Rally Supports Muslim Man Who Was Arrested by FBI

Muslims held a protest outside the federal building in Santa Ana on Wednesday, a day after an Orange County man who once worked for an Islamic charity accused of funneling millions to the Palestinian group Hamas was detained on an alleged immigration violation.

Abdel-Jabbar Hamdan, 44, was arrested at his Buena Park home Tuesday by FBI and immigration agents. Hamdan was detained the same day seven members of the Texas-based Holy Land Foundation were indicted on charges they aided Hamas, which the U.S. government has called a terrorist organization.

Hamdan, a Muslim born in a Palestinian refugee camp in the Middle East, who once worked as a paid fundraiser for the foundation, was not named in the indictment. His lawyer thinks the government is pressuring Hamdan to testify against the charity, which allegedly aided the families of suicide bombers and Hamas-dominated schools and hospitals.

“Unfortunately, I think his immigration status is being used in an attempt to force him to provide information that he doesn’t have,” said his attorney Ban Al-Wardi. “He has been in this country for 24 years, he’s never been convicted of a crime, never been arrested.”

Al-Wardi said Hamdan has met in the past with federal authorities investigating the Holy Land Foundation, including a six-hour interview two years ago in Dallas. The foundation’s funds were frozen after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks by President Bush, who accused the group of being a terrorist front.

Hamdan, now a paid fundraiser for another Islamic charity, Life for Relief and Development, is living in the United States under a work permit, which Al-Wardi said was renewed recently. She added that Hamdan has applied for amnesty based on his length of residence, and that his six children were born in the United States.

But Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said that while Hamdan entered the country legally, he is now in violation of immigration law. She wouldn’t elaborate.

“We don’t want to get into a specific discussion about how he arrived and how he has stayed,” she said.

On Wednesday, about 20 supporters held “Free Hamdan” signs outside the Ronald Reagan Federal Building, where Hamdan is being held without bail. Organizers said they hope to have 500 protesters at the same location Friday.

Supporters say Hamdan is a peaceful man who sought community understanding of the Muslim faith.

“He’s very beloved, a hard-working, honest and good-hearted person,” said Sabiha Khan of the Anaheim office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. “I just hope that he was afforded his due process right.”

Added Bassam Mahdawi, secretary of the West Coast Islamic Society and the owner of a weekly Arabic newspaper: “He’s well known in the community. There are no charges, this is all politics.”

Al-Wardi said Hamdan suffers from diabetes and high blood pressure, and has not slept since he was detained.

“He’s very tired, very weak and exhausted,” Al-Wardi said.

Hamdan’s wife, Entesar, said she was stunned when FBI agents knocked on her door at 4:45 a.m. Tuesday. Eight or nine agents searched room to room for her husband. Her 10-year-old son was so frightened by the sight of three agents entering his room that the boy was taken to a friend’s house to be consoled, she said.

“This is the full destruction of my kids’ future,” she said. “Now what am I going to do after this?”

She maintained her husband’s innocence, calling him “a loyal man and American citizen.... We have not harmed or hurt anyone, not even by words. If he had a parking ticket, he would pay for it.”

Entesar Hamdan added she was dismayed by the manner in which FBI agents handled the arrest.

“I asked them, ‘If this is the way you treat innocent citizens, how are you going to treat criminals?’ ” she said.