Mansour Leghaei
Encyclopedia
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. He previously served in Nigeria
, where in 1992 he opened an Education Centre called Ahul Bayt.
Leghaei is known in Australia and in the international media 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 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 and is currently the chairman of the Marrickville Interfaith Round Table. Leghaei has attended a number of seminars to provide an Islam
ic 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.
from the University of Qom
, 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.
, Nigeria
where a significant Shia minority exists. During this period Leghaei founded an education centre called Ahul Bayt
. Ahul Bayt is a commonly used Islamic term referring to the "House of the Prophet". However in 1993, due to increasing violence in Nigeria, Leghaei returned to Iran with his family.
, 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.
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. Supporting his application were character references from two Members of Parliament, Anthony Albanese
and Robert McClelland
, 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.
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, McClelland wrote in Leghaei's defense:
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. 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:
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."
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
. 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, and no legal board had the authority to examine the allegations or overrule the ASIO assessment.
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. However, Evans did not intervene.
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" 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".
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.
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.
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". The integral part of his judgement, dealing with the evidence, was kept secret. 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
" and "the killing of infidels". 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.
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.
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". These claims and others by Iranian dissidents have never been substantiated.
Leghaei’s future return to Australia now rests with the appeal by his lawyers to the UN who are investigating the case further.
, Arabic, and English.
Earlwood, New South Wales
Earlwood is a suburb in the inner-west of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Earlwood is located 12 kilometres south of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Canterbury...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, serving as the imam
Imam
An imam is an Islamic leadership position, often the worship leader of a mosque and the Muslim community. Similar to spiritual leaders, the imam is the one who leads Islamic worship services. More often, the community turns to the mosque imam if they have a religious question...
from 1997-2010. He previously served in Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
, where in 1992 he opened an Education Centre called Ahul Bayt.
Leghaei is known in Australia and in the international media for his drawn out legal battle, spanning more than a decade, with the Australian Government and its Security Services
Australian Security Intelligence Organisation
The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation is Australia's national security service, which is responsible for the protection of the country and its citizens from espionage, sabotage, acts of foreign interference, politically-motivated violence, attacks on the Australian defence system, and...
. 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 as a real life narrative of the novel The Trial
The Trial
The Trial is a novel by Franz Kafka, first published in 1925. One of Kafka's best-known works, it tells the story of a man arrested and prosecuted by a remote, inaccessible authority, with the nature of his crime revealed neither to him nor the reader.Like Kafka's other novels, The Trial was never...
by Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka was a culturally influential German-language author of short stories and novels. Contemporary critics and academics, including Vladimir Nabokov, regard Kafka as one of the best writers of the 20th century...
, 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 and is currently the chairman of the Marrickville Interfaith Round Table. Leghaei has attended a number of seminars to provide an Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
ic perspective, including the Ecumenical Service on the Dead Sea Scrolls
Dead Sea scrolls
The Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of 972 texts from the Hebrew Bible and extra-biblical documents found between 1947 and 1956 on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea, from which they derive their name...
held at the Sydney Art Gallery
Art Gallery of New South Wales
The Art Gallery of New South Wales , located in The Domain in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, was established in 1897 and is the most important public gallery in Sydney and the fourth largest in Australia...
, "Religious Therapy" on the occasion of World Cancer Day
World Cancer Day
World Cancer Day is marked on February 4 to raise awareness of cancer and to encourage its prevention, detection, and treatment. It is led by the Union for International Cancer Control, a global consortium of more than 470 cancer-fighting organisations in over 120 countries...
at the University of Sydney
University of Sydney
The University of Sydney is a public university located in Sydney, New South Wales. The main campus spreads across the suburbs of Camperdown and Darlington on the southwestern outskirts of the Sydney CBD. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and Oceania...
and "Spirituality of Great Traditions" at St. James' Church.
Early life and Education
Leghaei was born in Abadan, Iran, to a religious Shia family. He earned a PhD in Islamic TheosophyTheosophy
Theosophy, in its modern presentation, is a spiritual philosophy developed since the late 19th century. Its major themes were originally described mainly by Helena Blavatsky , co-founder of the Theosophical Society...
from the University of Qom
University of Qom
University of Qom is a public university located in Qom. Established in 1980 by Mohammad Beheshti and Mohammad Javad Bahonar.The university offers degrees in five colleges....
, where he studied under a number of renowned scholars including, the late Grand Ayatollah
Ayatollah
Ayatollah is a high ranking title given to Usuli Twelver Shī‘ah clerics. Those who carry the title are experts in Islamic studies such as jurisprudence, ethics, and philosophy and usually teach in Islamic seminaries. The next lower clerical rank is Hojatoleslam wal-muslemin...
