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Why
Are Muslims Being Discriminated Against? It
has been brought to my attention that Muslim prisoners at Smith
State Prison (SSP), in Georgia, are having problems with prison
officials for making prayer in congregation. According to one prisoner
at SSP, Abdus-Salam Karim, the Warden at SSP, Don Jarriel First
off, Muslims are obligated to make five prayers per day. Unlike
Judaism, Christianity, and other religions, the Islaamic religion
mandates that Muslims pray five times per day without exception.
In fact, prayer is the second pillar of Islaam. These five pillars
of a)
The belief in One God (whom Muslims call "Allaah") These acts are noble and they are healthy, especially for the prisoners who were once criminally-minded and have transformed themselves to such a degree that they take their belief in God (Allaah) very seriously, and do not think in the criminal mindset anymore. It would seem like it would please prison officials to have one less segment within the prison system involved in volatile or illegal activities. So why would the Warden and his staff suddenly come out with a memo to hinder these men - men who only wish to pray and grow in their religion - from praying together? It is a well-known fact that, even before the events of 9/11 (and especially since 9/11), Muslims throughout the U.S. prison system have faced various forms of religious discrimination, prejudice and overt acts of persecution. These
acts are usually aggravated by a governmental rhetoric that gives
the impression that all who practice Islam are somehow "terrorists,"
or out to destroy the government. Such rhetoric gives the okay for
prison officials to act with impunity in how they treat The United States Supreme Court and various other federal and state courts have ruled that religious discrimination is a violation of one's Constitutional Rights under the First Amendment and Fourteenth Amendment, and in some cases particular acts can also violate the Eight Amendment. But justice in America has never been unbiased or non-prejudicial, because justice - true justice - has never been issued out to reach all people equally and fairly. And - since its conception - America has always treated all religions that do not rest on the concepts and scriptural doctrines of the bible as heathen, and unworthy of full recognition. To disregard this fact - to ignore the reality of this statement - would be hypocritical, and a blatant denial of what America is and what it has wrapped herself around in terms of religious doctrine. It
was the bible that the U.S. used to justify enslaving millions of
African people. It was the bible that was used to negate and slaughter
millions of the various First Nations (ala "Native American")
people when Europeans came here and took their land. It was the
bible that was used to form such groups as the Ku Klux Klan (who
were all proclaimed "Christians"). It is the bible that
your Aryan Brotherhood groups use as their religious authority.
It was the bible that caused the people in Central and South America
to be colonized, murdered, raped, and their history pillaged by
the Spanish and Portuguese. That
is why we find Muslims in the prison system being denied their right
to freely and uninhibitedly worship in their own way. That is why
the prison officials at SSP in Georgia need to be sent a strong
message that they can't get away with religious prejudice and Well,
the answer is simple: America is what it is ... a nation of racist
bigots, vexed with all kinds of hypocrisy. Any time someone wishes
only to pray, rather than read a pornography magazine; any time
a person would rather pray than chase other men for sex; any time
one wishes to pray rather than gamble or exploit others; then there
is a ---------------------------------- Ali
Khalid Abdullah Ali
Khalid Abdullah has been incarcerated since 1990 for taking action
against a known drug dealer for the sexual molestation of an 11-year-old
girl, because her mother owed a crack debt. Abdullah was ambushed,
shot in the chest, and left for dead as a result of street information
circulating that he was going to deal with the perpetrators. After
recovering from the hospital, he sought to attack several businesses
the drug dealer owned as fronts for selling drugs. Abdullah and
friends confronted the employees, and discovered that they did not
know what was going on. They left without taking any money, or causing
any harm. But Abdullah was arrested and sentenced to 6 ½-20
years for "Assault with Intent to Rob While Armed." He
has been denied parole since 1996, and discharges in July 2008. The following link offers tips for writing to prisoners: http://prisonersolidarity.org/TipsForWritingPrisoners.htm |
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