Just passing it along
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**Defining Our Struggle for Social Justice
. . . a letter to Imam Jamil Al-Amin**
Imam Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, #722657
Cobb County Adult Detention Center
P.O. Box 100110
Marietta, GA 30061
Dear Imam Jamil,
Al-salamu ‘alaykum wa rahmatu Allahi wa barakatuh (May the peace, mercy and blessings of Allah be upon you).
I pray that this finds you in the best of health and iman insha’ Allah (by the will of Allah).
As I sit in my air-conditioned office sorting out the confusion of our struggle on a two thousand dollar machine, and thinking of your commitment to this Din (Islamic way of life), I am left without words. While we sit still and talk about changing the world, cleaning up this country along with our own souls, you have gone out and done it. Can our rhetoric ever be matched by the actions we put forth?
Every morning we ask if the struggle we are attempting to engage in is nothing more than bubble-gum activism. As we come into adulthood and attempt to become women and men who are truly serious about change, we again ask if we can know that change while we sit, sipping our lattes, at an elite university. Although we try to renege on our investment in the American dream with all the frills of multinational investment, we don’t know if the rhetoric translates into reality.
Maybe we haven’t researched our traditions enough; perhaps that is where the solution is buried. But until now, finding the meeting ground of our struggle for social justice and the broader struggle of practicing our Din remains elusive. To say that a domestic struggle is not our struggle is infantile, but at the same time we can’t get caught up in secular socialist dreams. What are we expected to do when we see so much anger, hurt, oppression, racism and injustice not only around the world but in our own backyards, in our very homes? When this country has stepped up its attack on people of color and the campaign is an overtly organized, well-thought-out endeavor to keep the wealthy in power, what can we do but demand change?
Why is it that the majority of immigrant and second-generation Muslims do not see it as their duty to engage in the domestic struggle? How have Muslims come to believe that identifying with the white power structure will bring them freedom and liberation in this country? Many of us on staff are children of immigrants, and the reality is that we have no where else to go. Our homes are established in the United States, whether we like it or not.
I do not believe that all Muslims are totally apathetic to the social instability of this country, for apathy is the antithesis of our Din. But where are the Muslims when the shots are fired and the call to action sounds? Where do we run to when it comes down to implementing the slogans and hadiths (Prophetic sayings) we spew forth on a daily basis? Where are those valiant Muslims, who will strive and work hard to build the Muslim legacy? Maybe they do exist and we haven’t looked hard enough to find them.
Time and time again, we have had to ask ourselves: what we are trying to achieve? Yes, there are non-Muslims by our side, demanding social reform, but can our methodologies ever be compatible? Where is the common end goal? As I work in the office with pictures of Malik El-Shabazz surrounding me, I have to ask where I would have been had I been born forty years ago. As a Muslim, would I have fought alongside the Panthers and their Marxist platform? Would I have supported the American Indian Movement? Would I have struggled with the Moaists? Would I have marched for civil rights alongside Dr. King? It seems that any group struggling for positive change in this country has a major facet that is incompatible with Islam. Ideally, we would want there to be an Islamically-run social movement, but the Muslims are not stepping up. Dinner with White House staff and presidential candidates doesn’t cut it.
When we begin to sincerely engage ourselves in a struggle for human rights in this country, as we attempt to eventually take up the legacy of Malik El-Shabazz, and more importantly our beloved Messenger (peace be upon him), we realize we simply don’t know how. No road map exists to translate the activist into the community organizer into the community builder. We are walking in the dark with our laces tied together. What we dream of building has no blueprint.
As you spend this evening in prison, the rest of us must ask ourselves what we are doing to help. As we inch closer and closer to being completely railroaded by the United States (in)justice system, can we even see the headlights pointing our way? Imam Jamil, you are not a cause. Imam Jamil is not a campaign. Imam Jamil is not a defense fund. Imam Jamil is not another statistic. Imam Jamil is a human being, a leader and foremost a Muslim. It is with what you and those with you have built that we attempt to even walk this road. As the days pass and your trial becomes all the more imminent, we will not forget you in our prayers, and we pray that you will keep us in yours insha’ Allah.
Jazakum Allahu khayran (may Allah reward you well),
wa al-salamu 'alaykum,
the Al-Talib Staff