Supporters of a prominent Passaic County Muslim clergyman whose deportation case has been sent back to Immigration Court for a rehearing are planning fund-raisers, rallies and petitions to help the spiritual leader stay in the United States.

On Friday, mosque President Nabil Abbassi informed the congregation of the Islamic Center of Passaic County that their imam, Mohammad Qatanani, will have to wage his battle to stay here once again.

"We need to show support," Abbassi said. "Get your funds ready, get ready for rallies and petitions. Round 2 is already in progress."

The request for community support comes on the heels of the Board of Immigration Appeals' decision to remand Qatanani's deportation case to Immigration Court in Newark, the same court in which he was granted permanent U.S. residency last September. That apparent victory was short-lived, however, because the Department of Homeland Security appealed. DHS alleges Qatanani once had ties to Hamas, considered terrorist by the U.S. It's a charge the imam has vehemently denied.

Qatanani's supporters say the imam has broadened the mosque's outreach to the larger community, and that he is a force for peace and cross-cultural understanding.

"He has earned his wings, has earned the right to stay in the United States," said Aref Assaf, a spokesman for the imam.

During his court battle last year, some of North Jersey's most prominent political and law enforcement leaders spoke of Qatanani as a man of peace who had helped them forge ties in the Arab and Muslim communities.

Rabbi David Senter of the Congregation Beth Shalom in Pompton Lakes visited the mosque Friday to show his support for Qatanani. Senter says that although he is a staunch defender of Israel, after sitting at the imam's trial last year, he heard nothing from DHS' testimony that seemed to support its allegations.

"My thoughts and prayers are with the entire ICPC family," he told the congregation.

Immigration officials have declined comment on the appeals board's opinion.

Qatanani, who came to the United States on a religious visa, applied for permanent U.S. residency in 1999 after his visa expired. But immigration officials denied the request, saying he failed to disclose on his application an arrest and conviction by Israel when he visited the West Bank in 1993 because of alleged links to Hamas.

Qatanani maintains that he did not disclose it because he had been led to believe by Israel that it was an administrative detention, not an arrest. And Qatanani, who denies ever having had links to Hamas, argues that the Israelis never told him he'd been convicted.

In its 12-page opinion, the board said it agreed with some of Immigration Judge Alberto Riefkohl's decisions. It agreed, for example, with Riefkohl's rejection of the DHS argument that among the reasons the imam should be denied permanent U.S. residency is that he worked here without authorization from immigration authorities after his previous work permits expired. The board said Riefkohl was correct in determining that DHS incorrectly left the imam in limbo through its delay in renewing his employment authorization, and that Qatanani should not have been penalized because of the agency's inaction.

But the opinion took issue with some decisions by the judge that were critical to his ruling granting the imam permanent U.S. residency. The board, for example, said the judge should not have dismissed Israeli documents provided by DHS as unreliable because, among other things, an immigration court was not the proper venue for "the evaluation of the legitimacy of [a] foreign court system."

The board also said the imam must prove that he did not have links to Hamas.