Islam In Prison

By M. Amir Ali ²

The Institute of Islamic Information & Education (III&E) was established in April 1985 and began its field operation in July 1986. The III&E established an Islamic Reading Room in Chicago and opened its door to the public over the Thanksgiving weekend of November 1988. The main goals of the III&E are to remove misinformation and misperceptions of Islam and Muslims from the people’s minds through education of the masses and to educate those who enter Islam. A specific goal is to reach every home in North America with the message of Islam within a reasonable time frame. The Institute has published over eighty brochures, flyers, booklets and articles over the years to disseminate information about Islam and Muslims to the American people. Distribution of da’wah literature across North America through Islamic organizations and independent da’wah workers is one of the main activities of the Institute.

Correspondence: In the fall of 1986 the Institute published its first brochure and began its distribution in a Conference held in Orange County California. Very soon this brochure found its way into prisons and letters began coming to the Institute. As the distribution of brochures increased so did letters received by the Institute. Over the years correspondence has increased steadily and has reached an average of 2,000 letters a year (last five-year mean) from prisons. This figure is 61% of the total correspondence handled by the Institute. There are indications that each piece of literature of the Institute sent to a prisoner is circulated and read by at least ten persons; based on this estimate the III&E is reaching out to more than 20,000 individuals a year in the prison system. The cost of correspondence is somewhere $25 to $40 per letter and enclosures, which includes management, rent, utilities, personnel, material and postage. The accounting system at the Institute does not allow clean separation of the cost of correspondence with the prisoners.

Handling of Correspondence: The Institute has assigned three part-time paid persons to handle all correspondence. The following steps are followed.

1. Open the letter and immediately staple the envelope to the letter because many persons do not include their return addresses in their letters. It is rare that anyone omits return address on the envelope itself therefore saving the envelope is important.

2. The letter is stamped with the receiving date to make sure that it is responded within a reasonable period of time. The receiving date is also important to fix accountability of the person responsible to respond.

3. An assigned person reads the letter, under lines or high lights words or sentences which need a response or makes a point-wise summary on the margin of the letter.

4. A response is prepared. For writing a response the Institute has used two methods, one old and the other was adopted within the last two years. During the early 9-10 years the correspondence department prepared 20 plus standard letters and saved them in the computer disk. An appropriate response was loaded onto the screen, it was personalized and the response was sent with appropriate enclosures. This method was slow and overwhelming. During the last couple of years a standard form response was prepared, proper items are checked and the letter goes out fast with appropriate enclosures. A copy of the form is enclosed as Appendix A.

5. Sometimes a prisoner’s letter is loaded with questions that require individual attention. Responses to the questions are written and they go out as one of the enclosures with the form letter. Questions about pseudo-Islamic cults are handled routinely by enclosing a standard letter to clarify the differences between Islam and the cult under question.The most frequently asked question is about “the Nation of Islam” which is called “Farrakhanism” according to the terminology used by the Institute. The Institute has its brochure #19, ISLAM AND FARRAKHANISM COMPARED and a booklet, ISLAM OR FARRAKHANISM. The brochure is free and is sent to all inquirers but the booklet has a $3.00 charge, which covers mainly the mailing cost.

Helping Hand to Other Islamic Organizations: From the beginning the Institute has adopted the policy of cooperation with other sister Islamic organizations and da’wah workers. Time to time some Islamic organizations have asked for the help of the III&E in handling correspondence with the prisoners. World Assembly of Muslim Youth, WAMY, headquartered in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, receives many letters from the U.S. WAMY used to refer all their letters from prisons to the III&E which were responded. All letters received by the III&E from Africa, Asia, Europe and South America are sent to WAMY because she has the resources to handle such letters. The Institute has handled letters referred to her by Muslim Community Center, Chicago (MCC), American Islamic College, Chicago, Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) but these organizations no longer refer their letters to the Institute. For the last one year Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) began sending some of the letters she receives to the Institute for responding. The Institute response to all referred letters begins with an introductory sentence to let the inquirer know that it was the response to their letter sent to so and so organization.

