The Muslim News

London, The Muslim News:

US Imam Ramee Abdul Rahman Muhammad was detained on Friday at Harmondsworth Detention Centre to fast track his asylum application. He told The Muslim News that he was expecting to be deported this week.

Imam Muhammad, from Chicago, claims his imminent deportation is due to an article that appeared in the Sunday Express which claimed that he “taught the sermons of hate to suicide bombers” (April 18). He claims that the allegations are not true and that he has written to the Press Complaints Commission.

The Imam, who came to the UK in 2001, said: “I never taught about hate and I never said I wanted an Islamic state in Britain. Islam wants peace.” He has been coming to the UK since 1996 to lecture to schools, Islamic centres and mosques. Since 2001, he has not returned to the US and applied for asylum in January. He says he and his pregnant wife and their eight children’s passports and other documents have been mislaid by the Home Office and it was only after the article appeared in the Sunday paper that the Home Office has detained him and wants to deport him. The Express ran the article under the headline: “Maddest asylum plea yet – he taught the shoe-bomber, he’s a friend of Hook, he’s living here off our taxes – and he is American.”

The Imam acknowledges that he lectured at the Finsbury Park Mosque and the two British Muslims involved in suicide bombings in Israel – Asif Hanif and Omar Sharif (who was found drowned) - and the ‘shoe bomber’ Richard Reid attended his lectures.
When Imam Muhammad attended the immigration appointment on Friday, he was detained and taken to Harmondsworth.

The Home Office told The Muslim News that they did not comment on individual cases.

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