety level.

"After 10 years, all of them say, 'We love you, we respect you, we know you very well. But we can't do anything for you,'" he said.

According to Qatanani and his attorney, Claudia Slovinsky, he was detained for three months in Israel in 1993 because he had helped some Palestinian students further their schooling in Jordan, where he was then based. He was released, and eventually emigrated to the U.S. in 1996.

Three years later he applied for permanent residency, but his request languished until 2006 when it was denied.

At that point, Qatanani said, he was not informed that after his detention, an Israeli military court had convicted him in absentia of aiding Hamas militants. He said he only learned that fact last year when he appealed the 2006 ruling denying permanent residency.

U.S. immigration authorities denied several requests for comment on the case. But Slovinsky said Qatanani is facing deportation because he did not disclose the Israeli conviction on his application — even though he was not aware of it.

"He became aware when the U.S. government said there was a conviction, sometime last fall," she said. "He's been totally open and offering complete details as he knew them throughout the process. Legally that cannot amount to misrepresentation."

Qatanani said he merely helped the students because they were poor and was not aware of any connections to Hamas.

"It is a humanitarian issue," he said. "I didn't know about them, I didn't care who they were. I just helped them find housing."

Living in limbo has already taken a toll on Qatanani. His driver's license expired in 2005 and he has been unable to renew it. When his son became ill a few months ago and eventually needed surgery, Qatanani had to call a friend to drive him to the hospital.

On a larger scale, Assaf said the threat of deportation has mobilized the Muslim community and spawned a new organization, Americans For Qatanani, which is seeking support from political leaders.