Muslim Leader, Author and Businessman
Founder and President, The Mosque Cares/W.D.M. Ministry

Compassion, Commitment and Consistence: Foundations for Interfaith Dialogue

Establishing significant relationships within our community and world with colleagues representing ever-growing diverse populations challenges us to relate with open mind and open spirit. While we are expected to minister to the diverse needs of persons within our organizations where we serve forming lasting mutual and collegial relationships in the community with persons across cultural and faith boundaries is a choice we can make. Entering into dialogue with and forming relationships with persons of other faiths and cultures challenges us to relate with compassion, listening to another's story. We must make a commitment to continue such relationships through conflict that arises, and be consistent in our desire to live out the calling of all our faith groups to love one another and create a peaceful world. Back again after a warm reception in 2005, Imam W. Deen Mohammed will speak at this year's convention. From his widespread experience in interfaith dialogue and his desire to encourage relationships of integrity that promote peaceful relations among all people, Imam Mohammed will encourage attendees to strengthen relationships within our community and world beyond those that feel familiar to us.

Imam Mohammed's lifelong study and mastery of the Holy Qur'an and Arabic language in which it is written have earned him recognition and respect among Muslim scholars and authorities around he world. He met with Pope John Paul II at the Vatican in 1996 and participated in the National Prayer Service celebrating the second inauguration of U.S. President Bill Clinton. He was the first Muslim to deliver an invocation on the floor of the U.S. Senate and delivered the first address by a Muslim on the floor of the Georgia State Legislature. Imam Mohammed now directs The Mosque Cares/W.D.M. Ministry.

Commentators have said of him, "The message of Islam, delivered by him for (more than) 20 years to persons of every race, sex and class has been a quiet yet resolute factor for increased tolerance, understanding, and cooperation between Americans of different ethnic and religious backgrounds." The author of several books, the host of a television program and a nationally syndicated radio program, he is a member of the prestigious World Supreme Council of Mosques, the Peace Council, and has served as the international president of the World Conference of Religion and Peace.