Imam Earl Abdulmalik Mohammed Invited to Address Prison Population on an Enslaved Mind and the Prison Psychology
Note: The following are excerpts from an address Imam Earl Abdulmalik Mohammed delivered to the prison population and staff during African-American History Month. He was invited to give this presentation after the text of his national address to the Save Yours Day program in Cincinnati, Ohio was circulated among prison officials.
Peace be on you.
I am a prisoner with no prison interests. I do not have, nor do I ever intend to have, a prison ministry. I do not have an inmate's mind, attitude, or objectives. And yet when I was asked to participate in this program I accepted knowing that those I have lived with for seven years could benefit from what I might share with them, and also to assist those prison employees and officials in better comprehending the difference they can make in those sincerely seeking a positive change and direction for their own lives and the lives of those in their care.
As prisoners we may have a unique and special perspective on the meaning of freedom and the value of a free mind. I think only those who are attending the question of freedom and the meaning of freedom have this, so it does not apply to all. The tributes and recollections made of past heroes during this month are essentially our African-American and America's reflection on the meaning of freedom, because of the historical fact that we have been a people enslaved. We may try to look past this, but until it is understood and reconciled in the reality of our American identity and aspirations, by us in our own minds, we are yet un-free. It is not a question of blackness. It is a question of an honest assessment of your mental and spiritual disposition toward your true American reality.
The condition of slavery, particularly the implications of an enslaved mind and in the case of this prison reality -a prison mind as well as an enslaved mind, it is impossible for me to think of this as a prison program. If it were in my estimation having its only importance as a prison program I would not be participating. I see it as an important recognition that you have asked me to address you. And I believe that in part you have invited me because you sense that I am a free man, and that I would regard this opportunity as a free man's responsibility. We are all prisoners, but not all of us are inmates.
Your healthy or unhealthy interest in freedom determines whether or not you are an inmate. If you accept the inmate mind you will have accepted a perpetual slavery, and it will chase you and capture you in all of its sophisticated manifestations long after you have been released from prison. I have never responded to my name with 'inmate' attached to it. My humanity would not allow me to choke that label down. I must say to you that it is very difficult for me to stand before you today and make any presentation, on any occasion under these circumstances.
This prison environment is one of very serious conflicting and competing interests. I am not its product, and I am thankful to G'd that He has Protected me from its mental, spiritual, and physical dangers. It is not an environment that promotes reasonableness and clarity, and I am wanting to be reasonable and clear all of the time and especially with you this evening. It is an environment that promotes confusion, uncertainty, conflict, forced-compliance, and often life-threatening misunderstandings.
This prison environment wants you to be off-balance in addressing the needs of your true self. It wants to re-enforce a certain mind and psychology. It presents its objective as 'order' but it is dis-order that maintains and re-enforces its necessity and existence. It promotes poisons above cures, sanctions above lessons, and moral inconsistency above human decency. Its education is mis-education. You must be aware of this as its nature, to counter prison effects and to place in honest perspective the limited opportunities to truly learn.
The persons most in need of what may be presented on an occasion like this are likely not present, and if many of them did feel compelled to be here physically, they are not minimally present enough mentally to appreciate what may be presented. It is not because they are not intelligent people. They are very intelligent. It is because their mental and moral condition is competing and conflicting with their true needs and true selves. This environment is made up most of those who are suffering from a horrible dual burden of the African-American psyche.
They are suffering from a prison psychology superimposed on a slave mind, and they have not thought deeply on their condition, in most cases do not have any interest in addressing it. And if they did have an interest in addressing it, they do not know even where they should begin. They do not have the mental or moral strength enough to distance themselves from the attractions of this environment which cater to a mind enslaved and never freed, and further burdened by a prison psychology, and so they cannot hear or respond to that which can help them address their condition. All they can do is escape the reality of the demand in them to investigate what is ailing them, by tricking their mind into occupying itself with what is stupid and trivial.
It is not necessary to mention the details of this stupidity. It is all around you everyday, all day, and you are forced to compete with it to guard your peace and sanity. To refer to any prison environment or circumstances as "sweet" is a statement of extreme ignorance, trauma, and insanity. I respect the intentions of those who have organized this event. They are thoughtful and courageous people. However, the tendency for grandstanding, 'know-it-all' attitudes, and a 'preacher-pulpit spirit' weakens our ability to communicate plain truths to each other in these prison settings.
