Fawaz Damrah

Fawaz Mohammed Damrah (, Fawwāz Damra) was the imam of the Islamic Center of Parma, the largest mosque in the Cleveland area and taught at Cleveland State University and the local community college. Damra was born in the West Bank city of Nablus in 1961. He studied law in Jordan. He arrived in the United States in the mid-1980s and was an active religious figure in the Muslim American community. In January 2004 Damra was arrested by federal officials on an immigration violation and he was ultimately denaturalized and deported back to the West Bank. He has three daughters who were all born in the United States.

Background Before moving to Ohio, Damra had also served as an imam at the al-Farooq mosque in Brooklyn, New York between 1986 and 1990. During the 1990s he was praised for outreach efforts in Jewish and Christian communities. He continued these interfaith efforts after the September 11 attacks.

A video made by Steven Emerson was aired on PBS. Due to statements made on the video, it became clear all groups the United States government classifies as jihadist terrorist organizations, were being funded and abetted by Fawaz Damrah's mid-west operations from his Cleveland mega-mosque, and through the North American upstreaming network of the Muslim Brotherhood, the 'Ummah', to HAMAS, Hezbollah and other jihadist terror entities in Palestine and the Mid-East. These activities demonstrated Fawaz Damrah was guilty of lying on his citizenship application, denying any connection to jihadi terror. His United States citizenship was revoked and he was deported to the Palestinian West Bank in January 2007.

Deportation The Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement reported that Damrah was delivered to Israeli security agents at a West Bank crossing controlled by Israel. On January 26, 2007, The Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio) reported that Damrah had been released from an Israeli prison after three weeks in custody and returned to the West Bank where he was staying with family.