1982-November-12

A.M. Journal

Muhammad Speaks

Imam W. Deen Muhammad

QUESTION: What's wrong with members of the AMM becoming correctional officers, chaplains and Civil Service workers?
—Detroit, Mich.

IMAM: We have many members of the American Muslim Mission who are working in prison service, working with civic people of the community and also performing government jobs; they are on government jobs as well.

We encourage that because we are Americans, and if we are really to make contributions as Muslims then we have to hold significant positions and have some kind of importance in this society.

We have to have jobs that give us responsibility, and the more responsibility we get — that is given to us by the people of this country, like civil posts, government posts or whatever -- these positions of responsibility put us in the position to share more of our good life with the American people. This also puts us in the position to better serve our own community.

If Muslims grow in the society, industry, government, whatever it is, then we find ourselves with more freedom and more opportunity. If we have more freedom and more opportunity, then we can better serve our Muslim community and we can better serve the non-Muslim community.