If the intent is to educate and inform, then each of us must have the determination to seek truth and to seek the persons who are a reflection of that truth, and then discipline ourselves according to the objectives of that truth, in order for a program like this to be seen for its value and render useful benefits to us. All prisoners and prison officials in America and everywhere in this world know of the story of Nelson Mandela. I have studied the thinking of Nelson Mandela, and you may not believe it, but because of my close association with the late leader of Muslim-Americans, I met and spoke with him twice.
Most of you here this evening do not know me, we have never conversed, and so it would be very difficult for you to believe that any of us could have such experiences or interactions given the false-realities fostered by a slave mind and the prison psychology. Nevertheless, I would like to share with you a perception of him and also of two other persons central to what has formed my thinking. In addition to his rise into the leadership of South Africa, what I believe is most compelling about his life is that while he was in prison, he and his comrades were in daily, constant discussion and engagement about their condition as South Africans.
Most of them were serving life-sentences, but it did not deter them from debating the vision of a new South Africa -what they wanted South Africa to become beyond its apartheid system of oppression. They were preparing themselves to become the leadership of that new South Africa. Their minds were free in spite of their physical restraints. As a result of those free minds and the disciplined, daily routines of engagement when they were released they became the leaders they had prepared themselves to be. They were not intoxicating themselves with stupidity and pursuits of leisure.
Coming from where I do, the student and close associate of the great teacher and leader of America's Islamic tradition, I do not know if Nelson Mandela and his compatriots even knew the real G'd. And so I learned also, that certain types of progress are not dependent on any particular ideology or philosophy or even the details and precepts of religious faith and teaching. It depends on your disposition of mind. If you do not have the courage to address your enslaved mind and prison psychology -an honest assessment of your true self, you will not make any sense of your true and actual condition, and you will be released into the world ready to be captured again by a new order of slave-master-systems which are ready and willing to enslave and imprison your mind, and your body if necessary.
I have also taken the time to reflect deeply on Elijah Mohammed and his preparations for addressing the condition of the African-American people during his period of imprisonment. He served his sentence in a US Federal facility similar to this one. I don't believe a day went by where he wasn't committed in discussion with his son Emmanuel who was serving the sentence with him, and others who had joined him, to the vision and the message that would support the development of a new identity for the African-American people.
Likewise, I have also thought many long hours about Wallace D. Mohammed's prison experience where he immersed himself in an uninterrupted and serious regimen of attention to understanding the intent of his father's teacher, how best to understand the future possibilities and preservation of his father's works, and what necessary adjustments must be made to ensure its Islamic authenticity and longevity. As I prepare for my release, I must tell you that this is what has occupied my conscious and unconscious mind for seven years.
These experiences and thoughts are not unique to me. I don't care if you are a Phd or a high school dropout, the imprisoned body with a free mind is inclined to discover truth, and in some ways better prepared to reflect on the nature of freedom and the responsibilities that are attached to it. There is no doubt, that only a free mind and soul can truly value the story of human origin, human purpose and human destiny that the great religions and great philosophies point to and invite to, and that G'd guarantees.
You may think you have a free mind when you read and recite the history of the African-American people, but I can tell you if your attention is only on certain iconic figures and their mentality, and you have not been introduced to the thinking, commitments, sacrifices, and motivations of a Gabriel Prosser, Nat Turner, David Walker, Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, Marcus Garvey, Elijah Mohammed, and Wallace D. Mohammed, then you are threatening your life to remain in a confused, imprisoned, slave-mind, and your discussion of the great tributaries of human society like law, economics, culture, education, and technology will be empty and yield you no better results than that of the bitter-sweet satisfaction you might get from entertainment and diversion.
I am not only speaking to the prison population. I am speaking also to you who are officials. Deep reflection on this environment of confinement, and what has been produced from it cannot be passed over as mere coincidences. There is a saying in our Islamic Faith: "No son of Adam enjoys a meal more than the one he provides for himself." A hint to the wise among you is that this saying does not only apply to physical food. It applies to all systems which uphold human society.
Thank you for this opportunity, and Peace be on you.