Special to The Mississippi Link
A group of women representing the Muslim faith from all across the United States converged on Jackson recently to hold their 16th Annual Conference at the Jackson Hilton.
Dressed in their sisterhood colors of red and white, the organization had representatives from as far east as New Haven, Conn., as far south as Miami, Fla., as far west as Chicago, Ill., and from all across the south.
The sisters represent a “service to humanity” mission of working to improve the life of the disadvantaged at the same time strengthening themselves in their own Muslim faith.
Their workshops on Saturday drew on the expertise of Jackson locals Mahasin Owens-Sabir of Jackson State University and Oleta Garrett Fitzgerald, Southern Regional director of the Children’s Defense Fund, Inc.
Owens-Sabir advised the sisters to draw on the knowledge gained from their sincere mothers, which often is more valuable to human development than that from Ph.Ds. She related that the meaning of “minority” has changed over the years, now to mean the one in the minority economic bracket rather than by race.
Fitzgerald profiled how minority children are funneled into the “pipeline to prison,” with the reading scores of fourth graders being used as indicators of how many prison beds will be needed. She related how those scores surmount to later drop out rates and the inability to ever catch up in school.
The Children’s Defense Fund is making an effort to push for health care reform because poor health is also a contributing factor to later failures in life for these disadvantaged youth.
Saturday evening, the League held their annual banquet where the keynote speaker was Ayesha K. Mustafaa, editor of the Muslim Journal newspaper based in Chicago. Mustafaa (aka Janola Garrett) opened her address by introducing her family members. They were Minnie Garrett, Leland Socrates Garrett and wife, Carol, and Oleta Garrett Fitzgerald.
Mustafaa’s address focused on the development of the human being in the womb of the mother, furthering the theme of “The Year of the Children.” She noted that in God’s Infinite Wisdom, the human being already had been conditioned through the experiences in the womb to ably handle any of life’s difficulties.
“Yet,” she said, “because of God’s Mercy, we, immediately upon delivery forget the pain and stress of developing in the womb.”
The City of Jackson sent a Proclamation to the League sisters, and to their surprise, Jackson Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr., personally read the proclamation and gave words of welcome to the Muslim group.
This was the second of two major Muslim events held in Jackson in as many weeks, and as the Mayor stated, “Jackson is a city that welcomes diversity,” proclaiming July 18, 2009, as The International League of Muslim Women Inc. Day.
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