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.
"This is not somebody in the boondocks who nobody
knows and they have to investigate him," he said.
"They've sat with him, eaten with him, talked to him,
engaged him. So the disappointment is multiplied by the
fact of his friendship with law enforcement officials
who know him firsthand."
