Former MU faculty member Shakir Hamoodi is reaching the end of an ordeal Tuesday as he begins his three-year sentence in federal prison for illegally sending money to friends and family in Iraq.
From 1991 to 2003, the U.S. placed sanctions on Iraq, making it illegal to send money to Iraq. It’s clear Hamoodi broke the law, but it’s also clear sending him to jail won’t benefit anyone.
For years, Hamoodi, who was born in Iraq but is now a U.S. citizen, sent money back home to his friends and family. Throughout the years, he sent more than $200,000, a huge sum in the eyes of his sentencing judge. When the sanction against Iraq was put in place, Hamoodi wasn’t deterred from sending the money. He helped support his friends and family through the sanction until it was lifted.
During that time, he also served the Columbia community as an assistant research professor, a business owner and an interfaith religious leader. He wasn’t a drain on society. He wasn’t a menace. Hamoodi was a contributing member of society who happened to be supporting his family who happened to live in a country against which the U.S. temporarily had a sanction.
There’s no doubt moving this money was illegal, but Hamoodi’s circumstances were much less criminal than they were presented. When he was discovered in 2006, it was around the same time an actual terrorist group (according to the U.S. Treasury Department), the Islamic American Relief Agency, was also found to be transferring money to Iraq. Hamoodi was sentenced by the same judge as the terrorist group and received a three-year sentence with probation when he could have just been granted probation. It makes sense to sentence more jail time with such a large sum of money, but what Hamoodi did with this money should have played more of a part.
Society won’t gain anything by putting Hamoodi in jail. His crimes were victimless, there won’t be any restitution and he won’t serve as a deterrent for crime. Meanwhile, the community will lose an active member of society and waste tax money housing him in prison.
The community has rallied against Hamoodi’s sentencing, created the Hamoodi Family Benefit Trust and collected almost [4,000 signatures](http://www.change.org/petitions/president-barack-obama-commute-the-36-month-sentence-of-dr-shakir-hamoodi) in support of commuting his sentence. A man who was a major player in the community is still bringing people together days before he’s put behind bars. By all accounts, that’s not where he belongs.
Morals and laws don’t always line up, and often it’s impossible to rectify that inconsistency. Hamoodi’s case is an exception and a rare opportunity for the government to side with what was right rather than what was legal. Hamoodi’s friends and family will be submitting their petition to President Obama on Wednesday. Hopefully he’ll see Hamoodi as the man Columbia sees.
