Hundreds protest over sheikh's deportation

3 Jun 2010, 5:08 pm   -   Source: SBS - Amanda Cavill
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Religious and community leaders have rallied behind an Iranian Muslim sheikh who is due to be deported from Australia in a fortnight.

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Religious and community leaders have rallied behind an Iranian Muslim sheikh who is due to be deported from Australia in a fortnight.

More than 1,000 people gathered outside Parliament House in Canberra to call on the government to reconsider its decision to deport Sheikh Mansour Leghaei.

Sheikh Leghaei has lived in Australia  for the past 16 years but was denied a permanent visa after being declared a security threat some years ago by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, ASIO.

The United Nations has asked the federal government to delay his deportation, but the government has declined, although it has issued permanent visas for his wife and three children.

And, the Immigration Minister Senator Chris Evans has also declined to intervene on Sheikh Leghaei's behalf.

The Sheikh's Lawyer Rob Saul says the group has tried to deliver a letter to the Prime Minister Kevin Rudd asking him to help.

But, Mr Saul says the Prime Minister won't accept the letter.

"Obviously it's a concern if the Prime Minister is so arrogant that he won't even except a letter from a decent Australian whose family life is about to be torn apart".

"He meets with miners to negotiate how much tax they pay. He meets with people in the insulation scheme. But he's not willing to meet with a person whose family life is about to be torn apart based on secret evidence which no-one's seen," he told SBS.

Two weeks ago the Migration Review Tribunal denied Sheikh Leghaei a visa after ruling it lacked the authority to examine or overrule ASIO's assessment.

ASIO is not obliged to reveal to the Sheikh's lawyers what evidence its assessment is based on.

His supporters from an inter-faith religious council are furious that ASIO has refused to re-consider the assessment.

Reverend David Smith from Sydney's Holy Trinity Anglican Church believes authorities know Sheikh Leghaei is not a serious threat.

Reverend Smith says the Sheikh is the victim of an organised campaign by anti-Iranian activists. 

"They've made various allegations about Sheikh, about his family as I say. About his sister who supposedly informs on immodestly dressed women in Tehran with a walkie talkie under her veil and it turns out Sheikh doesn't have a sister," he told SBS.

"That he used to go round prisons, not only in Iran, but in Turkey and involved in torturing people, of course he's never been to Turkey".

Father Gwilym Henry-Edwards from St Luke's Anglican Church in Sydney says Australia helped to achieve a key human rights document at the United Nations in 1948.

He says the way Sheikh Leghaei is being treated shows the nation has now turned its back on that achievement.

"In the preparation of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights has now ignored what it did back in those days, because Australia was a small country and it really pushed hard for universal justice and now it seems that it's a different matter, a different world".

Sheikh Leghaei has always denied being a spy for the Iranian government or spreading a pro-Iranian political message.

He has challenged ASIO's adverse security assessments in the Federal and High Courts but failed.

He added he's unclear why ASIO considers him a threat to national security now.

Sheikh Leghaei says the decision to deport him will tear his family in two.

"My older sons, my twins have decided they will stay here. They are living independently and they are married. Even though my wife and I and my daughter if we leave naturally it breaks up the family.

Supporters of Sheikh Leghaei say that when he set up the Imam Hussain Islamic Centre in Sydney in 1997, he received the blessing of the then federal Attorney-General Philip Ruddock.

They say at the same time, the Sheikh was described as an asset to Australia by the current Attorney General Robert McClelland, then in opposition.

Mr McClelland is now responsible for ASIO.

The Sheikh's Lawyer Rob Saul says he's been told he will be sent back to Iran on June the 26th.

 

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please gov fix this mistake

a - from Australia, 2 years ago

sheikh traveled...we miss him alot...how can this be right? how can you see it right? Dear Julie, our prime minister...please show us that you are different...please listen to our pain... fix this huge mistake...give him fair traial..it so wrong...just so wrong... From our gov, we expected more... Be fair to us!

Mr

Adle - from Sydney, 2 years ago

sheikhs can be any race or colour as long as they are Muslim and have studied the religion and graduated in islamic teaching

yorkshire

joan cove - from uk, 2 years ago

i thought sheiks were arabic do they have sheiks in iran?

----

--- - from melbourne, 2 years ago

It is unacceptable to support shiekh case by such words

True iranian

azad iran should suck my **** - from Sydney, 2 years ago

Azad iran...neither do iranian or aussie values tell you to feel glad and happy at the suffering of someone else, especially when they are innocent and even if they are not. You are a TRUE ANIMAL

Sheik should stay

Ali - from Fairfield, 2 years ago

Only those who hear his eminence's speeches, and who are familiar with his character know of paramount importance it is that he remain here mainly due to societies sake. People with such wisdom and tolerance should have priority over others to stay because societies are in demand of them. Only then will peace and tranquillity thrive and spread. All we could do now is supplicate.

A Victim of FAIR GO...

FAIR GO!! - from Lakemba, 2 years ago

Sheikh Mansour Leghaei is a victim of 'Advance Australia Fair'!

I lost my faith in Australia's justice

D - from melbourne, 2 years ago

I will never vote for Kevin Rudd...I have no faith in Australian government any more... they don't consider basic human right. How can I trust a gov that even does not do open fair traial??!!! they can do what ever they want then!!don't they...any body can be blamed for any thing. so unfair. so disappointed Shiekh Mansour case is All Australia's case.

Be Fair !!

Riyaz - from Mombasa _ Kenya, 2 years ago

I have been listening to Sheikhs lectures for the past couple of years now. Fail to understand how a person of such caliber, status and dignity be a threat to National Security ! This is insane. Mr Evans, whatever your beliefs are, these are of no concern - but at least be a man of conscious and play fair. You may be having family and children - think - if you were unjustly treated and were forced to have your family torn apart from you -

Leave the Sheikh alone

Ali Shah - from Kingsgrove, 2 years ago

When i first arrived in Australia from a predominantly Islamic state, i felt that my faith would be weakened and would not be practiced to the same extent. But after meeting Sheikh Mansour who is my local sheikh, His eminence allowed to understand Islam and the love for the people whether they were White, Black, Christian or Hindu. He has taught me and the youth in our community to understand and respect other people, and his deportation is a slap on the face for very Fair loving Australians

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