Imam's detention unites Muslims
By LINDSAY WISE
Houston Chronicle (March 6, 2009)

Mounira Belhacel-Bouchikhi watches as her children, from left, El-Faroq
Bouchikhi, 9, Ilies, 12, Bushra, 7 and Shareefah, 18 months, have some
fun during an interview about her husband Sheikh Zoubir Bouchikhi. She
visits her husband weekly at a detention center where he leads prayers.

Photo gallery Detained imam's wife and children hope for his release.

Leenah Salem's husband called her at work to break the bad news. He
said the rumors were true. The spiritual leader of their southeast
Houston mosque had been detained by immigration authorities and could
face deportation.

"It was just devastating," Salem said. "I broke down and
cried."

Sheikh Zoubir Bouchikhi, a native of Algeria, was arrested at his home
shortly after leading morning prayers at the Abu Bakr Siddqui mosque
Dec. 17 and has been held without bond at a detention center in north
Houston ever since.

The popular imam's detention has angered Houston-area Muslims, who
are rallying to support Bouchikhi with letter-writing campaigns,
petitions and Web sites.

Salem started a group dedicated to his plight on the social-networking
site Facebook that boasts more than 700 members. She prays every day for
his release.

"I can't move on," the 23-year-old receptionist said.
"If you go to our mosque, it's just dead. He added life to our
community. I honestly don't know what I will do if he can't come
back."

Officials with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services declined to
comment on Bouchikhi's case. But his attorney, Brian Bates, believes
the imam is caught up in a backlash by USCIS, which recently tightened
visa regulations for religious workers because past abuses allowed in
many immigrants who didn't really work for religious organizations.

Applied for Green Card

Bouchikhi has lived in the U.S. for 11 years and has three American-born
children. He first came to this country in January 1998 on a student
visa to study at the School of Islamic and Social Sciences in Leesburg,
Va., where he earned a master's degree. In 1999, Bouchikhi moved to
Houston. He applied for a religious worker visa, and was hired by the
Islamic Society of Greater Houston in 2001. ISGH is a coalition of
mosques and schools that includes Abu Bakr Siddqui .

In June 2003, ISGH filed a petition on Bouchikhi's behalf for
permanent residency status as a religious minister, said Candace Cowan,
an attorney for ISGH.

The petition was accepted, and Bouchikhi applied for permanent residency
for himself, his wife and the couple's oldest child, a boy who had
moved to America as a baby. "We were waiting every day, looking for
the Green Card in the mailbox," said Bouchikhi's wife, Mounira
Belhacel.

In 2007, the family received a notice that USCIS revoked ISGH's
petition and denied Bouchikhi's request for permanent residency.

According to Cowan, the government said ISGH had failed to prove
Bouchikhi had been continuously employed for the two years prior to
filing of its petition and had not demonstrated its ability to pay
Bouchikhi's salary.

The government also questioned why ISGH had not proved Bouchikhi was an
imam by submitting a formal certificate of ordination. Such a document
does not exist in the Muslim faith, which awards positions to clergy by
education, experience and community consensus. ISGH and Bouchikhi
appealed, but the appeal was rejected in November 2008. The imam was
arrested a month later.

Belhacel, who's Algerian, said her husband was led away in handcuffs
as his children wept and screamed.

"I said, `He's not a criminal, let his kids hug him,'
but they would not," she said. "It was horrifying."

She visits her husband every week in the detention center, where he
continues to lead Friday prayers for Muslim detainees. He misses the
children, but she hesitates to bring them with her, especially the
youngest, 18-month-old Shareefa.

"You cannot touch through the glass," Belhacel said. "She
will not understand why, and I don't want her to have that picture
in her memory."

Known as a moderate

Bates said he will contest Bouchikhi's deportation at anApril 13
hearing. In the meantime, he said the government has given him no clear
reason why the imam cannot be released on bail.

"Since he is a spiritual leader for thousands of people, it's
not like he's going to disappear," Bates said. "He has
absolutely no criminal background, they've never suggested that
he's any kind of a threat, so it's kind of like why is the
government paying to feed this man? I mean, it's absurd."

Bouchikhi's detention plays on the fears of some Muslim-Americans
that the U.S. government is anti-Muslim, said Ali Khalili, a founding
member of the Coalition to Free Imam Bouchikhi. The situation seems even
more inexplicable because the imam has a reputation as a strong voice of
moderation, Khalili said.

"That's why an incident like this is so sad," he said.
"It reinforces some of those suspicions and we don't need that.
We need to bridge the gap of misunderstanding."

Mohamed Kandil, a 25-year-old engineer from League City, said Bouchikhi
encouraged Muslim youth to take an active role in society, whether that
meant volunteering in homeless shelters or traveling to Galveston to
help clean up after Hurricane Ike.
"I can confidently say that if he were to leave Houston it would not
only be a loss to the Muslim community it would be a loss to the Houston
community as well,'' Kandil said.

Staff writer James Pinkerton contributed to this report.
lindsay.wise@chron.com