AL-AMIN'S 'LETTER FROM FULTON COUNTY JAIL'
[Col. Writ. 1/16/02]
Copyright '02 Mumia Abu-Jamal
The U.S. Civil Rights Movement has, as one of it's highlights, the searing letter, written by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., from the sweltering stench of a jail in Montgomery, Alabama. In it, Dr. King lacerates the inability of his white, fellow Christians, to see, and act against the great injustice of the American Apartheid system of segregation in the South. His indictment of them, for their condemnation of his participation in civil rights protests, stands the test of time as a record of resistance to the evils that States perform, with the silent acquiesence of the well-to-do. It was smuggled out of jail, and served to spur that movement forward to greatness.
Recently, another African-American clergyman sent a letter to his fellow believers about matters of great import and state injustice, yet this clergyman was punished by the state for daring to write from his cell in protest of a great social evil.
That clergyman is Imam Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin (formerly a youthful associate of the late Dr. King, then known as H. Rap Brown).
When Dr. King wrote and smuggled out his letter, he was a man convicted of violating the civil laws of Montgomery. Imam Al-Amin is convicted of nothing, but the hallowed 'presumption of innocence' means nothing, for the State, the very entity that seeks to take his life and freedom, bids him to be silent.
But it matters to the State, because Al-Amin is a Muslim, in a time, and in a place that such a faith is perceived, by the wider society, as an unclean violation, a dimly-felt precurser to the scourge of terrorism. In the tradition of one of the mentors of his radical youth, Imam Al-Amin speaks truth to power, both to those who follow his chosen faith (Islam), and to others who do not. He proudly proclaims his innocence, and states clearly the state's objectives: to kill him:
It is a violation of my most basic rights as a
citizen, as a human being, and as a servant
of Allah (God) to prevent me, as an accused
man faced with death, from speaking the truth
that can set me free.... O you who believe,
you with whom I have fasted during our sacred
month, Ramadan, you with whom I have
broken my fast and have shared from the
common plate of Allah's bounty, you with
whom I have prayed and shared my faith with,
you with whom I have struggled to build a
better world, hear me when I declare that
I have committed no crime before Allah or
man, that I have violated no law, civil or eternal,
that the life or the blood of the men I am
accused of injuring and killing is neither on
my hand nor my conscience for I have done
them no harm.
Imam Al-Amin expresses regret for the loss and injuries to the men, and then writes of the sacredness of all human life. He then eloquently condemns capital punishment:
State executions are little more than ritual
murders that mock justice, a blood lust, a
blood sport, a spectator sport, an act of
State-sponsored terror rooted in avarice,
hatred and revenge, without the benefit of
moral sanctions or the capacity for justice.
It is the willful arbitrary act by the State
perpetrated against the poor, the powerless,
the penniless and the despised. There are
no millionaires on death row. It is as evil
and cruel a punishment as the Roman circus
feeding men to lions. It is no less arbitrary
and no less brutal. It is no less a sacrilege
than the ancient practice of human sacrifice.
He asserts, proudly, that the power of his religious conversion has meant that he is no longer the man known (through news clippings, at least) as H. Rap Brown. Where once he was a political rebel against the American way of apartheid, he is now a being of faith, and his resistance is spiritual:
I have languished in the dungeons of their
prison. I have walked through the "shadows
of death" and "I fear no evil". I remain
unbroken and unbowed before the powers
of principalities, kings, and of State. I fear and
bow only to Allah.
For words, the very words you have now read, Imam Jamil is under a judicial silencing order, which restricts his communication with the outer world. Imagine the exquisite irony of the Imam being punished for doing one of the things that made Dr. Martin Luther King an icon in American society -- standing up against social and legal injustice. If that irony could not be made more profound, remember that he is being held incommunicado during a period that intersects the very birthday of Dr. King. (What a difference a few decades make!)Meanwhile, the movement to insure a fair trial that leads to his freedom continues unabated.
---Copyright '02 MAJ
Note: Imam Jamil may be written to at: Imam Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, (0013284-ST-06-06), Fulton County Jail, 901 Rice St., Atlanta, Ga. 30318; The Int'l Committee to Support Imam Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin -- (770) 215-2152; website: www.imamjamil.com. The full text of Imam Jamil's letter is available from: southwidemediagroup@onebox.com
Text © copyright 2002 by Mumia Abu-Jamal.
All rights reserved.
Reprinted by permission of the author.International Action Center
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