Sydney, March 9: Anglican, Catholic, Indigenous and Muslim community leaders have joined in seeking to block the imminent deportation of one of Australia’s most senior Islamic leaders.
Sheikh Mansour Leghaei, his wife and one of his four children are facing deportation to Iran on Friday, March 19, despite having lived in Australia since 1994.
Dr Leghaei plays a leading role in “interfaith” dialogues which work across religious divides to develop social services, such as youth outreach. More than 1,000 letters are being sent to Immigration Minister Senator Chris Evans from prominent community leaders including:-
Anglican Minister Father Dave Smith
Former head of the Cancer Council Australia, Professor Alan Coates
Franciscan nun Sister Aileen Crowe
Uniting Church Minister Rev Hannie Hoffman
Boxer Nader Hamden
Indigenous leader Pastor Ray Minniecon
Marrickville Mayor Sam Iskander
“Dr Leghaei has been central to our combined work in the community with the young and the disaffected. We are horrified at the thought of trying to continue this work without him,” said Father Smith, founder of the Christian Save the Sheikh Coalition.
“At a time when it is more important than ever to build bridges between people of different faiths, his removal will provoke enormous bitterness and tension.”
Dr Leghaei, a moderate Shia and Australia’s leading English speaking Iranian cleric, leads the 1500-member Imam Husain Islamic Centre in Earlwood and is the elected head of the local Interfaith Committee.
He has been denied permanent residency in Australia due to two adverse security assessments issued by ASIO several years ago. He has been fighting for 10 years to have these assessments overturned but an immigration appeals tribunal last month rejected his final application to remain in Australia.
Dr Leghaei strenuously denies that he is a threat to national security.
Community leaders say he has never been told the reason for the assessments and has repeatedly been denied procedural fairness and natural justice.
“I can vouch for the fact that Dr Leghaei is no threat to national security. We call on the Minister to order a new security assessment and enable the sheikh’s important work to continue,” Father Smith said.
www.savethesheikh.com
Christian Save the Sheikh Coalition spokesperson: Father Dave Smith 61-2-9569-1255
On February 19th Sheikh Mansour Leghaei was given 28 days to leave the country. That means that as of today (March 4th) he technically only has 15 days left!
We trust that Sheikh will be given a visa extension while the Minister for Immigration considers his formal submission, appealing the decision. Even so, those who would act to protest this terrible injustice must do so NOW!
The most important thing everybody can do now is to sign the Save the Sheikh Petition. Here’s what you need to do:
Right-click here and choose ‘save target as’ to download the petition.
Open it and print off multiple copies
Sign it yourself and ask others who support the Sheikh to sign it.
Send your signed petition back to the Imam Husain Centre by March 14.
nb. The address of the Centre is printed at the bottom of the petition, along with the return date, so you won’t forget. 🙂
Our hope is that once these petitions are collected we will be able to present them to the Minister for Immigration in person in Canberra. The trip is currently scheduled for March 17. If you’d like to join us on the trip to Canberra put this date tentatively aside in your diary now. Confirmation will be given on this site closer to the date.
Other ‘Save the Sheikh’ activities that are in the pipeline include:
a formal press conference (probably next Wednesday)
a supporters BBQ (possibly on Sunday March 14)
I know there’s talk in our church too of holding a 24-hour prayer vigil here at Holy Trinity Dulwich Hill, and inviting the Prime Minister and other Christian political leaders to join us in praying that justice is done.
Updates will be posted to this site as soon as confirmation of events has been given, so stay in touch and keep praying!
P.S. To see the article in the Bankstown Express about the Sheikh and myself, click here.