Local Muslim Organization Advocates for Muslim Prisoners

The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world. Almost 7 million people are incarcerated in state and federal prisons. Of those 7 million people, 10 percent of them are Muslims. Muslims only make up 1-2% of the overall American population. The population of Muslim prisoners is rapidly growing, mainly due to internal conversions. With the growing population in prisons, the need for funds to help cover expenses of facilitating education and meet the cost of supplies continues to grow as well.

That is where Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) Council for Social Justice (CSJ) comes in. ICNA CSJ started a Muslim Prisoners Support Project (MPSP) to help fulfill the needs of these prisoners. Their main objective is to support Muslim inmates in detention and correctional facilities by providing them with prayer services, Islamic education, equipment/supplies, and resources to ensure that they are given their full rights and are treated in a civil manner.

The risk of prisons imposing arbitrary limitations on Muslim prisoners' religious practice is grave. The risk is observable in the frequency of administrative complaints from Muslim prisoners. From 1997 to 2008, Muslim federal prisoners filed the greatest number of requests for administrative remedies regarding religious accommodation of any group-42%. Furthermore, from 2001 to 2006, Muslims were the most common plaintiffs in religious freedom lawsuits in federal court, bringing 29% of cases, often without the assistance of an attorney. Muslims have historically been at the forefront of prison reform and litigation to improve prison conditions.

These prisoners are in need of community support. Most of them are new to the faith of Islam, having just converted in prison, in need of more books and lessons not available to them. ICNA CSJ also provides volunteers to lead Friday prayers at the prisons themselves. Many women do not have proper attire to wear either. In Islam, women are required to cover their hair (hijab) and up to their wrists and ankles and the only way they will be able to get hijabs is through donations. They do not even have access to the most basic Islamic need, a prayer rug and their only way to obtain one is from the outside.

As most of them are converts, most of their families are not Muslim either. That requires greater community to support them. ICNA CSJ started a Launchgood for the month of Ramadan to help raise $50,000 to support these Muslim prisoners. Last year, they were able to raise over $8,000 to support the Muslim prisoners and this year they wanted to be even more ambitious as the project is rapidly growing. Only a couple of days into Ramadan, their campaign stands with a few thousand dollars already.