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FBI detains doctor on Tablighi Jamaat ties
 An Arizona doctor and Muslim cleric who returned after performing Haj were taken into custody on arrival by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), suspecting them of having links with the Tableeghi Jamaat.According to a report published on Thursday by the Arizona Republic newspaper, Nadeem Hassan, 41, called his father Zaheer Hasnain from Kennedy International Airport in New York, saying that he was in the custody of immigration officials. A few days earlier, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services had revoked Dr Hassan’s right to work and travel inside the country based primarily on his ties to Tableeghi Jamaat, which the Department of Homeland Security has identified as a terrorist organisation. Dr Hassan, a gastroenterologist at Maricopa Medical Centre and former chief executive at the Masjid el-Noor Mosque in Mesa, has worked for many years as a coordinator with Jamaat al Tabligh (JT). The group has not been designated a terrorist organisation by the government. However, reports the newspaper, in paperwork rejecting Dr Hassan’s application for a green card, Homeland Security described JT as “a terrorist organisation (that)... provides material support... to members of a designated terrorist organisation – Al Qaeda – and provides the same types of material support... to an undesignated terrorist organisation - the Taliban”. Dr Hassan was informed in writing: “You are found to have engaged in terrorist activity by providing material support to an undesignated terrorist organisation.” Homeland Security and FBI representatives declined on Wednesday to discuss Dr Hassan’s case. The doctor’s father protested that his son is not a terrorist and JT “has nothing to do with the Taliban or Al Qaeda. It is a totally god-fearing organisation”. According to Arizona Republic daily, Dr Hassan’s Phoenix immigration lawyer, Eric Bjotvedt, said that he had obtained “advance parole” papers approving his travel from the US for Haj, while the green-card application was pending. However, while Dr Hassan was still overseas, the Citizenship and Immigration Services rejected his permanent residency permit. Because the doctor was outside the country, his lawyer said, he had lost many legal rights afforded to immigrants who are inside the United States. A report obtained by the newspaper says that Hassan provided false information on application forms and failed to acknowledge his role with JT. The agency’s findings are supported by an affidavit from a Phoenix FBI agent, who wrote: “The JT has been tied to several recent high-profile terrorism cases. John Walker Lindh travelled to Pakistan with Tablighi missionaries after converting to Islam. Once in Pakistan, he signed up for a military training camp and fought for the Taliban.” It is interesting that the FBI affidavit at no point directly identifies JT as a terrorist group, but says that the movement “is vulnerable to being used by Islamic extremists as a cover to recruit members to engage in acts of terrorism against the United States”. Because of that, the agent concluded, “the FBI is unable to rule out the possibility that Hassan poses a threat to national security”. The Arizona newspaper said that Al Gallmann, acting district director in Phoenix for the Centre for Immigration Studies, named JT as a terrorist organisation and branded Dr Hassan as a supporter. Gallmann said that Dr Hassan had failed to disclose former leadership positions with Momin Education and Cultural Services of Arizona and East Valley Masjid Inc. Posted by: Dan Darling 2006-01-21 |
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