Incarcerated Muslims

Prison Outreach & Analysis

Shaykh Muhammad Shareef leading the inmate Muslims in prayer at CMF prison

Here is where you can find in debth writings from Shaykh Muhammad Shareef and other concerned Muslims active in the area of prison reform and outreach as it pertains to Muslim inmates.  The SANKORE’ Institute is honored to be in a position to highlight the issues concerning our brothers and sisters behind the wall, and offer some of the documentation that has been at the forefront of the discussion regarding this issue.

Essay’s and Information Regarding the Rights of Muslim Inmates

Salat in Prison

The year 2001 witnessed the turning point of the United States  treatment of its inmate populations.  What this means is that illegal and  unconstitutional practices such as torture, sensory deprivation, etc,  which had long been the norm in Federal, state and now privatized  institutions, were now being exported abroad internationally in  violation of international standards. I believe that the one weapon  which the Muslim inmate population has is the right to litigate and  bring forward class action lawsuits designed to bring the penal system  in the United States in conformity with internationally accepted  standards on the treatment of inmates.

It  is important that the Muslim inmate population have a fundamental  understanding of Islamic jurisprudence, beliefs and customs, along with  a basic grasps of the diverse schools of thought in Islam. If this is  not possible, then they should have access to those clerics who do  possess this knowledge. In many cases court litig ations  fail, simply because the Muslim plaintiffs lack grounding in the basics  of Islam. I would add to this, that Muslims should began to learn and  understand international standards regarding the just and humane  treatments of inmates.

These resolutions have been systematically  annotated and codified in the United Nations. Because the United States is a signature to these agreements and  resolutions, they constitute a part of constitutional law. Thus, by the  United States penal system violating such internationally accepted  standards, it also violates its own constitutional standards; and this  is the chink in the armor of the system which the Muslim plaintiff must  go after with high resolutions and the help of Allah ta`ala.

I  believe that the key is not to merely bring a successful lawsuit into  the courts, but to repeatedly demonstrate that the US federal, state  and private penal system is an aberration of  international standards and in violation of its own constitutional  standards. The reality is that presently throughout the world there are  secret prisons where Muslims are routinely tortured and killed.

The  United States has long held Muslim political prisoners within its  federal, state and now privatized penal colonies. It is by waging a litigation jihaad in the US penal system that some redress can be made in the  international community, as well. It is for this reason that Muslim  inmate legal actions in the US courts constitute the front line of  defense of Islam. Every successful Muslim litigation passed in the US  courts, is a standardization and recognition of the Islamic shari`a;  it is a strengthening of international standards on the humane and just  treatments of inmates and detainees worldwide; but more importantly it  is a perfecting and refining of the United States constitution.

I believe that such legal actions could lead to the establishment of an  internationally recognized SOCIAL CONTRACT between the United States  and its Muslim national minorities; which is consistent with the shari`a, but does not challenge the sovereignty of the United States.  Because  the United States is a normative state whose values and practices are  repeated and mimicked throughout the world; any and all legal actions  by individual Muslim inmates or class action litigations:

[1]  constitute a form of jihaad which is the best action that a  Muslim can get involved in;

[2] it makes the Muslim inmate who has loss  his ‘citizenship’ (so to speak) because of his incarceration; become  and active citizen of the world community; and

[3] due to the refining  of the US constitutional standards as a result of his/her legal  actions, he/she in affect becomes a PATRIOT in the true sense of the  word. Success is with Allah.

 

Shaykh Abu Alfa Umar Muhammad Shareef bin FaridFounding Director: Sankore` Institute of Islamic-African Studies International

A Repository of Documents

Issues Facing Muslim Inmates

 

 

Leave a Reply