Arkansas Dept. of Corrections Sued By Muslims To Recognize Difference Between Five Percenters

According to a public statement issued by CAIR [Council on American-Islamic Relations], a grassroots civil rights and advocacy group:

(WASHINGTON, D.C., 3/1/2019) -- The Council on American-Islamic Relations, the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today announced the filing of a lawsuit challenging the Arkansas Department of Correction’s (ADC) forced combination of religious services for Islam, the Nation of Islam, and the Nation of Gods and Earths. 

[NOTE: Nation of Gods and Earths is sometimes referred to as Five-Percent Nation or the Five Percenters.]

The CAIR Legal Defense Fund, joined by Professor Douglas Laycock of the University of Texas at Austin, filed the lawsuit on behalf of Gregory Houston Holt a/k/a Abdul Maalik Muhammad. 

Holt, joined in the suit by Muslim inmates Rodney Martin and Wayde Stewart, believes that attending Friday prayer services alongside and led by other adherents of Islam is a spiritual requirement. The current ADC policy, which forces adherents of Islam, the Nation of Islam, and Nation of Gods and Earths to attend a combined religious service, does not meet that requirement because the three groups represent different religious groups with distinct beliefs and practices.

The suit alleges that Arkansas’s combined services policy violates the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act.

Under ADC policy, Muslims risk losing their designation as Muslim if they skip or refuse to attend the combined Friday prayer services. Losing that designation in turn threatens the loss of their other religious accommodations, including meals during Ramadan.

LINK TO LAWSUIT

“Religious freedom protects everyone’s ability to worship with those who share their faith,” said CAIR National Litigation Director Lena Masri. “Followers of Islam, Nation of Islam and the Nation of Gods and Earths should be permitted to worship separately in a manner of their choice, just as Arkansas currently offers such accommodations for Catholic, Baptist, Jewish, and Buddhist worship services.”

She noted that Holt previously prevailed 9-0 before the U.S. Supreme Court in a case which required Arkansas to permit Holt to grow a beard, in accordance with his sincerely-held Islamic beliefs.

“Mr. Muhammad won the right to practice his Muslim faith in Arkansas prisons four years ago, and should win again here,” said Professor Douglas Laycock, who argued Holt’s earlier case before the U.S. Supreme Court.  “The Arkansas Department of Correction needs to join the Federal Bureau of Prisons and several large state prison systems in recognizing that Islam and the Nation of Islam are completely different faith traditions.” The suit also asks for the Nation of Gods and Earths to be recognized as a separate faith.

“It is unacceptable that Arkansas thinks it may define who is a Muslim based on whether or not they attend Friday services, all while refusing to provide spiritually-valid Friday services,” said CAIR National Trial Attorney Carolyn Homer. “No one checks how often Christians in the facilities attend Sunday services before letting them celebrate Christmas.”

This case is the latest in a series of lawsuits CAIR has brought to defend the rights of inmates to practice their faith inside jails and prisons across the country.  Last, year, CAIR filed lawsuits on behalf of Muslim inmates in Alaska and Washington state. 

CONCLUSION

According to this CAIR lawsuit against the Arkansas Department of Correction’s (ADC):

• "ADOC is forcing Plaintiffs and other Muslims to hold a combined religious service (in addition to religious study groups and other religious programming) with other religious faith groups – namely, Nation of Islam (“NOI”) and Five-Percent Nation/Nation of Gods and Earths (“NGE”)." 
• "All three Plaintiffs sincerely believe that attending a religious service led by a different faith group is a violation of their core religious principles."
• "The Defendants’ deliberate indifference and failure to respect the religious differences between Islam, Nation of Islam (“NOI”), and the Nation of Gods and Earths (“NGE”) has forced Plaintiffs and other Muslim inmates similarly situated to violate their core religious beliefs. Instead, ADOC has unlawfully forced Plaintiffs and other Muslim inmates to choose between attending a combined religious service led by adherents of NOI and/or NGE, or not attending any religious services at all, although the Blue consent decree explicitly requires ADOC to provide separate religious services for these separate religious faith groups. Neither attending services led by another faith nor skipping services fulfills Plaintiffs’ religious obligations. The act of attending a religious service led by a different faith tradition is a violation of each Plaintiff’s core religious 14 principles." 
• "ADOC’s deliberate and willful failure to recognize the religious differences between Islam, NOI, and NGE has caused significant tension and discord among inmate populations that adhere to Islam, NOI, and NGE across ADOC’s facilities. 

In addition to the lawsuit asking for the Five Percenters [Nation of Gods and Earths] to be recognized as separate from [Orthodox] Islam and the NOI, it was noted that requiring Muslims to attend religious services led by adherents of the NOI or NGE is akin to requiring Christians to attend religious services led by a Jewish rabbi, or Jews to attend religious services led by a Christian priest. Although some of the definitive language describing who we [the Five Percent] are as a culture is lacking within this lawsuit, the legal move to distinguish our Nation from religious bodies such as Orthodox Islam and the various Nation's of Islam is a positive step in the right direction of continuing the preservation of our distinct cultural identity, integrity and autonomy as Allah's Five Percent. 

Peace,

Saladin