Ghassan Dahduli is a Palestinian man, a father of five, a respected and inspiring individual with an impressive resume. Those who know Dahduli cannot help but applaud him; his faith is his asset, and his dedication to his community has gained for him unlimited admiration. Dahduli was arrested by the FBI last September, deported to Jordan in November, and apprehended by police once he reached Amman’s international airport.

There seems to be a great dichotomy between the character of Ghassan Dahduli and the subsequent actions taken against him. It almost appears as if we are talking about two different people. Yet this is sadly the fate of many Arabs and Muslims in the US, and it is the result of the ongoing and ever-growing anti-Arab, anti-Muslim sentiment that has plagued the country for years.

The anti-Arab sentiment against Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims in the United States goes much further back than to the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and the Pentagon; and the violation of human and civil rights of Arab immigrants can also be traced to far earlier times.

While some downplay the level of abuse that Arabs and Muslims have endured based on the premise that America is at war, little justification can be offered to clear past events when peaceful Arabs and Muslims were victimized and abused in times when America was not at war. Since 1996 these violations have peaked, emphasized in a notorious secret evidence law that allows the arrest and deportation of immigrants based on charges that are secret — so secret in fact, that even attorneys representing those accused are not allowed to review them or, needless to say, challenge them.

The secret evidence law was the result of the anti-terrorism bill which was presumably approved following Timothy McVeigh’s murder of dozens of innocent Americans in the Oklahoma City Federal Building.

Although the terrorist act in Oklahoma was masterminded and implemented by a white Christian American, Arab and Muslim immigrants were the ones who suffered and paid the price. Indeed, the vast majority of those held under secret evidence have been Arabs and or Muslims.

Interestingly, according to the individual records of most of these individuals, those arrested and charged under the secret evidence laws were well known and respected men who have led successful lives in the United States, who had good careers and happy families.

It is clear that Ghassan Dahduli was not a “threat to national security” as was repeatedly claimed. The man was not secretive about his activities; he found no shame in championing the cause of Palestine. While the cause of Palestine is no threat to US national security, for Israel it may be.

The witchhunt for Arab and Muslim political activists in the United States, activists who mostly disapprove of Israel’s practices, occupation and mistreatment of Palestinians, began under the pretext of anti-terrorism efforts for protecting US national security. However, many knew that the US was being used as a tool to carry out Israel’s hunt for Palestinian intellectuals and activists. Those whom Israel couldn’t arrest and torture in Palestine, were simply arrested in the US. And since there is no evidence to support any claim of illegal activities carried out by these individuals, the evidence was withheld; it was a secret, they were told.

But what is no secret is that Dahduli and dozens of other Arabs and Muslims were innocent. Dahduli’s 22 years of residence in the US were spent in a dignified manner that violated no law.

Dahduli was involved with the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP), a group that is well known for supporting a just peace in the Middle East, and which has worked diligently to inform the American public of the realities of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, realities that have been concealed by the mainstream media for too long.

Since the IAP’s mission proved successful on many levels, Israel, who felt uneasy about the group’s work, resorted to the ever-reliable approach, dubbing the group as a “front” for the Palestinian movement Hamas.

Considering his active role in his community, it came as no surprise when Dahduli was detained by the FBI and faced a deportation trial based on secret evidence.

Dahduli family’s once happy life was shattered and the American dream became a nightmare.

The 41 year-old Palestinian man challenged the charges, insisted that he had “never been involved in any criminal activities” and had never been anything but legally resident since he arrived in the US on a student visa in 1978. After an exhausting legal battle, he was released on bond, pending the outcome of an immigration court hearing, and sought political asylum.

Back in Richardson, Texas, where Dahduli lived, the man awaited his fate. Yet it was then that the tragedy struck. On Sept. 11. Dahduli was arrested, this time on national TV, by the FBI’s North Texas Joint Force on Terrorism. FBI officials were cited by the Star-Telegram as saying that Dahduli was a flight risk and a danger to the community.

The new evidence presented against him was that Dahduli’s name and phone number turned up in a phone book of an individual that the FBI accuses of being associated with Osama Bin Laden.

Dahduli appeared to be Israel’s only chance to connect Palestinians to the attack on New York for it became clear that the Israeli propaganda machine in the US lacked material to fuel its anti-Palestinian sentiment.

But since irrationality was an expected outcome of the terrorist attacks, those who disrupted the man’s life in the US before, crept back in again and had him arrested, no questions asked.

The man’s humiliating experience with arrests and detentions appeared at an end when he was suddenly deported to Jordan on Nov. 26. The deportation, according to Dahduli’s attorney Karen Pennington, broke an agreement in which US officials agreed not to hand the man over to Jordanian authorities.

As his family waited for him at Amman airport, they were stunned to see him being detained again. But more alarmingly, according to the Associated Press, two US agents were sent with the man to Jordan.