MAKING A DIFFERENCE
How to Help Muslim Prisoners All incarcerated Muslims are someone’s mother or father, son or daughter BY HABEEBA HUSAIN
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mam Rasul Suluki, a Aside from access to resources former supervisor at New and services, Abid says a number Jersey Chaplaincy Services, of inmates also deal with civil has seen and heard his share rights issues, such as name-callof horrible and traumatic stories ing, discriminatory language, while visiting prison inmates. not getting meals on time during “I’ve seen men go from being Ramadan and denial of religious sane and functional to naked rights like keeping a beard or and growling like an animal,” appropriate burial procedures. says Suluki. “[They’re] like war Because ICNA for Social stories.” Justice presently doesn’t have the However, the imam says there capacity to staff a legal team, Abid isn’t much benefit in relaying says he forwards many civil rights Abdul Muhaymin Al-Salim (center), a former inmate, is a teacher at such stories because a listener complaints to organizations like the California-based Tayba Foundation only becomes distressed. What CAIR and lawyers who will investhe imam of the Willingboro Muslim prisons who have only 13 Muslim chaplains tigate pro bono. Education Circle prefers to share instead in the nation to serve them. Areas with a high Muslim population, are the transformative tales — something he Regardless of personal religious adher- like New Jersey, dealt with these issues witnesses among the incarcerated far more ence, however, Tricia Pethic of the Muslim more often in the 1980s according to Suluki. than the horror stories. Prisoner Project (https://www.muslimpris- Officers and institutions were suspicious of He remembers visiting a Muslim inmate onerproject.org/) in New York says a chap- Muslim chaplains at that time — would they serving a life sentence, who was recently lain’s job is to fulfill the constitutional free- side with inmates, help prisoners escape, denied his appeal for compassionate release doms of a prisoner’s right to practice religion. bring in contraband? to spend his final days at home. Suluki “Just because one breaks the law and “You also had to deal with the racism. describes the cell as empty; it had nothing goes to prison, the right to religious prac- Being Black and also being Muslim was two but a concrete slab with a mattress atop for a tice doesn’t cease,” says Pethic, who served strikes in some of the officers’ minds,” Suluki bed. He had to speak to the inmate through as a chaplain herself in Connecticut and says. “The inmates had to go through the a slit used to provide food. New York. same process.” “I said, ‘How are you?’” Suluki recalls. Still, religious freedoms are not always While things have since improved in New “[The inmate] said, ‘Imam, I’m so happy. I’m upheld. Rameez Abid, director of communi- Jersey and other states with many Muslims, at such peace with all of this. I know they cations and outreach at the Islamic Circle of areas with minimal numbers are still catchturned me down, and I can’t go home. But North America’s (ICNA) Council for Social ing up. everything is okay. I’m really very well.’ And Justice (https://icnacsj.org/), says Muslim In Jacksonville, Fla., for example, inmates the strange thing is that I left that prison, inmates want basic religious services like were denied timely iftar and suhoor meals come out here and I’m hearing people com- books, Ramadan programs and khateebs this past Ramadan. Attorney Hassan Shibly, a plain about the smallest things — what a for Jum’ah prayer. civil rights lawyer who led the CAIR Florida “The biggest hurdle we all face is the need chapter for a decade before stepping down juxtaposition.” Those outside the correctional facilities for good, solid religious education,” says earlier this year, visited the facility to politely often forget about the mass incarceration Abdul Muhaymin Al-Salim, former inmate but sternly make it clear he was ready to sue problem in the U.S., a country that boasts and current teacher at the California-based should Muslim inmates have their rights the world’s largest prison population. It has Tayba Foundation (https://www.taybafoun- trampled on while incarcerated. Within a the highest incarceration rate per-capita: 698 dation.org/), an organization that provides few days, the issue was fixed. per 100,000 people, according to the Prison inmates with traditional Islamic resources Lawyers have the ability to litigate and Policy Initiative. so they can pursue self-study. Similarly, the keep the prison staff accountable, says Shibly. At the federal prison level, Muslim Muslim Prisoner Project works to overhaul Their presence may be much more effective inmates make up the third largest faith prison libraries, which often house either when it comes to enacting change for Muslim group, according to a July 2021 Department outdated and poor-quality pamphlets about inmates in locations where chaplaincy may of Justice inspector general report. This Islam or very advanced volumes of Hadith. be lacking. accounts for over 11,000 Muslims in federal Pethic’s organization fills that gap. But the responsibility of caring for this 42 ISLAMIC HORIZONS SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2021
