FREE IMAM KADIR GUNDUZ

Kadir Gunduz, a Pittsburgher in peril

Tuesday, December 18, 2007
By Tony Norman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

 In keeping with the spirit of the holiday, U.S. Immigration and
 Customs Enforcement has been busy rounding up the usual suspects.

 Last week, Kadir Gunduz of Beechview was arrested for being in
 technical violation of a visa he was issued in 1988. He'll face an
 immigration judge tomorrow in York, Pa. The life he's lived for 19
 years is at stake.

 Kadir Gunduz and his wife, Saime, could be deported if the judge is a
 law-and-order type with little patience for fairness or extenuating
 circumstances in a xenophobic era.

 The 48-year-old imam of the Islamic Center of Pittsburgh really should
 have seen it coming. Nineteen years after immigrating from Turkey, a
 country where minarets outnumber church steeples by an ungodly number,
 Kadir Gunduz has only managed a foreigner's version of American
 respectability.

 As part of an elaborate scheme to be perceived as a regular guy in a
 nation of regular guys, Kadir Gunduz enrolled at the University of
 Pittsburgh on a student visa. Because his American-born son had a host
 of medical problems, Kadir Gunduz was granted a hardship waiver that
 allowed him to stay when his visa expired in 1990.

 Kadir and Saime provided a good life for their handicapped son and two
 other children born later that decade. The Gunduzs were never a burden
 on the country they hoped would one day embrace them as citizens.

 Eventually, Kadir Gunduz became an imam at the Islamic Center of
 Pittsburgh, located in Oakland. This was very much in keeping with his
 family's relentless march toward middle-class respectability.

 Seven years ago, the Islamic Center filed a request to have Imam
 Gunduz recognized as a religious worker.

 In 2002, Imam Gunduz's change in status was approved -- by the same
 agency that arrested him last week.

 In his overflowing enthusiasm for the American Dream, Imam Gunduz
 applied for a green card that would have granted him and Saime
 permanent residency. Once granted, they would no longer have to fear
 being separated from their kids by bureaucratic fiat.

 Unfortunately, America grew suspicious of foreigners after Sept. 11,
 2001. A new mood was afoot in the land.

 Imam Gunduz's green card application, which would have been routine
 before Islam became shorthand for "terrorism," languished in green
 card hell while his authorization to work in this country expired.

 Imam Gunduz initiated a series of legal moves, but nothing came of
 them. This year, his status as a religious worker was revoked after
 being temporarily reinstated and his green card application denied.

 Imam Gunduz is now in the custody of York County Prison, where he
 continues to pray five times a day.

 Tomorrow, Imam Gunduz will find out if God is listening to his
 prayers. He'll know soon enough if he and Saime will have to make the
 painful decision to uproot their children from the only country they
 have ever known.

 Tomorrow, wheelchair-bound Tarek, 16, and his siblings, 13 and 10,
 will learn if they will be forced to leave their friends and community
 behind. Will they have to lay down their identities as Americans to
 remain an intact family?

 For 16 days, Imam Gunduz has already experienced the implacable face
 of American justice.

 Despite having never committed a crime or engaged in behavior
 unbecoming of a Muslim clergyman, he has been subject to the
 indignities of prison life.

 Assuming Imam Gunduz is the same person who came to Pittsburgh 19
 years ago, what has changed so drastically to make him a threat to the
 country he wants desperately to adopt him?

 The answer is painfully evident -- Sept. 11, 2001, has changed
 everything. Muslims, regardless of where they come from or where they
 were born are assumed to be carriers of a religious contagion that
 could destroy America.

 What is happening in York is all the more galling because no one has
 levelled charges of sedition or subversive activity against Imam
 Gunduz. Still, the clergyman and his wife could be deported on the
 basis of the most banal of technicalities.

 Too bad they didn't have enough foresight to come to this country as
 Cuban refugees. Too bad he faces Mecca when he prays instead of
 bending his knee to the cross.

 It is such an outrageous situation that a group of clergy -- Jews,
 Catholics and Protestants -- have written letters of support for Imam
 Gunduz.

 Tomorrow, Imam Gunduz will learn whether being a Turkish-born Muslim
 puts him beyond the reach of American empathy and fair play.

********************************************************************

I happen to have a personal connection to this case.
When I was practicing law in Pittsburgh in the 1990's,
I applied on Kadir's behalf for the hardship waiver
that he was granted, and I also applied on the Islamic
Center of Pittsburgh's behalf for the Religious Worker
visa that Kadir was granted. When I left Pittsburgh in
July 2001 to pursue a PhD in Religious Studies, I felt
confident about Kadir's prospects in the U.S ...
I have been in touch with Kadir's current legal counsel
and apprised of the status of his case. All I can say at
this point is that Muslims and non-Muslims who have been
touched by Kadir's faith, good humor, wisdom, love,
kindness, strength, and decency need to join hands
and make as much noise as possible about his case.

Under the Bush regime, the US government has increasingly
operated with veils of secrecy. They depend on them--
and on lies and violence--to get their way.

People of conscience need to stand together in this case
and expose the injustice that is even now unfolding.
Faith in the government is a faith misplaced.
Our help is in God alone.