| Mansour Leghaei | |
|---|---|
| Religion | Usuli Twelver Shia Islam |
| Other name(s) | Arabic: شيخ منصور لقا ٔي Persian: شيخ منصور لقاٸ |
| Personal | |
| Born | May 14, 1962 Abadan, Iran |
| Senior posting | |
| Based in | Sydney, Australia |
| Title | Sheikh |
| Period in office | 1997–2010 |
| Successor | Said Ahmed Hoseini |
| Religious career | |
| Post | Sheikh |
| Website | www.ihic.org.au |
Dr Sheikh Mansour Leghaei (Born 1962) is the founder and a director of the Imam Husain Islamic Centre and the School of Islamic Theology in Earlwood, Australia, serving as the imam from 1997-2010.[1] He previously served in Nigeria, where in 1992 he opened an Education Centre called Ahul Bayt.[2]
Leghaei is known in Australia[3][4] and in the international media[5][6][7][8][9] for his drawn out legal battle, spanning more than a decade, with the Australian Government and its Security Services. Leghaei challenged the government's security assessment of him in his bid to gain permanent residency. The case often draws parallels in the media and by his lawyers[10] as a real life narrative of the novel The Trial by Franz Kafka, because the allegations, or the nature of the allegations against him, have never been revealed by the authorities.
Leghaei is seen as a prominent member within the interfaith communities[4][11] and is currently the chairman of the Marrickville Interfaith Round Table.[12][13] Leghaei has attended a number of seminars to provide an Islamic perspective, including the Ecumenical Service on the Dead Sea Scrolls held at the Sydney Art Gallery, "Religious Therapy" on the occasion of World Cancer Day at the University of Sydney and "Spirituality of Great Traditions" at St. James' Church.[14]
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Leghaei was born in Abadan, Iran,[14] to a religious Shia family. He earned a PhD in Islamic Theosophy from the University of Qom,[14] where he studied under a number of renowned scholars including, the late Grand Ayatollah Jawad Tabrizi, the Grand Ayatollah Hossein Vahid Khorasani, Grand Ayatollah Mousa Shubairi Zanjani, Ayatollah Hasan Hasan Zadeh Aamoli, Ayatollah Abdollah Javadi-Amoli, Ayatollah Mohammad-Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi, Sheik Muhammad Bahjat, and the late Ayatollah Bahrol-Oloom Mirdamadi.[15]
In 1992, Leghaei began his overseas religious services in Kano, Nigeria where a significant Shia minority exists. During this period Leghaei founded an education centre called Ahul Bayt.[2] Ahul Bayt is a commonly used Islamic term referring to the "House of the Prophet".[16] However in 1993, due to increasing violence in Nigeria, Leghaei returned to Iran with his family.
According to documents rendered to the Federal Court of Australia, Leghaei with his family first arrived in Australia in 1994 under a Short Stay Business Visa and was employed as a Halal meat supervisor. The following year, he applied and successfully received a Religious Worker Visa which allowed him to work as a Muslim leader and travel internationally.[17]
In 1996, Leghaei applied for permanent residency for himself and his family, and received bridging visas whilst their applications for residency were being reviewed. These bridging visas did not permit international travel.[17] Supporting his application were character references from two Members of Parliament, Anthony Albanese and Robert McClelland,[18] who is the current Attorney-General of Australia but at the time was an opposition backbencher. McClelland, described Leghaei as: "an erudite man, conciliatory in tone and demeanour" who would be an "asset" to both the Muslim and Australian communities.[19][20]
In 1997, Leghaei was refused permanent residency on the grounds that he had been assessed as a risk to the national security of Australia. In his appeal, Leghaei obtained a second character reference from McClelland. Despite being aware of the security concerns surrounding Leghaei,[19] McClelland wrote in Leghaei's defense:
I was most surprised to learn that Sheik Leghaei's application had been rejected on the failure to satisfy part 4002 of Schedule 4 of the Migration Regulations, that is the public interest criteria.[19]
Part 4002 of the regulations requires that an applicant "is not assessed" by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) to be directly or indirectly a risk to security.
