A new report from civil rights organization Muslim Advocates has revealed that many U.S. prisons have been denying Muslim prisoners their religious freedoms, including halal food and proper prayer, @vicenews reports.
Among other things, the report also found that Muslims are significantly overrepresented in American prisons. Even though Muslims make up only 1% of the U.S. population, they make up about 9 percent of the U.S. prison population and in some east coast states–including New Jersey and Pennsylvania–that number is higher than 20%.
“We don’t know for certain why there are so many, or why the numbers are growing,” said Yusuf Saei, a Muslim Advocates legal fellow and the study’s main author. “Possible factors are the growth of the Muslim population in the U.S. generally, increased surveillance, harsher sentencing, and enforcement for Muslim communities, as well as conversions in prison.”
Muslim Advocates found that the most commonly reported form of discrimination against Muslim prisoners involved prisons’ refusal to comply with Muslim dietary restrictions. Nearly 40% of the Muslim prisoner cases brought to federal court and evaluated in the study involved food.
The study’s findings come after a report last year that an Alaskan prison was purposely starving Muslim prisoners during Ramadan by giving them pork sandwiches and not providing them with enough calories to sustain themselves while they were fasting.
Muslim Advocates also found that Muslim inmates were regularly denied requests to observe Eid al-Fitr, while Christian holiday requests were routinely approved.
The study found that many Muslim prisoners experience obstacles trying to pray and worship. In one cited case, Muslim prisoners were forced to pray outside, often in extreme weather conditions. In another case, Muslims were banned from praying inside their cells.
“As civil rights lawyers, our takeaway is that many state prisons are failing to respond to the needs of this significant population of Muslims,” said Saei. “It is simply unreasonable for so many state prisons to deny these people basic necessities…particularly when other prisons are already doing this with ease.”
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