Halal Meals Suit – A Call to Action
A Call to Action! Muslims are facing various forms of discriminatory treatment in U.S. prisons. Muslim prisoners struggle to keep even the most basic religious practices while in prison, which is a direct violation of these individuals’ religious freedoms.
What you need to know
Several Muslim incarcerated individuals have filed suit in Southern District of Indiana against the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) over their failure to provide Muslims with access to halal foods. This lawsuit challenges the BOP’s refusal to accommodate Muslim inmates’ religious dietary restrictions by providing alternate halal-certified meal plans and by ensuring that food provided to Muslim inmates is not contaminated with non-halal ingredients.
The BOP has refused to provide such accommodations to Muslims in federal prisons, even though it accommodates the religious dietary needs of other similarly situated religious minorities through their Religious Diet Program. This Religious Diet Program offers kosher meals as well as no-pork and no-flesh options, but none of these are consistent with a halal diet. This keeps Muslim inmates from being able to abide by basic religious laws in their daily lives.
How you can help
To make a difference, we need members of the wider Muslim community rallying to raise awareness around this issue. Take action by contacting the National Chaplaincy Administrator from the Federal Bureau of Prisons to demand that: “Muslim prisoners be fully accommodated with halal certified meals and everything else that is a part of the Religious Diets Program.”
You can contact the National Chaplaincy Administrator by phone: 202-514-9740 or by email: hkugler@bop.gov.
Learn more
Find more information about the case at the University of Michigan Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse by copying and pasting the following link: https://www.clearinghouse.net/detail.php?id=13388, or by sending us an email at info@indianamuslims.org.
