ISLAM
Ramadan challenges inmates, prisons as Islam spreads
In
prison religion is a hotly energizing force, and Islam is spreading swiftly,
experts say. Even Muslim leaders and scholars say they have been surprised by
the pace of prison conversions, though national research on religion in prison
is scarce. In what may be the most dramatic example, one researcher says the
majority of inmates are Muslim at New York City’s Rikers Island jail complex,
the largest in the country.
In prison, conversion
– largely by other prisoners – is the source of Islam’s spread.
The prison movement, rooted in the Nation of Islam era of Elijah Muhammed and
Malcolm X, initially was mostly African-American. Now, although blacks still
predominate, more Hispanics and whites are converting, too. Experts say the
Nation’s influence is waning, and Sunni and Shiite traditions are gaining
ground.
Soon the Muslim
holy month of Ramadan - with its emphasis on prayer, daytime fasting, atonement,
and strict observance - will call on the spiritual resourcefulness of Muslims
both inside and outside prison. For those behind bars, Ramadan brings the greatest
need for accommodations from authorities and the deepest tensions between prison
routine and the requirements of Islam. Chaplains say it is a time when prisoners
most need support. Outside, Muslims scrutinizing their lives are confronted
with the Quran’s admonition to reach out to those in need, “to spread
of your substance, out of love for Him, for our kin, for orphans, for the needy,
for the wayfarer, for those who ask and for the ransom of slaves.”
Ramadan begins
with the sighting of the new moon, expected to be Oct. 26 or 27, and closes
with Eid al-Fitr, the breaking of the fast, around Nov. 25.
Why it Matters
• Islam is quickly gaining converts inside prisons at a time when the government
and some religious leaders are encouraging faith as a method of rehabilitation.
Experts say the sincere practice of Islam, for example, can develop disciplined,
calm and productive behavior among prisoners and a greater chance that they
will not return to crime upon release.
• The kind of people and types of Islam that account for converts in prison
differ from the growth Islam experiences in America overall, presenting a possible
challenge to Muslim communities as more inmates are released.
• While many of inmates' religious rights were established in court cases
decades ago, some inmates are still pressing for accommodations, a need that
is particularly acute during special observances such as Ramadan.
• Tensions that exist among Christians and Muslims in the United States
also exist among those seeking to minister to inmates.
Questions for
reporters
• How is Ramadan celebrated behind bars at jails and prisons?
• Who leads services for Muslim prisoners? A chaplain? Volunteers? Do Muslim
prisoners of different traditions worship together?
• Even at Ramadan, the tradition of community members reaching out to law-breakers
behind bars is a new one to Muslim immigrants, chaplains say. Yet it is beginning.
What connections exist between mosques and Muslim student associations and prisons?
Do members of the local Muslim community see prisoners as part of their community?
Are they apprehensive about approaching jails and prisons and the people inside?
Who is the bridge, in your area, between prison and the community?
• Despite substantial differences among variants of Islam in prison, usually
one Muslim chaplain or lay leader ministers to all Muslims. How do volunteers
and prisoners bridge devotional differences and the gaps - in language and culture
-among them? How do prisons and jails screen lay volunteers? What rules govern
their religious work inside?
• Behind bars, life is controlled by authorities. Islam allows flexibility
for difficult situations. Given all that, how do prisoners cope? How do they,
for example, comply with the Ramadan requirement to give alms? When prisoners
work, they can contribute to charities, and when they do not, they often quietly
give little gifts - soap or canteen food - to less-fortunate inmates, in spite
of prison edicts against gift-giving. ("You can always give a smile, or
give of yourself," one chaplain says he tells inmates.)
• Do prisons make some accommodations for the last 10, intensified days
of Ramadan prayer? How do prisoners celebrate the Eid al-Fitr feast that closes
the holy season? Are fasting prisoners, who may need to work less intently,
accommodated?
• Many prisons serve Muslims two meals at Ramadan, after sundown and before
sunup, but balk at serving a third, in the middle of the night. Other prisons
hand out sack lunches at meals for Muslims to set aside for later. Are local
prisons serving nighttime meals, and how many do they allow? It's not uncommon
for prisoners who are not usually observant to try to follow the letter of the
law during Ramadan. What issues does this pose in, for example, the need for
greater amounts of halal meat?
• Is there evidence, anecdotally or through research, that Islam helps
reduce recidivism?
Click
the map for interview sources
in your state and region
National
sources
Abu Ishaq Abul
Hafiz, supervisory chaplain at Terminal Island federal prison and at the Metropolitan
Detention Center in Los Angeles, is the longest-serving Muslim chaplain in the
federal prison system. He wrote the section on Islam for the federal prisons
religion reference
manual and can describe the detailed preparations federal chaplains are
making, including online conferencing, for Ramadan. Contact 310-732-5195 ext.