Donation of Sets of Books: The Institute receives numerous requests for books from prisoners but Institute resources do not allow sending thousands of books to individuals. Donating books to the prison libraries solved the problem. The set contains at least twenty books but sometimes, it may have as many as thirty, depending upon the resources of the Institute and availability of the books in its store. Total cost of such a book set may vary from $60.00 to $100.00 plus shipping and handling. So far the Institute has donated book sets to over 400 prison libraries.

The Institute does not donate books for the asking by any prisoner but it requires a letter from the Chaplain on an original prison stationary assuring that there is a library and books will be loaned to individuals. To assure that books do not become property of an individual, a stamp is placed on each book, which reads as follows:

Donated to the Library or the Mosque (Masjid)
By
The Institute of Islamic Information & Education
P.O. BOX 41129-0129
Chicago, IL 60641-0129
NOT FOR PERSONAL LIBRARY

This stamp was added after the Institute received complaints that some aggressive prisoners took donated books from the library and made them their own personal property. Since the stamp was placed on each book complaints stopped completely. The Institute does not send copies of the Qur’an to individuals because of the lack of resources and all such inquiries are referred to the Saudi Embassy. A list of books, which are donated to prison libraries, is given in Appendix B.

The prayer book and accompanying audio tape have been instrumental in self-teaching Salat for the prisoners.

Visitation to the Prisons: The Institute does not provide any services of a Muslim chaplain, however, its personnel have visited a few prisons in Illinois upon request and such visits have enriched the knowledge of the inmates and experience of the volunteers. Two volunteers (one of them has been in the prison himself as a prisoner) associated with the Institute visit Cook County Jail weekly for the propagation and teaching Islam. The Cook County Jail is not a prison; its population is waiting for conviction or release.

Integration of Released Muslims from Prisons: This is a challenge that the Muslim community has failed to take up. Resources of the III&E are totally inadequate to face this challenge, however, the Institute does what it can about this problem. One prisoner who had good record of knowledge of Islam and keen interest in learning more and working for Islam was financed to come to Chicago after his release. He came, was rehabilitated, given a part-time job at the Institute, married a person who was introduced at the Institute but as an Islamic worker, he failed. In fact, he reverted to some of the old bad habits and his reform proved to be difficult. To balance the experience, another former prisoner, got married, was given a part-time job at the Institute but he went at his own to get a higher paying job elsewhere and now works as a volunteer da’wah worker as mentioned elsewhere in this paper. For many released prisoners, the Institute role is limited to good advice and teaching Islam to those who request it.

Benefits of Islamic Work in the Prisons: American prisons provide Islamic workers a captive audience that has plenty of time at its hands. Many among the prisoners are receptive to Islam for their own reasons. However, a few among those who “convert” to Islam are sincere and when they are released they go on in becoming leaders in the community and play a significant role in advancing the boundaries of Islam. There are hundreds of former prisoners who became Islamic leaders after their release. A prominent case in point is that of Imam Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin formerly famous as H. Rap Brown who spent a few years in prison for his politics but his captivity opened his door to Islam. If the Muslims do not reach out to the American people in the prison system, someone else will reach out to them, such as pseudo-Islamic cults of Ahmadiya (Qadiyanis), Farrakhanis and Moorish Divine Movement, in the name of Islam, thus misrepresenting Islam.

Is Prison the Only Field for Da’wah? Certainly not. A little over one million American people are in the prisons. Whereas there are 260 million people still out of the prisons. Muslims do not need to wait for 260 million people to go to prison before they try to reach them with Islam. Muslims in America have a duty assigned by Allah to mobilize and allocate adequate resources to reach out to the other 260 million American people. Prison work needs a lot more resources and the work in the free population needs hundreds of time more resources. Allah orders the Muslims, strive in the path of Allah with your wealth and your persons³ (time and talent).