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Imam accused of lying about terrorist ties
The prominent Muslim cleric arrested last week on charges of lying about his ties to terrorist organizations has built a reputation as one of Clevelandâs most respected religious leaders. But authorities allege that Fawaz Damra, imam of Ohioâs largest mosque, did not mention his connection to "terrorist organizations that advocated the persecution of Jews and others by means of violent terrorist attacks" when he applied for U.S. citizenship in the early 1990s. "Heâs charged with providing the INS with false information," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Ron Bakeman. "Itâs not a frequently used charge, because the situation does not arise very often." Damra is accused of not disclosing his ties to the Alkifah Refugee Center, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and its offshoot, the Islamic Committee for Palestine. Damra, born in what are now the occupied Palestinian territories, co-founded the Alkifah Refugee Center in Brooklyn, which sought recruits to help fight the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. The facility later became linked to Osama bin Laden, founder of the al Qaeda terrorist network. Sheik Omar Abdul Rahman took over the center and an affiliated mosque and was subsequently convicted and imprisoned in connection with the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Damra, 41, was secretly indicted in December, but the charges were not unsealed until last Tuesday, when he was arrested and appeared in court. He pleaded not guilty and was released on $160,000 bail. If convicted, he could serve up to five years in prison and lose his citizenship. His trial is scheduled for February. His attorney, Joseph McGinness, said the charges are part of a misguided government effort â at the expense of innocents â to show that it is making headway in the war on terrorism. "Heâs been very open about his past," McGinness said. "Heâs done a great deal to bridge the gap between various religions. You couldnât meet a nicer man." Law enforcement officials say Damra also has had ties for years to Sami al-Arian, a former computer sciences professor in Florida who was indicted 11 months ago on charges of conspiracy to commit murder through suicide attacks on Jews in Israel and the Palestinian territories. The indictment said Arian has for years been a top leader of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which has been designated by the U.S. government as a terrorist group. Arian denies the charges. Officials say a person identified in the Arian indictment as "unindicted co-conspirator one" is Damra. The indictment said that at a Cleveland gathering in 1991, the unindicted co-conspirator introduced Arian and urged listeners to contribute funds to Arianâs Tampa-based group, which authorities said was a front for Palestinian Islamic Jihad. All the remarks in the indictment attributed to the unindicted co-conspirator were made by Damra at the rally, terrorism experts said. Interesting if true because it points to a link between the PIJ and al-Qaeda (through Iran?), which is something that we havenât heard about before. The two were already joined by mentality, but this would represent evidence of a more formal cooperation between the two. At the gathering, the unindicted co-conspirator said Arianâs group was Palestinian Islamic Jihadâs active arm in the United States, and he instructed his audience to turn off tape recorders because the discussion would be too sensitive to be taped, according to congressional testimony. Damra became well known locally for more than a decade spent building bridges between the Islamic Center of Cleveland and Christians and Jews. But the sincerity of his efforts was questioned soon after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, when a television station ran a decade-old video of him discussing "directing all rifles at the first and last enemy of the Islamic nation and this is the sons of monkeys and pigs, the Jews." Damra later apologized. Posted by: Dan Darling 2004-01-19 |
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