Posted on 12/18/2002 5:27:03 PM PST by ganesha
Man of the people - arrested By SANDRA TAN News Staff Reporter 12/18/2002
Mohamed T. Albanna, photographed in his Clinton Street store last July, is considered outspoken on issues crucial to Lackawanna.
Business owner Andrea Haxton saw Mohamed T. Albanna several days a week. He was her main cigarette distributor and regularly dropped off boxes at her A&E Goods store on Ridge Road and Ingham Avenue on his way home from work. "He delivers them, we pay him, chit-chat, and he goes home," the Lackawanna business owner said. "We talk about politics all the time."
Albanna came by Monday night in a particularly good mood and told her he planned to attend the Lackawanna City Council meeting that evening. Albanna is a regular fixture at the School Board and council meetings, and local officials know him by name and often have counted him a friend of good government and public education.
Principled. Committed. Responsible.
Those words just don't go with the word "arrested."
When Albanna was taken into custody Tuesday on charges of illegally transferring large sums of money to Yemen, many wondered how someone who once called America "the greatest country in the world" could be seriously considered a national threat.
"If he's involved, I find it very hard to believe," Haxton said.
She's not the only one.
Highly regarded for his willingness to speak out on behalf of children and the needs of area residents, 51-year-old Albanna has been known to plead a case for better education, better city governance and a higher quality of living.
A leader in the Muslim and Yemenite communities and a broad community activist who has spoken at countless School Board and City Council meetings, Albanna has been a bridge builder between cultures.
Those who know Albanna know him as a family man and a tenacious businessman. A leader in the Muslim and Yemenite communities, he is the vice president of the American Muslim Council's Western New York chapter. He is one of the few who has worked to break down the barrier of silence that often shrouds the Arab immigrants who have made a home in the First Ward.
Few have looked upon him with anything but respect - until now.
Believer in justice system
When the national media came to Western New York to cover the so-called "Lackawanna Six," Albanna was one of the few voices who expressed the views of the Yemenite community with clarity and conscience.
If these men are guilty, he said, they deserve to be punished. But until then, they need to be treated fairly and equitably under the American system of justice.
"I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt," Albanna said, "but I have a lot of respect for the law enforcement agencies. They have a job to do. Our community wants to cooperate in any investigation."
Tuesday night, the man who often has shared the microphone with Albanna as a spokesman for the local Muslim community met with the media to address the day's events.
"The AMC and its membership has no knowledge directly, or indirectly, of the reasons for the accusations that have been leveled against Mr. Albanna," council president Khalid J. Qazi said. "We know him as a devoted father and dedicated community activist who is respected in both (the) Muslim and greater Western New York community because of his caring and compassionate community service."
Earlier, members of the American Muslim Council's local chapter met briefly to discuss the arrest of the group's vice president.
Qazi said he hasn't seen or spoken with Albanna since Sunday; news of Albanna's arrest reached him through someone who had caught news reports Tuesday morning.
Albanna's future with the American Muslim Council hasn't been discussed, Qazi said. Albanna was elected to the post, he noted.
"Once the people see what's going on, it's still up to the people to decide," he said.
A cross-cultural practice
The practice of sending money back home is a common one - and not just for Muslims, Qazi said.
"Recent immigrants and first-generation Americans throughout history have sent . . . money back to the home country. This is not unique to Yemen."
As the events of the past few months are sorted out through the American judicial system, Qazi said the council's work will continue.
"(The) AMC will continue to work in fulfillment of its goals and objectives. We have full faith in our Constitution and believe that the due process of law will result in just resolution of these allegations," Qazi said.
A man with 18 brothers and sisters, as well as 10 children of his own, Albanna's family tree has long branches in Western New York.
He came to Buffalo in 1969 to join his family members as a worker at Bethlehem Steel.
In 1986, he opened up his own shop, Queen City Cigarettes and Candy, on Broadway in Buffalo, expanding that business into a substantial food distributorship in later years.
Even in those early days, he found his voice as head of the Yemenite Merchants Association, speaking out on issues ranging from the Persian Gulf War to the tensions between blacks and Arab deli owners.
The most significant blot on his personal record came in 1992, when fire investigators charged Albanna with setting fire to his own store to cover his debts. He was arrested on both arson and insurance fraud charges.
He was acquitted of those charges a year later, but a civil court jury unanimously decided in 1994 that his insurance company was not obligated to honor his $800,000 claim for damages.
Albanna went ahead and rebuilt his warehouse business, this time on Clinton Street in Buffalo. He is currently the main cigarette and candy supplier to numerous mom-and-pop shops in both Lackawanna and Buffalo.
Upstanding public figure
Haxton said she hasn't known Albanna to engage in shady business practices.
"I would never deal with anyone if I thought something illegal were going on," he said.
Since the early 1990s, Albanna has generated millions of dollars in revenue, though he said his bottom-line profits are far smaller.
While his business has obviously held its own, Albanna's reputation as a parent and public figure is what people outside of the Arab community most associate with this man.
Albanna has been involved with the Democratic Party and ran a failed campaign for the Lackawanna School Board in 1997. He also has been active in the Yemen-American Benevolent Association and is vice president with the Western New York chapter of the American Muslim Council.
"He always looked for change from within," said Lackawanna School Superintendent Paul Hashem, "whether it be in terms of running for the School Board himself or supporting others on the School Board. He's never once had a personal agenda that I knew about."
Loving, concerned father
He does, however, have a vested interest in his children, seven of whom are still in school. Two attend McKinley Elementary School, three attend Lackawanna Middle School and one attends Lackawanna High School.
The youngest is a first-grader at Global Concepts Charter School in Lackawanna, where Albanna serves as a member of the School Board there.
Principal Kathy Dimitrievski said Albanna helped drum up support for the charter school within the Yemenite community when the school was preparing to open this year. He regularly contributed his perspective to board discussions, she said.
Albanna also was no stranger at Council meetings and exercised his American right to demand city improvements.
In previous Council meetings, Albanna could be heard asking for the city to clean up abandoned properties and vacant lots in the neighborhood or advocating for recreational space for the Yemenite community. At other times, he attended just to stay informed.
"We didn't always see eye to eye," said Mayor John Kuryak, "but that's what you needed in a community. I respected him. He always voiced his opinions. It was ironic he was at last night's council meeting. He was asking about snow plowing."
Now, however, Kuryak wonders if Albanna was being deceitful all along.
Newly formed suspicions
Council President Norman Polanski echoed those sentiments.
"Up to this point, I always considered him a representative of the Arab community," he said. "He always had their best interest at heart, but also things he's involved in, like the charter school."
But now, Polanski says he thinks Albanna is likely to be guilty of serious wrongdoing because otherwise the government wouldn't have targeted him.
"Somebody had to point the finger at him," he said.
Though Albanna is a U.S. citizen, Polanski said, "one wonders if it's just for appearance."
If it is, that appearance has a lot of polish.
Since Sept. 11, 2001, Albanna has made numerous comments about his desire, and the desire of the greater Muslim community, to gain acceptance by the American public at large.
When the Lackawanna Six were arrested, he said, "Anyone who doesn't feel that the United States is the greatest country in the world has no place in our community."
The greatest country in the world sent Albanna to jail on Tuesday.
News Staff Reporter Janice Habuda contributed to this article.
e-mail: stan@buffnews.com
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.