INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Two Muslim inmates held in a special unit at the federal prison in Terre Haute say they aren’t allowed to pray in groups as often as their religion commands and have asked a federal judge to ease worship limits imposed by the Bureau of Prisons.
The prison in western Indiana houses several high-security inmates, including American-born Taliban soldier John Walker Lindh, who is serving a 20-year sentence for aiding Afghanistan’s now-defunct Taliban government.
The June 16 lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana challenges limits on Islamic worship in the prison’s restrictive Communications Management Unit, where about 30 of the 40 inmates are Muslim.
Muslims are required to pray five times a day, but the lawsuit, filed on behalf of inmates Enaam Arnaout and Randall T. Royer, says inmates in the CMU are allowed to pray as a group just one hour a week. The ACLU claims that violates a federal law barring the government from restricting religious activities without showing a compelling need.
The lawsuit echoes a 2007 complaint from convicted shoe bomber Richard Reid that he was denied access to group prayer at the Supermax federal prison in Florence, Colo.
The Indiana lawsuit is one of two the ACLU has filed in the past week concerning conditions in the CMU. Its other lawsuit claimed the unit was created in secrecy and keeps its mostly Muslim inmates in virtual isolation. (Read more.)
B.S. Report–Who cares what their religion demands? Inmates are in prison to be punished and to perform whatever restitution society demands. Anything that we allow prisoners to do while they are incarcerated, other than eat and sleep, is a privilege.
If the prison administration doesn’t wish to grant Muslims the privilege to pray in groups, than all the ACLU suits, as well as their numerous threats, should be meaningless. One thing is certain: If it was a Christian or Jew complaining we wouldn’t have heard a peep from the ACLU.
The ACLU generally hates religion, at least Western religion, but in this instance they dislike America more than they dislike Islam. Note the cartoon below did not include the Crescent.
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