The Islamic Center of Cleveland, located in Parma, a suburb just south of Cleveland, is the largest mosque in Ohio. More than 200 people assembled at the community center of the mosque on January 16 where a diverse panel of Christian and Muslim leaders and other activists spoke in support of Damra. Several Christian clergy and congregation members expressed their indignation at the arrest and spoke about the imam’s work to bring people of different faiths together. Yoshiko Ikuta, a member of the Greater Cleveland Immigrant Support Network, compared the attack on immigrants today to the treatment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. “We … were incarcerated because we have Japanese names.” She urged the media “to refrain from further inflammatory comments … [and] honor the precept of presumed innocence.”

The Ohio chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations issued a statement: “CAIR-Ohio is concerned about the perception in the Muslim community that Imam Damra has been singled out for prosecution on a ten-year-old charge because of his political views on the Middle East conflict. Many Muslims believe this case fits a pattern in which Islamic community leaders are targeted using less-than-solid evidence or tenuous reasoning.”

Damra was the last speaker. “I continue to condemn terrorism and exercise my constitutional rights of free speech and political dissent, especially on the issue of Palestinian rights,” he said. In reference to the big-business media’s constant mentioning of an incident that took place over a decade ago in which he made anti-Semitic remarks, Damra said “I have made amends for past indiscretions of speech, but, nonetheless, they remain protected speech under the First Amendment.”

“I will continue in my personal goal to bridge gaps of communication and bring people together,” he continued. “In these difficult times we must not allow fear and hate to deprive us of our collective civil rights.” Damra received a standing ovation from the audience.

Damra was secretly indicted based on confidential documents by a federal grand jury in December for “lies by omission” on immigration forms in 1993 and 1994. The indictment accuses him of failing to disclose his affiliation with the Alkifah Refugee Center and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and for failing to disclose a 1989 arrest for assault, a charge that was dismissed.

These organizations were legal at the time he applied for citizenship. In 1997, using the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act passed the previous year, U.S. officials labeled Palestinian Islamic Jihad as one of several “foreign terrorist organizations” barring “material support” to them. The Alkifah Refugee Center, an organization that recruited volunteers to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan, was supported by the U.S. government.

His alleged connection with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad is based on his association with Sami Al-Arian, a professor and Palestinian activist in Tampa, who was arrested Feb. 20, 2003, on conspiracy charges. Al-Arian is accused of being the North American leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and responsible for its finances. He remains a political prisoner, held under draconian conditions in the “Special Housing Unit” in Coleman Federal Prison Complex, 70 miles north of Tampa. His trial is set to begin in January 2005, nearly two years after his arrest.

In a show of force, the mayor of Parma sent over a dozen police officers inside the mosque—with a SWAT team and an armored vehicle waiting outside—during service on Friday, January 23, the day Damra returned to the pulpit after a three-day leave.  
 
 
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