Deportation trial brings hundreds together

"Fostering dialogue, understanding and trust between Muslims, Christians and Jews is critical for our nation and the world. In this cause here in New Jersey, Mohammad Qatanani, the imam of the Islamic Center of Passaic County, has been a tireless champion."

- The Rev. William A. Potter, rector, Saint Luke's Episcopal Church, Hope

From a letter to the editor, Herald News, March 14, 2008

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One day, they stood in the rain. Every day, they wore T-shirts that read, "Americans 4 Qatanani."

There were hundreds of them. They came from everywhere. Paterson. Newark. Dorm rooms at Rutgers. They came from across the state and from beyond its borders.

They came in common purpose, to offer their support.

For whatever lessons the deportation trial of Imam Mohammad Qatanani has taught us about life, faith and our cultural struggles in a post-Sept. 11 world, it has also offered lessons about organizing for a cause, on standing for one's beliefs and about the bond of humanity that reaches across all boundaries.

Given Qatanani's popularity as an Islamic spiritual leader, it would be easy to predict that so many Muslims from Passaic County would journey to Newark every day of his trial, which wrapped up testimony last week. Yet who could have imagined the outpouring of support the imam has received, over and over again, from so many different quarters: from elected leaders, from clergy of various faiths, from high-profile law enforcement officers.

Who could have imagined the effect the imam's trial would have in galvanizing others to look more closely at this nation's now vague and sometimes skewed immigration policy. Who could predict the sort of grassroots support that would develop through blog sites and bulletin boards, or that it would result in hundreds of T-shirts designed or scores of banners created on Qatanani's behalf. Who, indeed, could predict how the trials of one could serve to mobilize so many.

Of course, the inspiration to energize and organize, to gather support against some perceived wrong, is as old as America, and as patriotic, as democratic as any institution we have. In some ways, the rallying cries for this imam, this so-called "man of peace," recalls those made during the Paterson Silk Strike of 1913, when another group of people, many of them immigrants, stood so valiantly for labor reform.

Our government believes Imam Mohammad Qatanani, spiritual leader of the Islamic Center of Paterson, should be deported. Federal prosecutors have gone to great lengths, and sometimes used questionable methods, to present their case. The imam, speaking in his own defense, was nearly brought to tears.

From this view, we are in no position to judge, to decide on the merits of the case, one way or the other. We can only echo what others have said: that in his time in Passaic County Qatanani has been a man about peace, and inclusion, about finding the common goodness in different peoples. And we can reflect, with wonder, on the outpouring of support shown him from such a great, cross-section of the North Jersey community.