Black Muslim leaders in Milwaukee condemn arrest of Islamic Society president

Prominent Black Muslim leaders in Milwaukee are condemning the actions of President Donald Trump’s administration, which detained the local president of Wisconsin’s largest mosque.

Salah Sarsour was detained on Monday, March 30, as he left his home in Milwaukee, according to a statement from the Islamic Society of Milwaukee.

Sarsour is a legal resident of the Milwaukee area for over 32 years, and his wife and six children are U.S. citizens, the statement said. He is currently in ICE custody at the Clay County Justice Center in Indiana.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced in a statement on Thursday, April 2, that Sarsour is considered a terrorist who was convicted of throwing a Molotov cocktail at the homes of Israeli defense forces and for illegally attempting to possess weapons and ammunition.

All of this happened before he entered the U.S. in 1993, but the Trump administration said Sarsour lied on his green card application before his approval in 1998.

The volunteer president for the mosque’s board of directors, Sarsour, grew up in the Israeli occupied West Bank. He is a Jordanian national. He has no criminal record in the U.S.

Saleem El-Amin, CEO and president of the New Horizon Center in Milwaukee, was formerly a leader of the Nation of Islam and was Imam at the Sultan Muhammad Islamic Center and principal at Clara Mohammed School.

El-Amin said Sarsour’s arrest is an attack on all people residing in the United States.

“We can go back-and-forth on language, resident, or citizen, but more importantly, his family and him, they’ve been productive. They’ve made America better,” he said.

“He’s in the country. We have inalienable rights — the life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And when those are violated, that’s not race, that’s not gender, that’s not economic levels, that’s addressing the human being. When that happens, all human life is in danger.

“The tragedy of it is we have lost our moral compass.”

The Islamic Society believes the arrest was “politically motivated” and called for his release.

“We must be clear that Salah is being targeted on the basis of his Palestinian and Muslim background,” the statement said.

“Sarsour has been detained and is being threatened with deportation for only one reason: the U.S. government is carrying out its stated objective of prioritizing Israel, criminalizing advocacy for Palestine, and targeting individuals who speak up against Israeli atrocities and condemn complicit officials in our government,” the statement said.

Bramouse Muhammad, the current Imam of the Sultan Muhammad Islamic Center, a former Nation of Islam member, and teacher at Clara Mohammed School, is calling for Sarsour’s release.

“We do not merely request his release—we demand the immediate release of (Sarsour),” he wrote in a statement. “This arrest bears the clear markings of a targeted enforcement action.”

Muhammad said accusations that Sarsour lied on his green card application need to be met with verifiable documentation. He added that considering Sarsour a terrorist is “not only irresponsible but dangerously inflammatory.”

“We reject the narrative being advanced that seeks to criminalize (Sarsour) without due process. Detaining a lawful permanent resident of over 30 years under questionable circumstances is not only unjust — it is unacceptable.

“We demand transparency. We demand accountability.”

The Nation of Islam and Black folks practicing the religion are a large part of Milwaukee’s history, and these Muslim leaders are taking the rare step of speaking out against Trump now that a community leader is in custody.

See, there can be tension between some of the old Black Islamic guard in Milwaukee and the new guard. Some of those Black leaders can feel like they’ve been left behind as groups like the Islamic Society advance their agenda.

“The Nation of Islam, those pioneers, all of us, have been out there challenging this government to do right,” El-Amin said. “Once they got the strength, the backbone, enough money, they built over on the south side.”

But El-Amin said it was important to speak out for what he described as a clear injustice.

“The right to speak out against injustice is not reserved only for those who may be a citizen of a country,” he said. When injustice is being done anywhere, it is the right of every human being to be able to speak out against those who are carrying out harm against humanity. It is not reserved only for the citizens of a country.

“It is the obligation of every human being, in their human form, to be able to speak out when they see humanity is threatened.”