There Are 11,073 Muslims In Federal Prisons But Just 13 Chaplains To Minister To Them
Abdul Muhaymin al-Salim converted to Islam during his incarceration on drug charges at a federal prison in South Carolina from 2004 to 2014. In his first year there, the 49-year-old remembers a Muslim volunteer coming to the prison a couple of times a month to lead religious services.
Then, in the second year, during Ramadan, a holy month for Muslims, the volunteer was no longer allowed in the prison. Al-Salim never found out why.
"There were instances where we could have been denied or not received the proper representation or resources that we needed," he said.
Muslims, the third-largest faith group in federal prisons, are significantly underrepresented among the chaplaincy, according to a Department of Justice inspector general report released last week. Currently, 6% of federal prison chaplains are Muslim, while 9.4% of inmates identified as Muslim.
https://www.npr.org/2021/07/12/1014823399/muslim-chaplains-federal-prisons-islam-religion-shortage
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If you read further down in the articles, you will notice that the government has all kinds of IMNSHO ridiculous restrictions. And I also noted that there are prisoners of other faiths suffering a similar lack of chaplains, including Orthodox (I'm Orthodox, so I looked). Meanwhile, Protestant Christians are, as usual, over-represented and probably favorited. Yes, that was snarky and probably inappropriate but I think This is just WRONG. Salaam aleikum.
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