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Prominent
U.S.-Muslim Activist Detained
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Amoudi
was arrested on “his way back from London”
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By
Mustafa Abdel-Halim, IOL Staff
CAIRO,
September 29 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The U.S.
federal authorities detained a prominent Islamic leader overnight, his
lawyer told IslamOnline.net Monday, September 29.
“Abdul
Rahman al-Amoudi was detained in a Virginia airport apparently on his
way back from London,” said Ashraf Nobani told IslamOnline.net on
the telephone.
Nobani
said that indictment against his client “was sealed, and it is
premature to make any judgment” as to the detention.
The
lawyer dismissed as baseless press reports that Amoudi had been
earlier arrested before. He gave no further details.
Khaled
Toorani of the American Islamic organization for Jerusalem said that
the U.S. federal police carried out a raid on Amoudi’s house and
office in the Fall Church suburb in Washington.
Toorani
declined to say whether any things were recovered from the two places.
“This
is a general case of targeting Muslim activists in the united States
using alleged secret evidence, something that pulled back the country
to the stage of political detention that had occurred some 50 years
ago,” he said, adding that Amoudi is one of the leaders of the
Islamic community in America.
He
declined to blame the arrest of Amoudi, a member of the American
Islamic Council and one of its creators, on his views opposing the
administration of U.S. President George W. Bush.
Ibrahim
Hooper, the director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations
(CAIR) quoted police sources as confirming the detention, with no
elaboration.
Amoudi
- an American citizen of Yemeni origin - had earlier worked as a
representative of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and a
vice director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, and
with the Muslim Student Association (MSA).
Reuters
quoted Muslim activists as describing Amoudi as one of the founders of
a group called the American Muslim Armed forces and Veteran Affairs
Council which the Defense Department uses to certify Muslim
chaplains for military duty.
The
detention as press reports claim that the U.S. reviews the chaplain
program overseeing the approximately 12 Islamic imams in the U.S.
military following the arrest of a Muslim chaplain on
suspicion of spying at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detention
facility, although "no formal charges, either criminal or
civil” had been leveled against him.
Afterwards,
two senators called for a full investigation of terrorists' attempts
to recruit members of the U.S. Armed Forces, raising concerns of
Muslim-American groups that the investigation may become provoke
ill-feeling among the Muslim community.
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