A prominent Muslim cleric facing deportation is testifying in Newark in his fight to make the United States his permanent home.

KEVIN R. WEXLER / SPECIAL TO THE RECORD

Mohammad Qatanani addresses supporters at the federal complex in Newark before testifying in his deportation trial.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security wants to deport Mohammad Qatanani, the imam of the Islamic Center of Passaic County in Paterson, because the agency says he lied when he failed to disclose in a 1999 application for permanent residency -- or "green card" -- that Israel convicted him in 1993 for "assisting Hamas."

Qatanani, who came to the United States on a religious visa in 1996, this morning told the court about his childhood and growing up poor in a Palestinian refugee camp. He says he wanted to be a mosque leader since he was six years old, following in the footsteps of his father.

He has argued before that he didn't note the incident involving the residency application because, although he was detained for three months, the Israelis did not charge or him or convict him.

Though immigration officials claim that documents provided by the Israelis include a confession in which Qatanani admitted being a member of Hamas from 1989 to 1991, U.S. authorities have failed to produce it despite demands from the imam’s lawyers.

In addition, FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials testified last month that in a 2005 meeting, the imam informed them of the arrest and a past link to Hamas, which the United States lists as a terrorist group.

The 44-year-old imam says that he was tortured while in detention and that, under duress, he signed a document that was in Hebrew.

Aref Assaf, a spokesman for the imam, said that Qatanani did not, as the FBI and ICE officials testified, refer to his detention by Israelis as an arrest. Assaf also said that the imam did not tell the officials in the 2005 meeting that he had once had links to Hamas. That meeting was at Qatanani’s request to discuss the government’s delay in processing his application.

Assaf, a Denville resident and member of the Paterson mosque, said that former Passaic County prosecutor Ronald Fava was at the 2005 meeting with the imam as his attorney and on Monday will take the stand to refute the U.S. officials’ account of what Qatanani said.

 "This is a respected attorney and former prosecutor," Assaf said. "This is the only way we can rectify the record about what was really said. What the U.S. government claims the imam said is a total lie."

 In hearings last month, expert witnesses testifying for Qatanani described the Israeli court system in the 1990s as one that routinely trampled over the rights of Palestinians and arbitrarily arrested and detained them.

The experts, who included scholars, lawyers and an official with Human Rights Watch, said that Israelis would not have held Qatanani for only three months if they had believed he had ties to Hamas.

The deportation trial is being closely watched by Muslims and non-Muslims alike across the state.

Qatanani is widely respected among many of the state’s political and religious leaders of various faiths as a devoted proponent of peace and for bringing different groups together.

His mosque has hosted interfaith gatherings that have featured Gov. Jon Corzine and Rep. Bill Pascrell, among other political leaders. He was the first Muslim leader to officiate at the opening of the New Jersey General Assembly. Many often praise him as one of the first imams in the nation to denounce the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and terrorism. After the attacks, he provided space in the mosque to FBI officials, who set up tables to recruit Arabic speakers.

In Immigration Court, prosecutors for the government have tried to chip away at Qatanani’s reputation as moderate and replace it with the portrait of a man with a dark, lesser-known past.

Many Muslim leaders view the deportation effort against Qatanani as evidence that even the champions of moderation in their community cannot shake the labels of extremism and terrorism.

"This is religious lynching," Assaf said.

Still, many Qatanani supporters say they’re feeling cautiously optimistic.

They believe that on the stand, Qatanani will project the qualities that have made him beloved among so many across the state.

"I’m hopeful and almost confident that once the judge hears him he’ll allow him to stay here," said Hesham Mahmoud, who lives in Rutherford. "I think the judge will see the decent human being who does nothing but spread the message of love and unity. The imam is a very humble person."

Technically, the decision before Immigration Court Judge Alberto Riefkohl is whether to approve Qatanani’s new application for U.S. residency for himself and, by extension, his wife and three of his six children. The other three children were born in the United States.

The judge is expected to issue a written decision. That could take weeks, or even months, said the imam’s attorney, Claudia Slovinsky of Manhattan.

"This case is more than about just one person," Assaf said. "This case has far-reaching political implications. It puts Israel on the stand, and what not just one person endured under them, but what hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have endured under the Israelis."

E-mail: llorente@northjersey.com