200 or 213-253-9575.
• The 40-year-old Islamic
Society of North America, an umbrella organization, holds an annual Islam
in Prisons conference around July 4. Contact director Sayyid M. Syeed at 317-839-1812
or ssyeed@aol.com, or conference director
Mukhtar Ahmad at 317-839-8157, mahmad@isna.net.
• Iftekhar Hussain can describe the American Society of Muslims' work in
prisons. Contact 610-864-9803.
• Abdullah Muhammad directs the Prison Reform Program of the Nation
of Islam. Contact 773-324-6000.
• Joe Weedon, manager of government affairs at the American
Correctional Association, the affiliation of corrections professionals,
can help reporters find sources at prisons. Contact 301-918-1885, joew@aca.org.
• Lawrence
A. Mamiya, acting chairman of the department of religion at Vassar College,
is an expert on African-American religions, the history of the Nation of Islam
and Muslims in prisons, and current issues in New York prisons. He says state
prisons in the East, Midwest and West have largely accommodated Muslim prisoners,
who often comprise 20 percent of inmates, or sometimes more. He has done research
at Rikers Island. Contact 845-437-5522, mamiya@vassar.edu.
• Mahdi Bray, imam and executive director of the Muslim
American Society Freedom Foundation, can talk about how prisons structure
their Ramadan celebrations, the history of Islam in prison and Muslim prisoners'
rights and case law. Contact 202-496-1288, mas4freedom@aol.com.
• Professor Harry
R. Dammer, criminologist at the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania,
studies and teaches about religion in prison. Follow links
and sources throughout his web site. Contact 570-941-6170, dammerh2@UofS.edu.
• The American
Correctional Chaplains Association, with members in most states, has about
450 member chaplains. A rough breakdown: About 300 are Protestant, 100 Catholic,
a dozen Jewish and another dozen Muslim. A half-dozen represent American Indian
faiths. Some 20 chaplains are in an "other" category, including Buddhists,
Wiccans, Hindus and other faiths. Members are state employees and professional
chaplains. They do not include the numerous volunteer chaplains at prisons and
jails. There is a shortage of qualified Muslim chaplains around the country,
despite cutbacks in religious services at some prisons. Contact president Paul
Rogers or staff Muslim chaplain Imam Ron Beyah, 920-324-6298., Ronald.beyah@doc.state.us.
Interviews are cleared by media coordinator Bill Claudius, 608-240-5060.
• Chaplain Gary Friedman is director of the Seattle-based Jewish
Prisoner Services International and communications director of the American
Correctional Chaplains Association. More conversions to Islam take place
in state prisons than in federal prisons, he says, surmising that this may be
because state prisons have a larger African-American population and they comprise
the bulk of the conversions. Contact 206-985-0577.
LEGAL
SOURCES
• At the Council
on American-Islamic Relations, contact Khadija Athman, who receives prisoners'
complaints and mediates on their behalf, especially regarding accommodations
for Ramadan. Contact 202-488-8787, kathman@CAIR-net.org.
• The Becket Fund
for Religious Liberty is working on several Muslim inmate cases (see background
below) that rely on the U.S.
Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act. Roman Storzer is director
of litigation for the Becket Fund, a public interest law firm working for religious
rights. He tracks some prisoner religious rights cases. Contact 202-955-0095,
rstorzer@becketfund.org.
• Ayesha Khan is the attorney in charge of prisoner rights, including religious
rights, at Americans United for
Separation of Church and State. Contact 202-466-3234.
• The American Civil Liberties
Union National Prison Project in Washington, D.C., focuses on prison litigation,
though it currently has no inmate religious cases. Attorney David Fathi is the
resident expert on the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act
of 2000. Contact Kara Gotsch, public policy coordinator, 202-393-4930, kgotsch@npp-aclu.org.
• Ramadan
begins with the sighting of the new moon, expected to be Oct. 26 or 27, and
closes with Eid al-Fitr, the breaking of the fast, around Nov. 25. Not all Muslim
groups agree on when the new moon is sighted, so Ramadan can start on different
days for different groups.
• Read a primer
on Ramadan from Islam101.com.
• Read a primer
on Ramadan from Beliefnet.com.
ISLAM
Prison is home
to numerous Islamic traditions, including several small offshoots. Here is some
background information and links:
• Approximately 30 percent of the nation's Muslims are black, according
to the Associated Press. The majority of the other 70 percent of U.S. Muslims
are immigrants or their descendants.
