August 21, 2003	Thursday	Jumadi-us-Sani 22, 1424

LOS ANGELES, Aug 20: People of all faiths are rallying around a local mosque leader who could be deported despite his lawyer’s claim that a bureaucratic mix-up caused his immigration problems.

Egyptian citizen Ahmad Abdalghafar Abdalla has been at the centre of a storm that has involved everyone from Amnesty International to the First Presbyterian Church of Livermore in a campaign to keep him in the United States.

Federal officials picked up the 30-year-old man at his Livermore home in April and held him for about a week, accusing him of overstaying his three-year religious worker visa. On Monday, an immigration judge extended Abdalla’s deportation hearing until Nov 4.

Members of the Islamic Centre of Livermore where Abdalla serves as imam have been collecting money to pay for his and his wife’s legal fees, which amount to about $35,000.

The Islamic Center and members of local churches and a synagogue staged a telephone campaign this past week asking immigration officials to postpone deportation proceedings for Abdalla.

The imam’s lawyer, Banafsheh Akhlaghi, argued that her client overstayed his visa, which expired in December, because a former attorney had filed in November the wrong visa extension form to the federal government.