Parma (Ohio): The former imam of Ohio's largest mosque became a man without a country.
Fawaz Damra, now jailed by Israeli authorities, for months sought a nation to accept him following his 2004 conviction for concealing ties to terrorist groups.
But 72 rejected him, leaving him with no choice but to be deported to his native West Bank, which led to his arrest on January 4.
His ties to the militant Palestinian group Islamic Jihad, responsible for numerous suicide bombings and other attacks on Israelis, made it impossible for Damra to find a new start.
Damra, 46, a Palestinian from the West Bank city of Nablus, was the spiritual leader of the Islamic Center of Cleveland, raising three American-born daughters with his wife in suburban Strongsville, when terrorists attacked the United States on September 11, 2001.
He condemned the attacks and urged others not to judge all Muslims as a group.
"Like all Americans, we are horrified, upset, angry," Damra said the day of the attacks.
Less than a month later, footage from a 1991 speech aired on local television news showing him raising money for a Palestinian holy war.
He apologised and said his views had changed but was shunned by the interfaith leaders who once worked with him.
In 2004, he was tried and convicted of concealing ties to terrorist organisations on his citizenship application 10 years earlier.
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