IIOC Dawah & Outreach Newsletter

Ummah Inside Out – Interview with Brother Abdul Hakeem

By Amin Eshaiker

Brother Abdul Hakeem is an active community organizer in the Los Angeles area

who is recognized in his gang intervention work. A former South-Central LA gang

member himself, Abdul Hakeem experienced a life changing moment when he

found Islam during his incarceration as a youth. Link Outside sat down with

Abdul Hakeem to learn more about his amazing life changing journey.

Link Outside: Could you please tell us about your life before accepting Islam?

Abdul Hakeem: “I grew up in South Central Los Angeles. At age 12 I was a full-

fledged gang member. In 1984 heavy drugs and gang banging were very

prominent. To me school was nothing important. I couldn’t care less about

education. All I was concerned about was gang banging, ironing my khakis and

having my .25 automatic in my pocket. I wound up doing a shooting and getting

caught. I was sentenced to 27 years to life as a juvenile.”

Link Outside: Can you talk to us about life in prison?

Abdul Hakeem: “I started off at the Southern Youth Correctional Reception

Center and then transferred to Fred C. Nelles Youth Correctional Facility in

Whittier. If you couldn’t survive there, you couldn’t handle the other California

Youth Authority facilities. They take your manhood at Nelles. They would take

away your packages, money— everything. I was put into the lock-up program and

then transferred to El Paso de Robles Youth Correctional Facility. I got caught up

in gang banging and wound up in another lock-up program at Preston Youth

Correctional Facility.”

Link Outside: What lead you to Islam?

Abdul Hakeem: “After Preston I was sent to the Youth Training School (YTS) in

Ontario. I was getting kicked out of every institution. One of my homies at YTS

was a Muslim named Mustafa Kareem. He used to tell me about Islam. I was

saying, “I don’t want to hear about that stuff!” I used to go to the Protestant

service and he would come to and be telling me about Islam. One day he invited

me to Muslim service. When I heard the athan (Muslim call to prayer)—that’s

what made me start practicing Islam. I became Muslim around 20 years old in the

California Youth Authority.”

Link Outside: How was life after being released from prison?

Abdul Hakeem: “I was 23 years old when I was released. I was out of prison for

three weeks and my mom got killed. She got shot in the back of the head in a

drive-by. It hurts having no parents to guide you, because you need parents to

guide you. Parents are put here to guide us. It’s tough having no parents, I still

need them to direct and guide me.”

Link Outside: Please shed some light on prison life. What were some of the

struggles that you had to face? What are the biggest challenges for incarcerated

Muslims?

Abdul Hakeem: “Islam wouldn’t allow me to fully gang-banging and behave

ignorant or foolish. Islam teaches you that you can’t behave like that. When

you’re coming up in that lifestyle, you can act how you want to act. In Islam, you

can’t act like that if you’re a known Muslim. That was the biggest challenge for

me. I can no longer behave like that no more. When you gang bang, you can

retaliate and don’t care who you hurt, it don’t matter. But you can’t do that in

Islam. You got to forgive, especially if you don’t know who did it. Allah showed

me how to forgive. I hurt somebody and what goes around comes around. You’re

going to be made aware of it if you hurt someone. That’s why my mom got killed

in that fashion - to get shown how it feels to have someone murdered in your

family. And I never retaliated; I forgave the person who did it. Allah forgave me

so I forgave the person who killed my mother…”

**Interview continued in our next edition**

Regional Da’wah Work

As’alamu Alaykum Brothers and sisters. I pray this message finds you in the best of health and

Imaan. Ameen.

October has gotten off to a very fast and busy start for the da’wah department. We had our

second da’wah (outreach) table at the Irvine Spectrum. Alhumdulilah, we had close to 13

volunteers that came out to help pass out free information on Islam. Spectrum goers from all

ends of the ideological spectrum visited us from atheists to Christians and everything in between.

It was great to discuss Islam and demystify any and all misconceptions that they had about Islam.

We even had many Muslims swing by our table to show us their appreciation for doing the work

of outreach. May Allah accept from all of us!

‘Convey 1 Verse’ Project

To further promote Open Mosque Day 2015, the da’wah department got together and initiated a

project named ‘Convey 1 Verse’ after the hadith of the Prophet Muhammad (SAW). The goal

was to get volunteers to strategically go around the IIOC neighborhood and invite our neighbors

personally to the Open House event. Though the temperature reached around 100 degrees, staff

and volunteers were passionate and energetic to go around the neighborhood and ‘Convey 1

Verse.’ Neighbors were very happy to see the Muslim population engage with them positively

and to invite them to the Masjid. The da’wah department hopes to continue this project in the

near future.

What is to come next?

IIOC’S da’wah department hopes to conduct 2 events within the end of the year to highlight the

importance of da’wah. The events will be structured to be both academic in nature along with

being motivational. Weekly da’wah tables will also be going on so please join us by contacting

me directly at Jamaal@iioc.com.

May Allah bless you all with the best in this life and the life to come. Ameen!

Open Mosque day 2015

Open Mosque Day 2015 took place on Sunday, October 11th, 2015! We were honored to host our

local SoCal community members that took the initiative to visit their local mosque on this day.

Over ten different mosques in the Southern California region took part in hosting an Open Mosque

Day to help combat the growing Islamaphobia that is seen today.

It was great to see so many participants help volunteer on that day as well. Members of our Youth,

New Muslim Group, and Social Committee helped make the event a success! With activities such

as Henna Designs, Ask a Scholar table, Information Booths, Spanish Tables, and Try on a Hijab

Stations, it’s no wonder dozens of people attended!

Figure 1Members of our Youth Group informing pedestrians about the Open Mosque Day currently taking place.

Figure 2 The Henna Design Table was a great success!

Figure 3 Members from the community visited the local shopping centers inviting shoppers to attend Open Mosque Day!

Figure 4 Sh. Faqih addressing the crowd on what prayer is and the meaning behind Surah Fatiha.