The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights organization, today welcomed a ruling granting attorney’s fees to CAIR and another legal group in the case in which they represented a Muslim incarceree in a case alleging that the Arkansas Department of Corrections (ADC) failed to accommodate his religious practices.
Earlier this year, CAIR announced a major federal court order requiring the ADC to provide Muslims their own weekly prayer service, or Jummah.
CAIR and Professor Douglas Laycock filed the lawsuit in 2019 on behalf of three incarcerated Muslims, Gregory Holt, Wayde Stewart, and Rodney Martin challenging ADC’s policy of requiring Muslims to pray with others who did not share their religion. The lawsuit challenged ADC’s policy under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, which requires jails and prisons to accommodate the sincerely-held religious beliefs of incarcerees.
“This ruling affirms that protecting religious freedom behind prison walls is not optional and that institutions will be held accountable when they violate federal law,” said Gadeir Abbas, Deputy Litigation Director at CAIR National. “Muslim incarcerated people do not lose their right to practice their faith simply because they are in custody, and Jummah prayer is a core religious obligation that must be respected.”
He added that Washington, D.C., based CAIR offers an educational toolkit, called “A Correctional Institution’s Guide to Islamic Religious Practices,” to help correctional officers and administrators gain a better understanding of Islam and Muslims.
SEE: A Correctional Institution’s Guide to Islamic Religious Practices
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CONTACT: Gadeir Abbas, CAIR Deputy Litigation Director, (202) 742-6420, [email protected]; CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell, 404-285-9530, [email protected]; CAIR Government Affairs Director Robert McCaw, 202-742-6448, [email protected]; CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-744-7726, [email protected]; CAIR National Communications Manager Ismail Allison, 202-770-6280, [email protected]