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Judge rules enforcing Muslim law on everyone not establishment of religion
A federal judge says an Ohio prison that forces all inmates to adhere to a strict Islamic diet is not an establishment of religion because everyone eats the same food.A federal judge recently threw out prisoner James Rivers' lawsuit against Ohio Prison director Gary Mohr's decision to ban pork from kitchens in all prisons under control of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. Mohr made the decision to stop serving pork products after a Muslim on death row filed a lawsuit against the prison system. Abdul Awkal, an inmate on death row, argued in his lawsuit that the prisons failure to provide halal meals violated his religious freedoms. Despite Awkals claims, Islamic teaching says it is perfectly acceptable to eat non-halal meat if there is no halal food available. Islam teaches that meat such as pork is considered unclean and not to be eaten. This would include all pork products including sausage and bacon. Awkal was later joined by a second Muslim who is not on death row. Prison authorities had argued that they provided non-pork and vegetarian options for Muslims. The Muslims said that was not good enough and still insisted that the food they were given meet halal standards. Posted by: tipper 2012-04-27 |
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