Forced out

COMMUNITY outrage has erupted after the Migration Review Tribunal's (MRT) decision last week to reject Sheikh Mansour Leghaei's application for residency.
The Earlwood-based scholar was given 28 days to leave Australia, after a 16-year battle with the legal system.
Yesterday a spokesman for the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Senator Chris Evans, said the case has a lengthy history, and the MRT's ruling affirmed the Department of Immigration and Citizenship's decision to refuse his application.
Sheikh Mansour came under scrutiny by ASIO in 1995 when officers took a notebook from his luggage during a return from Iran.
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ASIO deemed him a 'security threat,' but did not reveal why, however following a legal battle, Federal Court Justice Rodney Madgwick ordered the Director General of ASIO to cover a third of the sheikh's court costs in 2004.
However last week's decision means he's forced to leave the country by March 19.
More than 1000 residents have written to Minister for Immigration Chris Evans in support of the sheikh, and say they are appalled by the decision to deport the sheikh.
Long regarded as a leader in the Muslim community, the Sheikh also won the support of Christian groups who have rallied behind him.
Indigenous pastor Ray Minniecon, from Woolloomoolloo, has known the sheikh for several years.
"It's just not right," he said.
"Sheikh is a beautiful man, as far as I'm concerned he deserves to stay here."
Reverend Dave Smith from the Dulwich Hill-based Holy Trinity Church, attended the tribunal hearing with Sheikh on February 19, and said it's "outrageous" that they have never been told why the sheikh is a threat.
"I have complete faith in his integrity and believe that anybody who knows him personally will recognise that he is not a threat to anybody's security," he said.
"He is a man our community cannot afford to lose."
Rev Smith says the sheikh should be given a fresh assessment by the intelligence agency.
"Further, if ASIO really believed that this man was a threat to national security, they would not have left him here for the last 13 years," he said.

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