WASHINGTON — 
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) announced this week
that an American Muslim citizen stuck in Kuwait had his passport returned by
U.S. embassy officials who had seized it in February.

Aziz Nouhaili, a naturalized American citizen, received his
passport following CAIR’s intervention on his behalf with the U.S. Department
of State. Last week, CAIR sent a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham
Clinton seeking the return of Nouhaili’s passport and calling its seizure a
form of “extrajudicial denaturalization.”

In a April meeting with an embassy official, Nouhaili was
reportedly told he “should stop thinking of himself as an American”
and indicated that it would be more accurate to “consider himself
denaturalized.”

“We welcome this news and hope that it serves as a
reminder that American Muslims have the same right to due process as other
citizens,” said CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad. “I want
to thank the staff at CAIR who worked to help Mr. Nouhaili with this issue. The
incident needs to be investigated thoroughly to find out if proper procedures
were followed and whether this particular American citizen was targeted due to
his faith or national origin.”