 It is a religion of peace, submission, and commitment to one God and all He created. It is a way of being, a way of life. It is Islam, and fully one-fifth of people in the world follow this faith. They call themselves Muslims. Hello, I'm Chaplain Dean with the Chicago Police Department. This is the second in a series of videos to expand your knowledge and understanding of the many diverse communities within our city. Having even a basic knowledge of a person's customs and culture enables police officers to conduct their duties in a more efficient and respectful manner. Today we explore Islam. The Chicago area is home to more than 400,000 Muslims. Many are immigrants from around the world. But many more are second or third or even fourth generation Americans. For example, within the United States, the largest constituency of Muslims happen to be African American. After that, you have many Southeast Asians, Pakistanis and Indonesians, Malaysians. And then down there, you know, then you have some, you know, Arabs. And there are Muslims of every stripe, of every color and nationality. There are white Americans who are Muslim, African Americans who are Muslim. There are Russians and Chinese and Japanese who are Muslim. It's very important to keep in mind that Islam is not an ethnicity. It is simply a very basic religious creed. Muslims believe in one God who revealed Islam through all the prophets with the final prophet being Muhammad. Abraham is like the father of the three faiths, they call it. And the Christianity and the Judaism, it's all linked together. We're all of one God. That is the very definition of Islam, is to submit oneself to the message of God. We must stand for the protection of life. We stand for law against crime. We stand for morality and obedience to the law. As human beings who are living in the society, we're very committed to the upliftment of the society. And that we see as definitely a religious obligation. We bring a strong essence of moral values, family values, social values, notions of justice, notions about community service and social interaction, which are an inherent part of Islam, but which are also very important in the American fabric. A Muslim place of worship is called a mosque. The Imam is the person who leads the prayers. The Islamic holy book is called the Quran. And God is often referred to as Allah. So the word Allah is nothing other than an Arabic word for God. In fact, many of the Christian population in the Middle Eastern areas, they refer to their God as Allah, because it's just an Arabic term for God. Muslims practice the five pillars of Islam. These are witness, affirming the absolute unity of God and accepting the prophecy of Muhammad. Worship, offering ritual prayers five times a day to God while facing in the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca. Charity, obligatory donation annually of at least 2.5% of accumulated wealth. Fasting, complete abstinence from food, drink and conjugal relations from dawn until dusk by able-bodied adults during Ramadan. Pilgrimage, visiting the Kaaba and other sites in Mecca at least once in a lifetime. Muslims will conduct their daily prayers privately if possible, or publicly if necessary. When a Muslim prays, he prostrates, or she prostrates him or herself to the ground and puts their head to the ground. It's not a prayer unless you have seen this before. I've been around Muslims that you're accustomed to seeing. If law enforcement officials, police officers have to contact some Muslims, it would be best to avoid those times when people are focusing on prayer, especially in public places. Friday is the holiest day in Islam. Between 12 noon and 2, Muslims gather at Masj for congregational prayers. Very, very sensitive to Friday prayers. And the mosque is very, very sensitive. If you have to go in the mosque for a criminal, I beg you to have the same respect you would have for Catholic Church or for Protestant Church. We don't wear our shoes. We don't wear our shoes onto the actual carpets and the prayer rugs. So that would be considered extremely inappropriate and offensive for, for example, police officers going in to investigate something and have you to walk on the rugs with their, with their shoes. Of course, also there are copies of the Quran oftentimes that are kept in these mosques on bookshelves throughout the mosque area itself. It's considered extremely inappropriate to put that on the floor. Islam attaches high significance to personal modesty and requires both men and women to dress in clothes that do not emphasize bodily contours. Women are also expected to cover their hair in many but not all Muslim women wear the headscarf known as the hijab for this purpose. The real purpose is just to notify yourself as somebody who believes in God and it's really respect for God that you do this for. You have to cover in front of men who are unrelated to you. So I uncover at home, you know, in home environments with family. If I was at the group of women, I wouldn't have to cover. Policemen should treat Muslim women with particular care and sensitivity about modesty and touching regardless of whether the hijab is worn or not. Muslim men and women are prohibited from being alone