NJ Imam Sues FBI Over Deportation Papers

NorthJersey.com reports that Imam Mohammad Qatanani of the Islamic Center of Passaic County, an Islamist familiar to RadicalIslam.org readers (click here and here), is suing the FBI and the Customs and Border Protection Agency for declining to release records about him that could influence the outcome of the Department of Homeland Security’s fight to deport him. His hearing is on November 26.

Qatanani’s lawyer said they filed the Freedom of Information Act request in January and that the government is in "flagrant violation” for not providing any documents. His lawyer, Claudia Slovinsky, said, "This is the kind of person we want here. He is an extraordinarily moderate, popular, civic-minded Muslim leader with his roots in interfaith and living in a civil, multi-religious society.”

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) began pursuing the case in July 2006. It is largely based on the fact that he did not disclose that he was convicted by the Israelis in 1993 of being a member of Hamas when he applied for his green card. The DHS’s greater concern is about his overall affiliations with Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood. He denies that he was convicted and that he was ever a member of the terrorist group.
Qatanani argues that he was never convicted by the Israelis and struck a plea bargain after being detained for three months in 1993. He admits to having been a member of the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood but says he left it in 1991 because he got too busy. He came to the U.S. to lead the Islamic Center of Passaic County alongside Mohammed el-Mezain, who also founded it in 1989. El-Mezain was later sentenced to 15 years in prison for fundraising for Hamas. As we’ve documented here, the mosque has extensive ties to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood. (...)