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July 14, 2006

US: Ohio Imam Still Not Deported After Seven Months

We wrote on November 25 that Fawaz Damra, the former imam of Ohio's biggest mosque, had been ordered to be deported from the United States.

Born in Nablus in the West Bank in 1961, Fawaz Damra studied Islamic Law in Jordan and arrived in the US in the mid-1980s. He was the imam at the al-Farooq mosque in Brooklyn, New York from 1986 until 1990 when he moved to Ohio and took up residence as the imam of the Islamic Center of Cleveland.

He had been convicted of lying about his associations with terrorist groups when he applied for US citizenship in the mid 1980s.

He had denied involvements with Afghan Refugee Services, the Islamic Committee for Palestine and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, even though footage was later found of him raising money for Islamic Jihad. This group has been proscribed as a terror organisation by the State Department since 1989. He also worked with the Alkifah Refugee Center in Brooklyn, N.Y where he knew other radicals.

This "cleric" had said in 1991:"[Muslims should be] directing all rifles at the first and last enemy of the Islamic nation, and that is the sons of monkeys and pigs, the Jews." They were also shown video of a speech made in 1989 in which he said "terrorism and terrorism alone is the path to liberation"."

In September 2004, following his conviction in June of that year, he was given a jail sentence of two months' imprisonment and given four months' house arrest. US District Judge James Gwin said he could begin his jail sentence in November 2004, following Ramadan. Damra was told he would have is citizenship evoked, but he could not be deported until he had an appeal.

On March 15, 2005, a federal appeals court upheld Judge Gwin's ruling, so finally, on November 25 last year, he was arrested. Brian Moskowitz, special agent with the federal office in Detroit, made a statement which read: "With today's arrest, ICE begins the process of removing from the United States a criminal alien who has unequivocally supported terrorists and terrorist organizations."

It appeared that things would then be a simple matter of putting Damra on a plane and dispensing with him. That has not been the case.

According to Associated Press via NewsNet 5 today, Damra is still residing in a jail in Michigan.

His deportation agreement with the US had listed Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Sudan, Egypt or the Palestinian territories as locations to which he could be sent.

So far, no country has agreed to take Damra.

According to a friend, Damra is having a hard time in jail and misses his family. The friend said: "He's a man without a country."

Robert Birach, Damra's attorney said that he could be held indefinitely. He stated: "If there was progress, he'd be gone by now. We haven't gotten a country yet to say yes."

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at July 14, 2006 9:48 AM

Comments

Posted by: thereisaidit at July 14, 2006 7:21 PM

Posted by: Tresho at December 31, 2006 4:16 AM

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