in a room with a person of the opposite sex with the door closed. So if it's necessary to interview somebody of the opposite sex whether it's, you know, male to female or female to male, it would be preferable to have another person in the room. Police will also find that many Muslim women and men will not shake hands and will avoid direct eye contact with members of the opposite sex. And that may be misconstrued as disrespect or a person is averting something or, you know, anxious about something. But in oftentimes what it is, is again the modesty that is prescribed as part of the way Muslims conduct themselves, whether they are men or women. The headscarves and long skirts worn by some Muslim women lead to erroneous assumptions that Muslim women are somehow oppressed. A lot of times people think that Muslim women haven't really had much experience or are not allowed to do many things, and I think that it couldn't really be further from the truth. Nothing holds me back as far as being a Muslim woman. I mean once you really study Islam, if you're in university and take the classes you'll see that Islam basically was the first women's liberation movement. It helped the poor, it helped the women from being oppressed. They can own their own businesses, they can own their own property, they were given voting rights from the very beginning in the Islamic tradition. And Muslim boys and girls are equally cherished and keep their parents equally busy. Our children go to school, my daughter is a typical teenager, she's fascinated with basketball, she plays for the school team. Both my children are into tennis, they follow it very closely because that is one of my avocations aside from work and other community work. Like Muslim women, Muslim men wear a variety of dress. Head coverings such as kuffis, skull caps or turbans are not religious requirements but cultural preferences. For a man to remove his hat or that which is covering his head is much less of an issue in public than it is for a woman. Many Muslim men also grow beards in deference to the Prophet Muhammad. Cultural dress does not necessarily mean the person is foreign. Assumptions based on a person's clothing should be avoided. Muslims aren't necessarily from somewhere else. Just because a woman wears a headscarf doesn't mean she came off the boat from somewhere. Because a lot of times people meet me and they think, oh this is a foreigner, she doesn't know how to speak English, she's not educated and then I turn out to be pretty normal. Dr. Lena Shabendar was in fact born here and educated at Northwestern University. Muslims are valued members in all professions. I was born in Jordan, I lived there for the first ten years and then I immigrated to the United States and I've been living here for the last 23 years. I've been a policeman with the Chicago Police Department going on six years. My brother is a policeman. I have a lot of good friends who are police officers that speak Arabic and they put the life on line for the American public. Police officers, doctors, teachers, attorneys, parents, students, volunteers. Muslims integrate the tenets of their faith into all aspects of their lives. When I come into work I cannot leave my Islamist city for lack of a better term outside. I bring it in, I bring my values about being good to people, about being sensitive, about being caring, about being ethical. All of those values come with me. In addition I've got to follow the traditional rituals of practice. Muslims, just like people of all faiths, expect police officers to exhibit those same values. I want my son to always feel that an officer is someone he can trust, he can look up to and he can call and not fear. And police need to be sensitive to an increased fear among Muslims in light of current world events. I think a lot of explanation on part of the police officer or a sense of reassuring them that this is just a routine stop will go a long way in, you know, allaying some of those concerns. As a police officer there are many religious and cultural considerations to keep in mind when dealing with people of the Islamic faith. The five daily prayers are an important part of Muslim life and are done in a prostrate position. Fridays are the holiest days for Muslims and large crowds gather at mosques. Muslim men and women may avoid direct eye contact with members of the opposite sex and many prefer not to shake hands. Unless there are safety or security concerns, the following considerations are recommended. Remove your shoes when entering the prayer area of a mosque because modesty is highly valued in Islam. If possible, Muslim men and women should be interviewed by officers of the same gender and Muslim women should be allowed to remove their head scarves in private whenever possible. Also keep in mind some Muslims have an increased fear of law enforcement due to anti-Muslim sentiment following terrorist attacks by foreign Islamic extremists. All of the people we encounter on a daily basis expect to be treated with dignity and respect. Those who practice the Islam faith are no exception. It is our hope that this video will serve to enlighten and foster a new awareness and understanding. Thanks for watching and as always, stay safe.