Jawad Tabrizi
Jawad Tabrizi
Ayatollah Mirza Jawad Tabrizi was an Iranian Twelver Shi'a Marja. He was born in Tabriz, Iran in 1926 AD . At 22 he moved to Qom and later to Najaf, Iraq until he was deported. He then moved back to Qom and was a teacher in the hawza of Qom until his death...
, the Grand Ayatollah Hossein Vahid Khorasani
Hossein Vahid Khorasani
Grand Ayatollah Hossein Vahid Khorasani is an Iranian Twelver Shia Marja. He was born in Nishapur, Iran and moved to Najaf, Iraq in 1960 and studied in seminaries of Grand Ayatollah Khoei until he moved back to Iran in 1972 and currently resides and teaches in the Seminary of Qom, Iran. He is...
, Grand Ayatollah Mousa Shubairi Zanjani
Mousa Shubairi Zanjani
Grand Ayatollah Mousa Shubairi Zanjani is an Iranian Twelver Shi'a Marja. He was born in Qom, Iran. He has studied in the seminaries of Qom under Grand Ayatollah Borujerdi and Mohaqeq Damad. He currently resides and teaches in the Seminary of Qom, Iran...
, Ayatollah Hasan Hasan Zadeh Aamoli, Ayatollah Abdollah Javadi-Amoli
Abdollah Javadi-Amoli
Grand Ayatollah Abdollah Javadi-Amoli is an Iranian Twelver Shi'a Marja. He is a conservative Iranian politician and one of the prominent Islamic scholars of the Hawza in Qom.-Early life:He was born in 1933 in Amol, north of Iran...
, Ayatollah Mohammad-Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi, Sheik Muhammad Bahjat, and the late Ayatollah Bahrol-Oloom Mirdamadi.
Nigeria
In 1992, Leghaei began his overseas religious services in KanoKano
Kano is a city in Nigeria and the capital of Kano State in Northern Nigeria. Its metropolitan population is the second largest in Nigeria after Lagos. The Kano Urban area covers 137 sq.km and comprises six Local Government Area - Kano Municipal, Fagge, Dala, Gwale, Tarauni and Nassarawa - with a...
, Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
where a significant Shia minority exists. During this period Leghaei founded an education centre called Ahul Bayt
Ahl al-Bayt
Ahl al-Bayt is an Arabic phrase literally meaning People of the House, or family of the House. The phrase "ahl al-bayt" was used in Arabia before the advent of Islam to refer to one's clan, and would be adopted by the ruling family of a tribe. Within the Islamic tradition, the term refers to the...
. Ahul Bayt is a commonly used Islamic term referring to the "House of the Prophet". However in 1993, due to increasing violence in Nigeria, Leghaei returned to Iran with his family.
Australia
According to documents rendered to the Federal Court of AustraliaFederal Court of Australia
The Federal Court of Australia is an Australian superior court of record which has jurisdiction to deal with most civil disputes governed by federal law , along with some summary criminal matters. Cases are heard at first instance by single Judges...
, Leghaei with his family first arrived in Australia in 1994 under a Short Stay Business Visa and was employed as a Halal
Halal
Halal is a term designating any object or an action which is permissible to use or engage in, according to Islamic law. The term is used to designate food seen as permissible according to Islamic law...
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.
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. Supporting his application were character references from two Members of Parliament, Anthony Albanese
Anthony Albanese
Anthony Norman Albanese , Australian politician, who serves as Leader of the House of Representatives and Minister for Infrastructure and Transport in the Gillard Ministry...
and Robert McClelland
Robert McClelland (Australian politician)
Robert Bruce McClelland is the Attorney-General of Australia. He has been an Australian Labor Party member of theAustralian House of Representatives since March 1996, representing the Division of Barton, New South Wales...
, who is the current Attorney-General of Australia
Attorney-General of Australia
The Attorney-General of Australia is the first law officer of the Crown, chief law officer of the Commonwealth of Australia and a minister of the Crown. The Attorney-General is usually a member of the Federal Cabinet, but there is no constitutional requirement that this be the case since the...
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.
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, 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.
Part 4002 of the regulations requires that an applicant "is not assessed" by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation
Australian Security Intelligence Organisation
The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation is Australia's national security service, which is responsible for the protection of the country and its citizens from espionage, sabotage, acts of foreign interference, politically-motivated violence, attacks on the Australian defence system, and...
(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. The unveiling of the centre was attended by a number of high-ranking public dignitaries, including the then Attorney-General Philip Ruddock
Philip Ruddock
Philip Maxwell Ruddock is an Australian politician who is currently a member of the House of Representatives representing the Division of Berowra, New South Wales, for the Liberal Party of Australia...
