The president of Wisconsin’s largest mosque was detained by US federal immigration agents, with authorities saying he was suspected of funding terror groups.
Salah Sarsour,
…in the Rantburg archives he is listed as a Hamasnik with connections to Muslim activists and Palestinian-American politicians, President Erdogan of Turkey, and of course back home, so this should be an easy home run for the Justice Department…
a Paleostinian-born legal permanent resident of the United States, was taken into custody by nearly a dozen US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents who surrounded his car on Monday in Milwaukee after he left his home, according to the Islamic Society of Milwaukee.Supporters called for his immediate release on Thursday. His attorneys said he was detained because he is a foreign policy threat, a claim they argue has no merit.
Instead, they assert Sarsour, 53, was targeted for criticizing Israel and for a conviction as a minor by Israeli military courts in the West Bank, including for throwing rocks at Israeli officers.
"Our government should not be doing the bidding of a foreign government," attorney Munjed Ahmad charged. "There’s no question in my mind that this is to stifle the discourse on the Paleostinian narrative."
Attorneys said Sarsour, born in the West Bank, has no criminal record in the US, where he has lived for more than 30 years. They said the US government has known about Sarsour’s conviction in Israel since he came to the US in 1993.
The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), of which ICE is a part, confirmed his arrest and accused Sarsour of lying on his immigration forms and alleged that he was "suspected of funding terror organizations."
Noting his past conviction, DHS said he was previously "convicted for throwing Molotov cocktails at the homes of Israeli armed forces."
Sarsour’s attorneys have likened the case to that of Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia University graduate student activist who faces deportation because the federal government said he was a foreign policy threat and supports the Hamas
..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...terror group.
Sarsour has been the board president of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee, the largest Islamic organization in the US state, for five years. His attorneys say he holds a green card and lives just outside Milwaukee. His wife and four adult children are US citizens.
At a crowded news conference, boisterous supporters chanted for Sarsour’s release, recounting his advocacy for those in need. Several recalled Sarsour’s stories about his childhood, including allegations of inhumane treatment while being detained by Israel.
"He was targeted because of one thing, because he dared stand up to the Israeli army," Othman Atta, one of Sarsour’s attorneys, told the crowd. "And he was not a US citizen."
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel cited Atta, also the executive director of the mosque, as saying that deportation documents focused on Sarsour’s arrest as a teenager living in the West Bank to argue he provided material support for Death Eaters. Atta denied that Sarsour supported Hamas.
A diverse group of religious leaders in attendance called Sarsour a valuable community member.
"This appears to be just the latest example of how this administration seeks to silence opposition and intimidate those who speak and act differently," said the Rev. Paul D. Erickson, bishop of the Greater Milwaukee Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
Sarsour’s arrest also prompted outcry from elected officials, including Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson, who called it "an outrage."
"He is a legal permanent resident. There is no substantive evidence he has done anything wrong," Johnson said Thursday in a post on X. "This is another example of overreach and harm from the US immigration authorities."
Sarsour is being held at a county jail in Indiana. His attorneys have filed a petition seeking his release.
"He is ready to fight tooth and nail to make sure that he’s not dragged through the mud," Ahmad said. "He wants to stay in this country."
| Reuters adds: |
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel cited Othman Atta, the executive director of the mosque, as saying that deportation documents focused on Sarsour's arrest by Israeli authorities as a teenager living in the West Bank to argue he provided material support for extremists.
Atta said Sarsour was convicted as a teenager in an Israeli military court, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Though Israel has ratified the U.N. convention against torture, Israeli rights group B'Tselem says military courts in the West Bank, where Palestinians are tried for alleged crimes, have a 96 percent conviction rate and a history of extracting confessions through torture.
Atta denied that Sarsour supported the militant group Hamas.
Sarsour is "being targeted on the basis of his Palestinian and Muslim background, and his advocacy for Palestinian rights," the mosque said.
The Department of Homeland Security, of which ICE is a part, confirmed his arrest and accused Sarsour of lying on his immigration forms and alleged that he was "suspected of funding terror organizations."
DHS said he came to the U.S. in 1993. Noting his past conviction, it said he was previously "convicted for throwing Molotov cocktails at the homes of Israeli armed forces."
| That goes well beyond merely throwing rocks… |
Trump has particularly cracked down on pro-Palestinian voices by attempting to deport foreign protesters, threatening funding freeze for universities where protests were held and ordering screening of immigrants' online comments.
| More from the Wisconsin Examiner: |
Atta said 12 vehicles were involved in the arrest, and Sarsour was loaded into a van before being told he was being taken by federal immigration officers.
Atta said that the story was relayed to Sarsour’s attorney Munjed Ahmad during a phone call in which Sarsour declared that he was a lion and willing to fight. Sarsour was transported to the Broadview Detention Center in Illinois before being quickly transferred to another facility in Indiana, Atta said.
He described Sarsour as a husband, father, grandfather, and a successful business owner who has no criminal record or convictions.
When he was a teenager, Sarsour was arrested and detained by the Israeli police. “He served two years,” said Atta. “Many of you who know him know that his passion for Palestine, his passion for justice, was based on the experience he had and that his family and friends had. He would talk to us many times how for 80 straight days, he was interrogated, and brutalized, and tortured while he was in Israeli military custody.”
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a statement Thursday that Sarsour was convicted of throwing Molotov cocktails at the homes of Israeli armed forces.” In the statement, which repeatedly called Sarsour a “terrorist” and an “illegal alien from Jordan,” DHS charged that he “lied” on his green card application to enter the country in 1993 during the Clinton administration, and that his first attempts to apply for an immigrant visa at the American consulate in Jerusalem were rebuffed because of those allegations and others of “illegally attempting to possess” weapons and ammunition.
Atta and Sarsour’s supportive community urged onlookers Thursday not to forget the reports about Israel’s treatment of Palestinians.
Atta said that Sarsour was again detained by the Israeli government after returning in 1995, which is where the weapons allegations came from, and that the written charges were in Hebrew, “which he doesn’t read or understand.”
The crowd that assembled to support Sarsour and his family included many Muslim residents, local activists, and elected officials, with Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley and Mayor Cavalier Johnson in the front row, and further back, Alds. JoCasta Zamarripa watched Alex Brower. Christine Neumann-Oriz, executive director of Voces de la Frontera, was in the audience, and speakers from Jewish Voices For Peace joined Muslim and Christian faith leaders in denouncing Sarsour’s detention and calling for his release.
| Politician supporters: |
Rep. Gwen Moore
Rep. Ryan Clancy (D-Milwaukee)
Statements supporting Sarsour were also put out by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the Mandela Barnes for governor campaign, and the Milwaukee Area Labor Council Immigrant Rights Committee.
Ahmad said that he’s “shocked” at how many communications he’s received from attorneys around the country on Sarsour’s case. “We have assembled a very capable legal team, that legal team continues to grow,” said Ahmad, declaring that they will work to free Sarsour. A hearing is scheduled on April 18.
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Salah Sarsour 10/29/2023 Rashida Tlaib's alleged links to the Hamas terror organization - report
Salah Sarsour 01/22/2017 Women’s March Organizer Recently Met Ex-Hamas Operative, Has Family Ties To Terror Group