Here is the text of the petition [click to sign]:

Here's a brief explanation by way of a recap of the events:

A week ago Wednesday, immigration officials arrested 33 people on immigration fraud charges, including 4 from Massachusetts. Among those four were two prominent Imams, Hafiz Masood of the Islamic Center of New England (ICNE), based in Sharon, MA and Abdul Hannan from the Islamic Society of Greater Lowell in Chelmsford who also serves as chaplain for the Middlesex House of Correction in Billerica and the Cambridge Jail.

The gist of the allegation is that the two were acquiring bogus religious worker visas for people who weren't really religious workers.

The case is similar to one from a couple years back when a guy named Muhammad Khalil was running a "Mosque" out of a Brooklyn basement, vouching for bogus religious worker visas and pocketing hundreds of thousands of dollars cash. Oddly enough, one of the allegations against Chelmsford's Hannan is that he fraudulently obtained his visa from this very same Brooklyn Khalill in 1997.

The Imams are now out on bail, but not before much agitation on the part of the Muslim American Society, the ACLU and others, who were encouraging the signing of petitions, the packing of courtrooms, calls to government officials and cries of harassment.

Previous posts on this issue on this blog are here, here and here.

Miss Kelly, who has been watching this issue very closely and will likely be the blog to watch for breaking coverage, has a post decrying the weak news coverage of the event (of course), with links to her previous posts that will catch you up to date very well, here. Her post on the petition is here.

Now you've got the background. Given the pressure that our public officials must be under in this case, Miss Kelly and I are sponsoring a petition to support them -- it is something of a counter to the petition that the MAS put up earlier. You can see the text quoted above, and can sign on to it by clicking here.

I would like to emphasize that we are neither judge, jury nor investigators. We do not know the people involved, all of whom may be fine people and pillars of their communities. The fact is, however, that many of us have called for serious immigration enforcement, and have been disappointed with the repeated flouting of those laws, yet when the authorities take action, there are dozens of groups who step forward to make life as difficult as possible for them. We believe that it’s entirely appropriate that citizens also step forward to support the authorities operating on our behalf when the situation calls for it.

I think you will find the text of the petition measured. We are calling for support, while not attempting to dictate any particular outcome.

Again, the petition may be found here.

Update: The Jewish Advocate has written a story about this issue and our petition effort, here: 'Dueling petitions spark debate over immigration'