Jailed Cincinnati imam wins release

Imam Ayman Soliman, arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Blue Ash, Ohio, on July 9, was released from detention on Sept. 19. Soliman, the chaplain at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, had faced deportation to Egypt, where he could potentially be killed. 

Soliman came to the U.S. in 2014 and was granted asylum in 2018. His asylum was revoked when he was arrested. He serves on the board of the charity Al Jameya Al Shara’iyya, which is alleged to have ties to Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, purported to be a “terrorist” organization. Yet the Muslim Brotherhood is not even on the U.S. list of “terrorist” groups, and there is no evidence that Soliman’s charity has ties to the organization.

The arrest is one of numerous examples of repression against Muslims and migrants. Soliman was held in the Butler County Jail, notorious for inhumane conditions.

Activists all over Ohio began protesting Soliman’s arrest immediately. As with a number of cases, the mass mobilization created the public pressure needed to win the imam’s release.

The Department of Homeland Security abruptly dropped efforts to deport Imam Soliman — which began last year under the Biden administration — and restored his asylum status.

Lynn Tramonte, Executive Director of the Ohio Immigrant Alliance, said: “We’re so excited to see Ayman at home, where he belongs. Ayman has always been there for everyone else. Caring for others is his life’s mission. So when Ayman needed his community, they showed up for him at his hour of need. Hundreds of Ohioans mobilized, advocated, organized, donated and prayed, every single day. His legal team worked around the clock and left no stone unturned.” (wlwt.com, Sept. 19)