Muslims in Prisons

Submitted by W. (United States), Sep 30, 2003 at 13:31

Muslims rule the New Jersey prison system. While serving a state prison sentence in New Jersey, my son's life was in constant peril due to his Christian practices of quietly reading the Bible and kneeling to pray. Those threatening his very life were Muslims. Prison officials actually told my son to cease these Christian practices, while favoring the Muslim practice (at least in prison) of reciting loud prayers several times a day, including midnight prayers which were shouted to the point of preventing anyone being able to sleep in the facility. He was physically attacked several times, and transferred to another facility for his safety. All the while, prison officials not only condoned hateful Muslim persecution of Christian prisoners, but implicitly promoted this attitude.

The New Jersey prison system bends over backwards to accomodate the hateful practices of the prison Muslim population, allowing Muslim teachers to enter the facilities for "religious" instruction. However, Christian prison ministries have been increasingly denied access over the past several years.

Known violent Muslim prison gangs members are not separated from each other. Their unity is encouraged in the New Jersey prison system. Christians are their targets, and this fact is obscured by the "prisoners deserve whatever they get" attitude of our political leaders. Of course, Christian prisoners have no recourse, and must be subjected to life-threatening, institutionalized persecution for their faith.

There appears to be no channel of appeal for these issues in New Jersey. Fear of administrative reprisal against my son, which reprisal had occured previously regarding an unrelated incident, prevented me or my son from pursuing these issues on his behalf while he was incarcerated and, due to his ongoing parole, that fear remains.

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