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Latest News
LAPD selects first Muslim chaplain
by Los Angeles Daily News
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A Pakistani-born immigrant has been named the first Muslim chaplain in the Los Angeles Police Department.
American Muslims have never been much of a presence in the LAPD, accounting for less than 1 percent of its nearly 10,000 officers. But department leaders are eager to improve relationships with local Muslims.
Sheik Qazi Asad, 47, will serve as a reserve chaplain at the LAPD's North Hollywood station.
The volunteer post requires about eight hours of service each month. To Asad and his LAPD patrons, it represents an opportunity to expose officers to a culture and faith that many may find unfamiliar, even foreign.
Asad and LAPD leaders hope the appointment will enhance relations that have been strained at times, particularly in the aftermath of a much-criticized plan by the department in 2007 to map the city's Muslim population. The plan, which some critics equated to religious profiling, was scrapped after a week of protests.
"We need to establish very good communication . . . where both parties are talking to each other," Asad said. "This is just opening up the door."
Asad arrived in the United States at age 24, with virtually no money and speaking very little English. He learned to speak the language by taking classes at Los Angeles City College and by watching the news on television, and he learned a profession, the insurance claims business.
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