• Black Muslims include members of the Nation of Islam, a group begun by
Elijah Muhammed that espoused nationalist, separatist ideals. His son, Warith
Deen Mohammed, took over the movement in the 1970s and named it the American
Society of Muslims, and he repudiated the Nation’s separatist ideas for
more inclusive Sunni Muslim beliefs. Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan
split from W.D. Mohammed in the 1980s, keeping the older, separatist approach,
although now he is reportedly moving the group in a more moderate direction.
• Read an Aug. 30, 2003, Associated Press story
posted by the Akron (Ohio) Beacon Journal about differences between
the black American Society of Muslims and immigrant Muslims in the United States.
• Read a Sept. 3, 2003, Chicago Tribune story
posted at BlackVoices.com about the American Society of Muslims' search for
a successor to W.D. Mohammed.
• Read about the history
of the Nation of Islam. Read
Beliefnet.com's FAQ
about the Nation of Islam.
• This site
offers a look at the theology of the Moorish Science Temple, a Muslim group
that began in America in 1913 and is growing among prison inmates. Harvard University's
Pluralism Project offers a snapshot
of the Moorish Science Temple of America in Dearborn, Mich.
ISLAM
IN PRISON
• Although
scholars and chaplains say that Islam is the fastest-growing religion in prison,
no statistics have been compiled for the number of Muslims in state prisons
and city and county jails (where prisoners have short-term stays), says Mohamed
Nimer, research director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations and author
of a guide to Islamic religious practices, used by jails, prisons and chaplains.
Contact 202-488-8787, ext. 3233, nimer@cair-net.org.
• See "Facts
and figures on Muslims in corrections" with links to articles and sources
at Niqabi
Paralegal, a blog about legal issues facing Muslims in the United States.
• The Federal Bureau of Prisons records prisoners' religious preferences
and says that, in September 2003, some 5.5 percent of the federal inmate population
(172,785 on Oct. 6, 2003) were some form of Muslim. Among them, 2.1 percent
were Nation of Islam and 1.1 percent were Moorish Science Temple adherents.
The bureau oversees 104 institutions. It has 10 Muslim chaplains and will not
identify them by faith, since all chaplains serve all religions. To interview
a chaplain, contact spokeswoman Traci
Billingsley (below) or the prison.
Chaplains oversee all religious programming, using volunteers or the federal
procurement process to fill special needs. Uniform regulations allow inmates
to wear religious headwear (which can be searched at any time for contraband),
trimmed beards and prayer beads and to own prayer rugs and literature. Federal
prisons serve halal/kosher meals. Contact Billingsley at 202-307-3198 or tbillingsley@bop.gov,
or ask for clearance to speak with Susan VanBalen, head chaplain.
• Read an article
posted at SoundVision.com (a Chicago-area distributor of Muslim media and literature)
about one man's efforts to make zabiha (ritually slaughtered) meat available
to Muslim inmates across the United States.
• Famous prison converts to Islam include Mike Tyson and Jamil Al-Amin
(the former H. Rap Brown).
HOW
TO GET ACCESS TO MUSLIM PRISON SOURCES
Approach the story
from inside and outside the prison simultaneously. Call jails and prisons and
ask who provides religious services to Muslims. If you can, identify and speak
first with those who work directly with the Muslim prisoners. Then, work your
way up to the head chaplain or programs director, who may have less direct contact.
Also, call mosques and Muslim student groups to ask who, if anyone, volunteers
to work in prisons and jails. Contact different kinds of mosques - those associated
with the American Society of Muslims, Nation of Islam and immigrant groups.
Work your way through the community of Muslims who have access to prisoners
in this way, asking for names and contacts with Muslim prisoners who can talk
about their experience. If access to prisoners is a problem, work instead to
get access to their families. You can write their stories indirectly, if necessary,
by writing about their families. What are the special tensions, for example,
when a family member in prison converts to Islam but those outside do not? Family
members on the outside can talk about the struggles of their loved ones to practice
their faith during Ramadan, and they can talk about the difficulties of celebrating
a family holiday when the family is fragmented.
U.S.
MUSLIM POPULATION
• Although
the concept of membership doesn't apply in mosques, a survey coordinated by
Hartford Seminary's Hartford Institute for Religious Research in 2000 (see Mosque
Study Project) found that about 2 million Muslims attend prayer in U.S.
mosques. Between 1994 and 2000, the study found, the number of mosques grew
by 25 percent, and the number of Muslims worshipping in them grew by 300 percent.
• Read a summary
of the difficulties of collecting statistics on Muslim growth in the United
States and the history of Islam here from the Washington Report on Middle East
Affairs.
