Arlington Muslim Cleric Fraud
Muslim imam, wife allegedly faked marriage
Published: Oct. 19, 2010
ARLINGTON, Texas, Oct. 19 (UPI) -- A Muslim religious leader and his wife have been charged with engaging in fraudulent marriages to others to gain U.S. citizenship.
Investigators say Ibrahim Abdelrahman Dremali and Safaa Rashad Eissa of Arlington, Texas, were married in Egypt before either came to the United States. He arrived in 1989 and she in 1991.
Both married U.S. citizens in Florida and divorced within a few years, the report said. They were married again to each other in Florida shortly after Eissa's 1997 divorce, officials said.
The couple have since lived in Iowa and Texas. A federal grand jury in Des Moines, Iowa, handed down the marriage fraud charges.
"They're a very nice family," said Guy Snodgrass, the couple's landlord and mayor pro tem of Dalworthington Gardens. "Having to go through all this, it has to be hard for his wife and two young children."
Conservative bloggers have charged that Dremali holds extremist views and has ties to terrorist organizations based on statements he made at a pro-Palestinian rally in Florida in 2000 and contributions to Islamic charities. In recent years, he has condemned violence.