US Judge Overrules Negative Decision of Citizenship by USCIS

United States (US) federal District Judge James Cacheris recently overruled the refusal orders of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) in case of a Virginian Muslim.

The Muslim, named Abusamhadane, was allowed by the Court to take the oath of naturalization in the United States, administered by Judge James Cacheris himself.

The USCIS had accused Abusamhadane  of being affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood and a prominent Virginia mosque, which has been the center of the agency’s attention for some time.

Judge Cacheris issued a 90 page ruling that challenged the decision of the USCIS and gave Abusamhadane  right to naturalization. The judge said that the agency made immature and baseless presumptions regarding the activities of the Abusamhadane  due to his Muslim faith. The judge also said that the basis of the agency’s decisions were mostly unfounded and exaggerated.

Judge Cacheris also commended the good character of Abusamhadane and said that his good moral character comes up to the requirements for naturalization. Cacheris said that the accusations that Abusamhadane is linked with the Muslim brotherhood are also pointless. “Mr. Abusamhadane  credibly testified that he is not, and never has been, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood,” he said. “Not here and not in Jordan. Nor has he ever been associated with the Muslim Brotherhood in any formal way.”

After the Accusations by the USCIS, Abusamhadane  had clarified that he only went to the mosque in Virginia to pray and was not a member of the Mosque’s community.

The agency had argued that his affiliation with mosque was questionable as a former Imam of the mosque had left the US and gone to Yemen to become a part of Al-Qaeda. On the point of his affiliation with the Muslim Brotherhood, the USCIS said that they had reasonable evidence of this from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

The report of the FBI that linked Abusamhadane  with the Muslim Brotherhood contained a confession of one Abdurahman Almoudi. Almoudi was Abusamhadane’s Boss at the American Muslim Council, and had confessed that he believes that the mosque, Dar al-Hijrah, was linked with the Muslim brotherhood and the American Muslim council was the Brotherhood’s US branch.

The report said that Almoudi accused Abusamhadane to be linked with the Brotherhood. But Almoudi, who is currently serving time in prison for participating in a plot to assassinate Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah, said that the report was not accurate about his testimony about Abusamhadaneh.

On the basis of these circumstances, the Judge had decided against the rejection of the USCIS, to which Abusamhadane and his lawyers were full of appreciation for the Judge.

His lawyers, Denyse Sabagh and Thomas Ragland, said that such decisions will prove very positive for the Muslims living in the United States as they will now trust the system to make the right choice and not be biased.

“There are a lot of misconceptions out there about what it means to be a Muslim in America,” Raglans said. “Mentions of Muslim Brotherhood are equivalent to throwing a Molotov cocktail verbally.”

Both the lawyers said that they hope to see the Department of Homeland Security and the USCIS alter their respective attitudes towards Muslims and Arabs, and adopt a more professional but understanding approach.

Tags: Abdurahman Almoudi, Abusamhadane, Al-Qaeda, American Muslim council, Dar al-Hijrah, Denyse Sabagh, Department of Homeland Security, Federal Bureau of Investigation, James Cacheris, Muslim Brotherhood, Thomas Ragland, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services