In the same year, Leghaei established the Imam Husain Islamic Centre with the stated aim of addressing the educational, welfare, and religious needs of the Muslim community.[1] The unveiling of the centre was attended by a number of high-ranking public dignitaries, including the then Attorney-General Philip Ruddock, who provided his blessing by noting:
I do note very much the inclusive nature of the centre that you have developed.[21]
Between 1997 and 2002, Leghaei pursued review proceedings and a formal assessment was carried out by ASIO. The substance of the assessment was that Leghaei was "directly or indirectly a risk to Australian national security." [17]
Between 2002 and 2010, Leghaei appealed and endeavoured to ascertain the reasoning for the adverse security assessment and had hearings and matters before a range of bodies, including the Immigration Review Tribunal, the Federal Court and the High Court of Australia.[22] These appeals failed because as a non-citizen of Australia, Leghaei was not entitled to natural justice or procedural fairness for the reason of national security considerations,[5] and no legal board had the authority to examine the allegations or overrule the ASIO assessment.[23]
After the failed appeals, Leghaei's next option was ministerial intervention by the then Immigration Minister, Chris Evans. A number of support rallies were organised for Leghaei, including a rally outside the Parliament House of Australia in Canberra, where more than 1000 supporters attended.[23] However, Evans did not intervene.[23]
Prior to the rally, a number of world bodies weighed into the judicial process surrounding Leghaei's case. The United Nations Human Rights Committee advised the Australian Government that "deporting Leghaei would be a possible violation of Dr Leghaei's human rights"[24] and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) also informed the Australian Government that "deporting Dr Leghaei was contrary to the right to a fair hearing".[25]
Nevertheless, in mid May 2010, Leghaei's bridging visa was not extended and he was given six weeks to leave Australia. Leghaei complied by leaving on the 27th of June 2010, along with his wife and youngest child.[26]
eHawza is the Diploma of Islamic Theology which runs by him.
Due to the nature of the allegations and the law and rights entitled to individuals of non–permanent residency, ascertaining the particulars of the accusations against Leghaei has been limited to Freedom of Information requests[16] and snippets from restricted government, media, and legal reports.[27] Leghaei’s legal challenge of the government security assessment has been limited to a case built by ASIO that centred on the basis that he is "suspected of acts of foreign interference",[27][28] the details of which have never been disclosed to the public nor to Leghaei, and according to media analysis are "the stuff we are not allowed to know".[16]
Leghaei has also received letters from Government officials asking him to answer the allegations against him, when he has no idea what they are and has even been asked to deport himself.[10][18]
A judge presiding over one of the appeals, Rodney Madgwick noted that Leghaei "appears to have performed valuable community services' and his family's deportation "may well cause hardship to utterly blameless Australian citizens", but that he had no jurisdiction to challenge the "merits and validity of ASIO’s assessment" and could only decide whether Leghaei had received procedure fairness. He found Leghaei’s"procedural fairness is reduced, in practical terms, to nothingness".[27][29] The integral part of his judgement, dealing with the evidence, was kept secret.[27] Only through appeals did Leghaei get limited understanding of the accusations wielded against him. One accusation was that on his return from a holiday in Iran in 1994, Leghaei carried a text he copied from Tehran University, which the Government translated as promoting "violent Jihad"[16] and "the killing of infidels".[16] However, on appeal it was later proven the translation was "flawed and misleading" and "key words were translated wrongly and entire paragraphs were added by the translator". ASIO ultimately admitted its translation was wrong and was ordered to pay a third of Leghaei’s legal costs.[16][27]
Another instance is the accusation that Leghaei was linked to a terrorist group in France called Ahul Bayt, due to the naming of the Islamic Centre he opened in Nigeria. Leghaei later emphasised that he knew no such group and that Ahul Bayt is a commonly used Islamic term.[2][16][27]
Furthermore in 2001, through a Freedom of Information request, Leghaei discovered that an anonymous letter, addressed to the then Immigration Minster Philip Ruddock, had alleged that "he was funded by the Iranian government and was a threat to the security of Australia and its Iranian community".[16] These claims and others by Iranian dissidents have never been substantiated.[3][30]
Leghaei’s future return to Australia now rests with the appeal by his lawyers to the UN who are investigating the case further.[10]
Leghaei has received a number of accolades, including a Community Service Award from the Australian MEFF Consortium Inc in 2000.[14]
As a result of indistinctness surrounding the allegations and the lack of natural justice pertained to Leghaei, a number of Nobel Peace Prize laureates and international human rights activists openly criticised the Australian Government for the vagueness of the accusations and the deficiencies in procedural fairness. These criticisms include
Leghaei is the father of four children and is fluent in three languages: Persian, Arabic, and English.