Border authorities arrest controversial Muslim cleric east of San Diego

[nalnn]

Source: L.A.Times

U.S. border authorities have arrested a controversial Muslim cleric who was deported from Canada to Tunisia three years ago and was caught earlier this month trying to sneak into California inside the trunk of a BMW, according to court documents.

Said Jaziri, the former Imam of a Muslim congregation in Montreal, was hidden inside a car driven by a San Diego-area man who was pulled over by U.S. Border Patrol agents near an Indian casino east of San Diego. Jaziri allegedly paid a Tijuana-based smuggling group $5,000 to get him across the border near Tecate, saying he wanted to be taken to a “safe place anywhere in the U.S.”

The arrest marks the unexpected resurfacing of the 43-year-old cleric, whose protracted legal battle to avoid deportation drew headlines in Canada. A Tunisian immigrant, Jaziri was deported for failing to disclose a criminal conviction in France while applying for refugee status in the mid-1990s.

But Jaziri’s supporters said he was targeted for his fundamentalist views: Jaziri backed Sharia law for Canadian Muslims and led protests over the publication of the prophet Muhammad cartoons in a Danish newspaper in 2006.

Read more: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/01/border-authorities-arrest-controversial-muslim-cleric.html

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Any Canadian/Quasi-Canadian/Interested parties @ DU want to give some insight to this guy's intent?

[thereismore]

1. That's just weird. Why does he want to be here? nt

[BOG PERSON]

2. because this is the greatest country in the world!!!

that is why!!

[thereismore]

4. Heh, heh. nt

[Arctic Dave]

3. “safe place anywhere in the U.S.”

Must not watch the US news channels. ;)

[slackmaster]

5. They should turn him over to Sheriff Joe in Maricopa County, AZ

Make him wear funny clothes and stuff.