Last week, Mujtaba Mohammed, a lawyer on our Children's Defense Team, was approached by local television stations to be interviewed about a Presidential candidate's call to bar Muslims from entering the United States based on nothing but their religion. Mujtaba consulted with me about the interview because he was concerned about the possibility of repercussions if his expression of his personal views were identified with the Council. I was not concerned about the Council being associated with Mujtaba. The Council is proud of Mujtaba and of all of our other advocates for children's rights.
My only hesitation was my concern for the personal difficulty that Mujtaba might face being singled out as a Muslim lawyer and asked to speak about such an affront to himself, to his family, and to Muslims generally. I know how difficult that would be for me. Mujtaba assured me that he could handle the pressure.
"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly." - Martin Luther King Jr.
That afternoon, most of our staff were unaware of Mujtaba's interview, and, with his permission, I shared this message with them and share it with you all now. It takes as its starting point the above quote from King's Letter from a Birmingham Jail.
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