City of Residence:
Brooklyn Park, MN
Occupation:
Director of the Islamic University of Minnesota
Excerpt:
“My first session, I remember, in summer 1989, going to the highest maximum security in state of Minnesota prison, didn’t know what to expect. I went there and I found about probably 10, 12 Muslims waiting for me, and I have to say this, these men, I learned from them over the years more than they learned from me. And this is actually something I’ve been doing since then, going to different, now what we call the DOC, the Minnesota correction facility. I’m part of the group who do that. There are about 15 to 20 volunteers doing that, and we kind of try to reach out to the Muslims, to the new Muslims and also, really, to the guards. Many times we do presentations to the guards about Islam and Muslims, how to handle the Muslims. For working the prison actually I received an award from McKnight Foundation. That came as a surprise, and again, we don’t do that for that, but things come, we thank God for everything. God says really appreciate anybody who say thank you, and in Islam, actually, to thank people is an Islamic principle and a principle among all good people.
What I do I hope I contribute to the well-being of every human being, no matter who he or she is. Later on we worked with another organization, Neighborhood Development Center, which is now Neighborhood Development Center, one of the major organization in St. Paul helping small businesses, and I been on their board for probably 10, 12 years or more now.
I appreciate really the people of Minnesota. I’m not saying this really for any political statement or so, I’m truly coming from my heart. The people of Minnesota really are very welcoming to Muslims, and we appreciate that and we thank them. People sometimes think that Muslims have double identity. No, we don’t have a double identity. I wanna conclude with this: a good Muslim is a good citizen, wherever he is, or she is. They will contribute well, and the best to the wellbeing to wherever they are. If they are not good citizen, that means they are not good Muslims.”
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