OTHER
STATISTICS
• African-Americans
comprise 13 percent of the U.S. population, 30 percent of people arrested, 41
percent of those in jail and 49 percent of those in prison, according to a 2000
report
by Human Rights Watch.
• According to a story
posted on PBS' NewsHour EXTRA web site, the federal Justice Department
reports that the U.S. prison population rose 2.6 percent in 2002 to reach 2
million. Women make up almost 7 percent of all prison inmates. Read an Aug.
28, 2001, PBS report
on prisons.
COURT
CASES INVOLVING MUSLIM INMATES
• Court cases
in the 1960s and '70s established prisoners' constitutional right to religious
services. Yet experts say that except for federal prisons, those established
rights are unevenly interpreted. Some new court cases are being filed, but,
mostly, Muslim and prisoners' rights organizations work toward administrative
remedies on behalf of scores of Muslim prisoners to get access to Muslim-sanctioned
food, Friday community worship, religious items or the right to grow a beard.
In the North and Northeast, many prisons have Muslim chaplains or bring in outside
imams or volunteers. In the South, experts say, some Muslims still have no access
to Muslim religious leadership in prison or jail, and no accommodations are
allowed for Ramadan.
• Most cases
guiding religion in prison were decided decades ago, including Fulwood v. Clemmer
(1962), Cooper v. Pate (1964), and Cruz v. Beto (1972). In Fulwood, the U.S.
District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that correctional officials
must recognize Islam.
• Read
a Sept. 11, 2003, story
from The Star-Ledger in New Jersey, posted by IndyMedia Center, about
the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' Sept. 10 ruling that the New Jersey Department
of Corrections need not serve halal meat at a maximum-security prison in Trenton.
• The U.S. Religious Land
Use and Institutionalized Persons Act is the basis for a spate of current
suits by prisoners seeking greater religious accommodation. The Becket
Fund for Religious Liberty is working on several cases that rely on RLUIPA
arguments. Roman Storzer is director of litigation for the Becket Fund for Religious
Liberty, a bipartisan public interest law firm working for religious rights.
He tracks some prisoner religious rights cases. Contact Storzer, 202-955-0095,
rstorzer@becketfund.org.
• Frankie Cancel, a Shiite Muslim prisoner at Franklin Correctional Facility
in New York, filed a grievance in 1998 and was successful in convincing Department
of Corrections personnel to allow separate Shiite religious services at a time
when only Sunni religious services were available. Cancel
sued two prison imams under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons
Act. The RLUIPA aspects of the case (Cancel v. Mazzuca, U.S. District
Court for the Southern District of New York No. 01-CIV-3129 NRB) were dismissed
but First Amendment claims remain and the case is pending before U.S. District
Court.
• Henry Williams is a Muslim prisoner at the State Correctional Institution
in Rockview, Pa. He sued after he was fired from his kitchen job for refusing
to handle pork, citing religious sanctions against it. Williams alleges that
he was subjected to a chain of punitive consequences by prison officials after
the incident. The state moved to dismiss on grounds that the RLUIPA act was
unconstitutional. On Sept. 30, 2003, the U.S. District Court for the Middle
District of Pennsylvania upheld the constitutionality of RLUIPA. The case (Williams
v. Bitner, Case No. 01-CV-2271) is now headed for trial before U.S. District
Judge Christopher C. Conner.
• In two Wisconsin cases with conflicting state decisions, the constitutionality
of RLUIPA is at issue in appeals to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals:
• Jerry Charles (Charles v. Verhagen, U.S. District Court for the Western
District of Wisconsin, Case No. 01-C-253-C; Seventh U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals, Case No. 02-3572), a Muslim prisoner at the Oshkosh
Correctional Institution, is suing to get Islamic prayer oil and the
ability to celebrate more than one annual religious feast. The U.S. District
Court for the Western District of Wisconsin upheld the RLUIPA.
• Tayr Kilaab al Ghashiyah, a Muslim prisoner at the Green Bay Correctional
Institution, is suing to use his Muslim name, eat halal food and possess
candles, incense, oil and other religious accoutrements. The U.S. District
Court for the Western District of Wisconsin denied the constitutionality
of RLUIPA in this case (Tayr Kilaab al Ghashiyah v. Wisconsin Dept. of Corrections,
et al, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, Case No.
01-C-10).
In
prison religion is a hotly energizing force, and Islam is spreading swiftly,
experts say. Even Muslim leaders and scholars say they have been surprised by
the pace of prison conversions, though national research on religion in prison
is scarce. In what may be the most dramatic example, one researcher says the
majority of inmates are Muslim at New York City’s Rikers Island jail complex,
the largest in the country. 