, who provided his blessing by noting:
I do note very much the inclusive nature of the centre that you have developed.
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."
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
High Court of Australia
The High Court of Australia is the supreme court in the Australian court hierarchy and the final court of appeal in Australia. It has both original and appellate jurisdiction, has the power of judicial review over laws passed by the Parliament of Australia and the parliaments of the States, and...
. 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, and no legal board had the authority to examine the allegations or overrule the ASIO assessment.
After the failed appeals, Leghaei's next option was ministerial intervention by the then Immigration Minister, Chris Evans
Chris Evans
Christopher James "Chris" Evans is an English broadcaster, businessman and producer for radio & television.-Early life:Evans was born in 1966, in Warrington, Cheshire, England, the youngest child of bookmaker...
. A number of support rallies were organised for Leghaei, including a rally outside the Parliament House of Australia
Parliament House, Canberra
Parliament House is the meeting facility of the Parliament of Australia located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. The building was designed by Mitchell/Giurgola Architects and opened on 1988 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia...
in Canberra
Canberra
Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...
, where more than 1000 supporters attended. However, Evans did not intervene.
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" 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".
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.
Legal fight
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 and snippets from restricted government, media, and legal reports. 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", 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".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.
A judge presiding over one of the appeals, Rodney Madgwick
Rodney Madgwick
Rodney Neville Madgwick is an Australian judge. He was a Justice of the Federal Court of Australia appointed in October 1995. He was based in the Sydney registry of the court and retired in 2008.-References:...
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". The integral part of his judgement, dealing with the evidence, was kept secret. 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
Jihad
Jihad , an Islamic term, is a religious duty of Muslims. In Arabic, the word jihād translates as a noun meaning "struggle". Jihad appears 41 times in the Quran and frequently in the idiomatic expression "striving in the way of God ". A person engaged in jihad is called a mujahid; the plural is...
" and "the killing of infidels". 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.
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.
Furthermore in 2001, through a Freedom of Information request, Leghaei discovered that an anonymous letter, addressed to the then Immigration Minster Philip Ruddock
Philip Ruddock
Philip Maxwell Ruddock is an Australian politician who is currently a member of the House of Representatives representing the Division of Berowra, New South Wales, for the Liberal Party of Australia...
, had alleged that "he was funded by the Iranian government and was a threat to the security of Australia and its Iranian community". These claims and others by Iranian dissidents have never been substantiated.
Leghaei’s future return to Australia now rests with the appeal by his lawyers to the UN who are investigating the case further.
Awards and recognition
Leghaei has received a number of accolades, including a Community Service Award from the Australian MEFF Consortium Inc in 2000.Criticisms of Leghai's deportation
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- Archbishop Desmond TutuDesmond TutuDesmond Mpilo Tutu is a South African activist and retired Anglican bishop who rose to worldwide fame during the 1980s as an opponent of apartheid...
who said, "In South Africa we used to have detention without trial" and "In Australia you have deportation without trial." - President of the International Progress OrganizationInternational Progress OrganizationThe International Progress Organization is a Vienna-based think tank dealing with world affairs. As an international non-governmental organization it enjoys consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations and is associated with the United Nations Department of...
, Hans KöchlerHans KöchlerHans Köchler is a professor of philosophy at the University of Innsbruck, Austria, and president of the International Progress Organization, a non-governmental organization in consultative status with the United Nations...
noted, "There can be no fair hearing of the case if the authorities refuse to disclose the allegations against Sheikh Mansour. We appeal to the government of Australia to revoke this decision." - Nobel Peace Prize laureate Máiread Corrigan-Maguire wrote that "the deportation would breach the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Australia is a party"
- In a statement, the former Bishop of Jerusalem Riah Hanna Abu El-AssalRiah Hanna Abu El-AssalRiah Hanna Abu El-Assal is an Israeli Arab Anglican clergyman, who was Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem from 1998 to 2007.-History:He graduated from Nazareth Baptist school where he also taught...
said "Dr Leghaei is not only not a threat to Australian national security but indeed through his peaceful presence and work both within the Muslim community and with other religious leaders and people, makes a great contribution to Australian society". - Chandra Muzaffar, a Malaysian political scientist, Islamic reformist and activist said "The impending deportation of Sheikh Mansour Leghaei is a travesty of justice. There is no doubt at all that his human rights have been violated."
Personal
Leghaei is the father of four children and is fluent in three languages: PersianPersian language
Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...
, Arabic, and English.
Quotes
- When questioned about his past: "I think my 16 years of peaceful life in Australia is my best evidence."
- At Sydney Airport, before departure: "My body will depart Australia but definitely my soul and my spirit will remain here forever."