"I'm not charged with anything and I have talked with the FBI but I will not be able to support my family until I can clear my name," Muhammad said. (Manchester Online)

Manchester, August 19, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – A US imam who was wrongly accused of terror charges is desperately trying to have his name taken off an FBI terror list to be able to get his job back.

Imam Ramee Muhammad, a US citizen who lived in Manchester, was accused of being associated with extremist preachers, the Manchester Online reported Thursday, August 18.

He left the British city last year after being threatened with deportation, it added.

The 41-year-old Muslim preacher came to Britain in 2001 with his wife and children to teach in mosques and Islamic institutes.

After the September 11 attacks on the Unites States, he claimed asylum, arguing he would face prejudice if he returned to his homeland, the Web site said.

But since returning to his native Chicago, the former US Marine has been interviewed by FBI investigators and placed on a list of people suspected of having “terrorist links.”

The FBI also prevented him from returning to his old job as a prison officer and banned him from leaving the United States.

Speaking to the Manchester Evening News, Muhammad denied any extremist links.

"I'm not allowed to work until I'm taken off this list. I've committed no crimes and I have no criminal record. I have never talked to people about terrorism,” he told the paper.

"I'm not charged with anything and I have talked with the FBI but I will not be able to support my family until I can clear my name."

He added that he was to appear at Chicago Federal Court where he sought to overturn his status as a potential terrorist.

Muhammad spent nearly three years at a flat in Cheetham Hill and preached across the country.

One of the mosques he spoke at was in Finsbury Park, London, where he worked with controversial scholar Abu Hamza, the Manchester Online said.

A Sunday newspaper claimed, in April last year, that he had taught shoe bomber Richard Reid.

Days after the article was published, Muhammad was arrested and held at the Harmsworth detention center for two weeks.

Despite being freed after a deportation hearing, he soon left the country with his family.

He said Reid attended only one lecture he gave at Finsbury Park mosque and denied he promoted any radical views.

After returning to the United States, Muhammad has been receiving aid from a charity.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said that the FBI ruling has left Muhammad in a legal limbo.

Philip O'Bannon, president of the organization’s Chicago branch, said: "He is banned from returning to his old job and if he went for a new job then he would have to reveal why he lost his last one.

"He has not been charged with anything. There is no problem with the FBI being suspicious of people but there needs to be proof if people are going to be banned from work and travel indefinitely."

The case of Imam Muhammad has many precedents though.

Earlier, the United States administration lifted a visa ban on an internationally renowned British Muslim scholar Zaki Badawi and apologized to him for the inconvenience, allowing him to visit the country anytime.

Prominent British Muslim preacher Yusuf Islam, previously pop star Cat Stevens, was also denied entry to the United States in September of last year.

Famous Swiss-Egyptian scholar Tariq Ramadan, one of the most respected philosophers of conflict and religion, was barred in August of last year from entering the United States to take a post at the renowned Notre Dame University, although he has now been told he can reapply for a visa.

Some 35 percent to 40 percent of US Muslims are African Americans, 25 percent are South Asians and 15 percent are Arabs, according to the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC).

The exact number of Muslims living in the States has been a matter of dispute, since the US Census Bureau does not sort people by religion.

However, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) puts the number at seven million.

The minority came under scrutiny as never before after the September 11 attacks in 2001.

A May 2004 report released by the US Senate Office Of Research concluded that Arab Americans and the Muslim minority have taken the brunt of the Patriot Act and other federal powers applied in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.

Amnesty International said that racial profiling by US law enforcement agencies had grown over the past years to cover one in nine Americans, mostly targeting Muslims.