Deported Cleveland Islamic Leader Arrested in Israel
Charles Johnson
Tue Jan 9, 2007 at 8:55 am PST • Views: 295
Israeli security says deported Muslim leader arrested in West Bank.
DETROIT — The former imam of Ohio’s largest mosque, who was deported to his native West Bank last week, was arrested by Israeli authorities after crossing from Jordan, his brother says. Israeli authorities confirmed Tuesday that he was in custody.
Fawaz Damra, 46, had been jailed in Monroe County, Mich., for a year while awaiting deportation for concealing his aid to Islamic Jihad — classified by the U.S. as a terrorist group — when he applied for U.S. citizenship in 1994. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced his removal Friday.
His brother, Nabil Damra, said the Red Cross and the Center for the Defense of the Individual, an Israeli advocacy group for Palestinians in Israeli-occupied territories, told him that Fawaz Damra was in custody and had been taken to Israel’s Al Jalameh detention facility in Israel, near Jenin, West Bank.
The Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service, confirmed his arrest Tuesday. …
Nabil Damra, speaking through a translator by phone from the West Bank, said: “He was arrested the moment he arrived to the border.” A lawyer had been hired for his brother, he said.
“Our biggest fear is that he might stand trial in Israel,” said Don Bryant, Damra’s friend and president of the Greater Cleveland Immigrant Support Network. “This is a nightmare for him.”
I can’t imagine why. All he did was lie about his fund-raising efforts for genocidal terrorist groups, and spew antisemitic hate speech when he thought no one was watching.
Frank says: