The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

The photograph was in the chaplain's locked office, Department of Correction spokesman Brian Garnett said Tuesday. He said the department has referred the matter to state police for a criminal investigation.

Abdullah T. Antepli, coordinator of Islamic Chaplaincy & Interfaith Relations for the Hartford Seminary, said the Connecticut Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the Muslim Coalition of Connecticut, the Berlin Mosque and the Harmony Foundation represent more than a dozen Islamic organizations.

“This is just the tip of the iceberg on this racial issue,” Antepli said. “This is not an individual unique incident. This is systemic.”

Garnett said he would not comment on a letter the commissioner had yet to receive.

According to documents obtained by The Day, at least four of 18 Muslim chaplains working within the Department of Correction have alleged racial and religious discrimination. Three have filed, or are in the process of filing, complaints with the state Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities.

A total of 68 chaplains serve all denominations in the prison system, according to the department.

“Bilal's case is not unique, not individual at all. We have had people say to them, 'Oh, I hope you are not going to bomb us today.' Or, 'How is Osama Bin Laden?' As if they are buddies. They are subjected to constant humiliation,” Antepli said.

As drafted, the letter also asks for diversity training in concert with the Islamic organizations in order to “avoid litigation.”

“It seems that this discrimination comes from fellow staff and upper management and is tolerated, perhaps even propagated, on every level,” the letter states.

Among the “discrimination” issues claimed in the letter are:

• Daily harassment, humiliation and intimidation of Muslim chaplains and volunteers.

• Failure to hire a sufficient number of Muslim chaplains.

•Failure to provide chicken, beef and lamb slaughtered in accordance with Islamic law to Muslim inmates.

• Failure to hire female Muslim chaplains in addition to men. Women cannot lead the Friday prayer services but could provide other religious support. Other religions are represented by both male and female chaplains, such as Catholic nuns.

• Failure to provide places to pray that have no images, such as pictures of saints.

Attorney Rabia Chaudry, spokeswoman for the Connecticut chapter of CAIR, said her organization hopes the letter will draw attention to what the organization sees as a civil rights issue.

“We want to get some response from the administration, the governor, the commissioner, whoever it is that can get these issues resolved,” she said.

Muslim chaplains who came forward this week said they are organizing in preparation to bring suit against the state for what they said is a DOC practice of targeting those individuals who complain of racial or religious bias.

“Unfortunately, the Muslim community ... is very scared,” Antepli said. “But this issue brought all of us together, finally.”

•••••Sufu Hashim, a Muslim chaplain who has worked in various prisons around the state, has been asked to sign an agreement that he will not sue the state, following a complaint he made about the Department of Correction — or be fired.

Hashim is fighting a 3-year-old DOC practice that directs the chaplains to hold more than one Jumah prayer service on Fridays.

“They're trying to get us to go against our religious law to do things we weren't supposed to do. Friday is a special day. Once they conduct one service, that's it,” Hashim said.

The chaplains have agreed, they say, “under duress” to continue the practice on a temporary basis and have asked for a permanent Islamic council to advise the DOC on Islamic issues.

The department is using Muslim chaplain Abdul-Majid Karim Hasan as its adviser for Islamic affairs and is not interested in creating such a council. Antepli said Islam is the only faith for which matters are directed by a DOC employee, rather than an outside expert or religious organization.

“For each faith, the agency holds twice annual, full-day denominational meetings,” Garnett said Tuesday. “We feel that this and the Religious Services Unit chain of command are appropriate and effective at addressing any issues.”

Antepli said Tuesday he has volunteered the services of both the Hartford Seminary and the Muslim Coalition of Connecticut, the largest umbrella organization for Muslims in the state, to serve the DOC free of charge.

“The door is always shut in our faces, slammed in our faces. We have never been able to have any civilized conversation with these people,” he said.

Hashim said that he and other Muslim chaplains in the system have been “set up.” He said that, in his case, an inmate asked someone on the outside to deliver a book to his office, along with body oils that are used by Muslims to prepare for holy services and are, by DOC directive, to be purchased through the commissary.

Hashim said a prison emergency response team asked him to surrender his keys and stand by while they searched his office and his desk in search of the contraband oils and book.

He said he has heard of similar incidents, especially after Sept. 11, 2001.

Another chaplain claims in a complaint to CHRO to have had to answer for the content of a sermon he gave in 2003.

“During a religious service (Jumah), I mentioned the immorality of the war (which was taking place),” the imam writes in his complaint, “and that the Pope as well as the Bishops in the U.S. had also spoken out against it. The inmates were very upset over the bombings and loss of life among the civilians. I as the Islamic Chaplain had to address these issues as they look toward me to make sense out of these crises ... some staff took exception to my denouncing the morality of the war and reported me.”

Garnett denied accusations that the DOC targets individuals who complain.

“The Department of Correction does not target individuals for investigations, nor does it retaliate against those who bring complaints,” Garnett said Tuesday. “Investigations (in this context) are conducted when it is alleged that the safety and security of our correctional facilities may be at risk, due to the actions of an individual not being in compliance with our Administrative Directives.”

James Outlaw, an officer with the Connecticut NAACP and president of the Brass Keys, a statewide organization for minority correctional officers, said both organizations are behind the Muslim chaplains “100 percent.”

The Muslim News
http://www.muslimnews.co.uk/news/news.php?article=12487