On Sunday, October 26, 2025 the Community of Imam W. Deen Mohammed will observe the annual Muslim-American Leadership Day in the city of Newark, NJ. Coinciding with the October 30th birthday of late Imam W. Deen Mohammed, Muslim-American Leadership Day commemorates Mohammed’s tradition of indigenous Muslim leadership with this year also marking fifty years since Mohammed was selected as leader of the then Nation of Islam after the passing of his father, the Honorable Elijah Mohammed, in 1975.
More than mere nostalgia, Muslim-American Leadership Day affords American civic, business, and community leaders, as well as the public a venue in which to engage the perspective of Muslim-African-American leadership on the challenges facing our collective pursuit of a ‘more perfect union.’
Central to the gathering is the public address delivered by Mohammed’s protege and successor, Imam Earl Abdulmalik Mohammed. A distinguished leader for over thirty years, Earl Abdulmalik Mohammed skillfully represented his predecessor and Muslim-American community interests in a variety of national and international settings with noted political, economic, and religious leaders. His address, entitled “Struggle for the Moral Destiny: How Does Good Prevail in an Era of Tyranny?” offers a singular insight into America’s current existential crisis and the leadership vision necessary for her reformation.
Despite a period of declining presence for W. Deen Mohammed’s community following his passing in September of 2008, the younger Mohammed and his supporters have emerged in recent years as the de-facto face of leadership for the community, preserving W. Deen Mohammed’s teachings and reestablishing his tradition of dynamic engagement with American public life.
Earl Abdulmalik Mohammed’s office, the Muslim-Americana Ministry for Human Salvation, has worked closely with City Councilman Patrick Council of Newark’s South Ward and Council Member-At-Large Louise Scott-Roundtree to sponsor this year’s gathering which also marks the establishment of the W. Deen Mohammed Faith & Just Society Humanitarian Award which aims to recognize servants of human society with the spirit to uphold justice and promote right mindedness in civic, education, economic, or religious community leadership.
Newark Mayor Ras J. Baraka was selected as the inaugural recipient of the award and is scheduled to speak as part of the activities leading up to Mohammed’s address, which also include a panel discussion among noted scholars and thinkers within the Muslim community.
With the ongoing crisis over immigration, economic justice, the genocide in Gaza—and the winds of confusion and desperation threatening to exacerbate conflict between governments, the inability of America’s beleaguered yet still venerable institutions to provide suitable remedies has strained the thinking of its best minds, the cohesion of its public, and the confidence of human communities across the globe. In this period of trouble and divisiveness, healing and precise conclusions are needed.
In the direct line and spirit of indigenous Muslim leadership and messaging excellence, characterized by Elijah Mohammed and his son W. Deen Mohammed, Earl Abdulmalik Mohammed’s reasoning and emphasis affords America access to a trusted entity—the voice of a people formed in the crucible of her successes and failures, reconciled to an informed and rational Faith in G’d, and committed to guaranteeing the just preservation and distribution of the universal ideals of freedom, justice, and equality.
This year’s Muslim-American Leadership Day gathering will be held at Central High School, 246 18th Avenue, Newark, NJ 07108. Attendance is free and all are welcome. Doors open at 12pm EST.
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Contact:
Ibrahim El-Amin
Muslim-American Ministry for Human Salvation
(951) 299-8165
[email protected]
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of RNS or Religion News Foundation.
