A prominent Muslim cleric, celebrated for his moderation by supporters but accused of ties to a terrorist group by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, on Thursday won his bid to call the United States his permanent home.
In his 69-page decision, Immigration Judge Alberto Riefkohl said Homeland Security officials had presented a case weak on evidence and credibility in their effort to cast Imam Mohammad Qatanani as someone who had had ties to Hamas and who had lied about it to obtain a green card here.
Riefkohl, often using blunt language in his written decision, said that records obtained by Homeland Security officials from Israeli authorities were "too unreliable to prove that Mr. Qatanani has engaged in terrorist activities."
He added: "The court also finds DHS's other evidence is insufficient."
With little ado and comment, the judge handed his written decision to Qatanani's attorney, Claudia Slovinsky of Manhattan, and attorneys for Homeland Security. Slovinsky quickly glimpsed at the last page, where the judge stated his conclusion, and read it to Qatanani and more than a dozen supporters who had gathered around them. The imam, his eyes brimming with tears, hugged Slovinsky.
The imam placed his palms over his chest and raised his eyes and thanked God in Arabic.
"I believe in this country and the justice system," he said, as jubilant members of his mosque, who had gathered in the courtroom to hear the decision, embraced and cried. "This country wants to keep good people."
His wife, Sumaia, fought back tears.
"Our children will be so happy," she said. "This has been so hard on all of us."
The government's spokesman, Harold Ort, said it will decide whether to appeal within 30 days, the time allotted by law.
Outside court on the 11th floor of the Peter F. Rodino Federal Building in Newark, the imam's supporters praised the decision and said it would bolster their community's faith in the U.S. justice system. Many Muslims and Arabs saw the government's deportation effort as evidence that Muslims and Arabs, regardless of their views, are stereotyped as terrorists or terrorist sympathizers.
Aref Assaf, head of the American Arab Forum in Paterson, said earlier that the case had been watched closely by Muslims and Arabs across the United States as well as overseas.
"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," Assaf explained.
Qatanani came to New Jersey on a religious visa in 1996 to serve as imam of the Islamic Center of Passaic County in Paterson, the largest mosque in New Jersey. He 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, and did not disclose an arrest and conviction by Israeli security officials during his visit to the West Bank in 1993.
Qatanani, 44, argues that he did not disclose the detention 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.
When he was detained by the Israelis, the imam, who is Palestinian, was living in Jordan, 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. DHS officials had said that the document was a confession, which the judge noted was never produced, 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 argued that Qatanani was 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."
Qatanani and his wife, Sumaia, have six children, three of whom were born abroad. The imam had said the entire family would leave the U.S. if one member was deported.
Since the family members' immigration pleas were tied to his, Thursday's decision ensures they also can remain in the U.S.
His clout and popularity among U.S. officials and law enforcement authorities in New Jersey was evident Wednesday 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, immigration 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.
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."
Pascrell, who visited the mosque Thursday after the decision to congratulate the imam, said: "The deportation of Imam Qatanani would have been a miscarriage of justice and a setback for relations between government and the Muslim-American community. Today's verdict is more than just a victory for one man or one community; it is a victory for Passaic County and all of America."
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