Mooneer Riad Tawadrus v. John Ashcroft, Attorney General

Mooneer Riad Tawadrus (“Tawadrus”) appeals the Board of Immigration Appeals’ (“BIA”) affirmation of the Immigration Judge’s (“IJ”) decision denying him asylum and withholding of removal. Because the BIA summarily affirmed the IJ’s judgment without opinion, our review is of the IJ’s decision. Fajardo v. INS, 300 F.3d 1018 , 1019 n. 1 (9th Cir.2002).

Facts And Prooedural History

I. The Application and Testimony

Tawadrus is a fifty-four year old native and citizen of Egypt, where he resided with his wife and three children. He and his family are members of the Coptic Christian Church, the Egyptian branch of the Eastern Orthodox Church. Tawadrus and his wife, both engineers, founded their own engineering and construction business in 1985. The heart of Tawadrus’ asylum claim is that members of certain government-controlled agencies placed economic sanctions on him for failing to convert to Islam.

Tawadrus’ written application focuses on three incidents in which certain agencies withheld money due to him for his construction work — one in 1992 involving the Development and Agriculture Bank, Cairo, and two in 1995 involving the Nile General Contracting Company for…