Just connecting the dots here:
Detroit: Farrakhan visits Kilpatrick
Friends say Nation of Islam head is one of many spiritual counselors who have met with ex-mayor.
Supporters of ex-Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick warn not to read too much into a jailhouse visit by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, who met with the former mayor Thursday.
WWJ (950 AM) reported it has received a copy of Thursday's Wayne County Jail visitor log that shows Kilpatrick was visited by Farrakhan; his son, Wallace D. Farrakhan; and Minister Rasul Muhammad of the Detroit Nation of Islam chapter. The log is not available to the public.
Malik Shabazz, a longtime confidant of the Kilpatrick family, said a relative of the mayor, whom he declined to identify, confirmed Farrakhan visited the ex-mayor.
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"Having Minister Farrakhan visit is like having the pope come by," Shabazz said.
Shabazz said he did not know if Kilpatrick was considering a conversion but that "he has become more spiritual."
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The Detroit News sent a request under the Freedom of Information Act for a list of Kilpatrick's visitors. County officials released the list in December; all the names were blacked out.
Washington State: Prisoners find direction in Muslim faith, One in 10 inmates behind bars turns to Islam
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Waller, who doesn't expect to see freedom until 2033, attends a Muslim prison service every week with dozens of other men who have converted to the faith since being locked away. These "prison Muslims" are among the fastest-growing religious groups in U.S. correctional facilities.
A movement that began in the 1970s under Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan to evangelize inmates has evolved into one of the most effective religious rehabilitation agendas in the U.S. Imams under the Nation of Islam continue to draw converts, but most Muslims in prison today are Sunnis, said Lawrence Mamiya, a professor at Vassar College who has studied Muslim prison ministries.
Mamiya estimates that about 10 percent of all prison inmates have converted to Islam. Using his estimate, about 1,800 of the state's 18,000 inmates would be Muslim.
About 1 percent of Washington residents claim to be Muslim, according to a survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. That's the same as the national average.
For most men behind bars, their conversion is temporary. Just one in five who convert to Islam while in prison continue on in that faith once they are released, Mamiya said.
That makes experts wonder whether "Prison Islam" isn't a religious movement but a convenient infrastructure for a prison gang that affords members special privileges, including rugs and sticks of incense for their cells.
Chaplains who supervise Muslim services say most men are genuine in their faith.
As of August, Muslim inmates in Washington prisons have received halal meals, said John Barnes, a chaplain at McNeil Island Corrections Center. That change came after a rash of lawsuits nationwide by Muslim prisoners who claimed that they were given vegetarian meals instead of meat slaughtered as required by Islamic law.
Meals specially prepared for religious inmates are usually better quality than standard fare, said Walter Taylor, a 32-year-old inmate in Monroe. He is a devout Muslim, but said he had to claim other faiths with the prison system in order to meet requirements in the Quran for the practice of Islam.
Before the prisons began serving halal meals, Taylor registered as Jewish in order to eat kosher meals, which have similar dietary restrictions as halal meals.
He has also registered as a Wiccan for the privilege of having scented oils in his cell.
"Then I became a Sikh so I could get a turban," he said, motioning to the thin skullcap he wears to Muslim services.
Each privilege is necessary to fully practice Islam, said Taylor, who converted to the faith in prison 11 years ago -- about a year after he was incarcerated. He began studying Arabic about four years ago, and said he is now fluent. Other Muslims in the Monroe prison are dabbling in the language, too, creating a community bound not only by faith but also by tongue.
A 2006 report by George Washington University and the University of Virginia found that tight-knit communities of Muslims in prison are ripe for radicalization, and could easily become terrorist cells. A shortage of trained, federally approved imams has left openings for prisoners themselves to lead Muslim congregations, without supervision through chaplain programs.
A Monroe inmate acts as full-time imam for Muslims in the prison. He declined to be interviewed for this story.
Most of the inmates who convert to Islam are African-American, and are attracted to Islam for its discipline and belief in equality, said Faheem Siddiq, a longtime planner for the city of Everett who has acted as a Muslim chaplain in state prisons for more than five years.
"In Washington state, from Walla Walla to McNeil Island, the majority of these guys are low-income African-American converts who have an opportunity in a sober environment to try to reflect and change their lives," Siddiq said. "Islam offers them that opportunity."
Terrorist plots have been hatched in prisons, but that is a problem largely in Europe, where many Muslim prisoners are of Middle Eastern or Arab descent, Mamiya said.
"With African-Americans, it's very different," Mamiya said. "They have their own problems they want to concentrate on."
Muslim communities in prisons also provide some of the same benefits of gangs, Mamiya said. They protect one another, but they don't "demand extortion in order to be initiated," he said.
"Many of the men don't like the idea of the Christian 'turning the other cheek,' " Mamiya said. "Islam emphasizes self-defense as an ethic, so they prefer that."
There is also a strong sense of responsibility and discipline.
"In Christianity, Jesus Christ died for sins," Taylor said. "But in Islam, there's no scapegoat. I can't say that the devil made me do it."
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And now, what happens to converts to Christianity in Saudi Arabia, those who think turning the other chick is a better alternative to a legacy of revenge and bloodshed?
The Untold Ordeal of a Christian Convert in Saudi Arabia
Christian converts in Saudi Arabia go through many untold ordeals at the hands of government officials and other Muslim fundamentalists because of their faith in Jesus Christ.
As reported by Open Doors, the Saudi authorities have arrested 28-year-old Hamoud Bin Saleh simply because he gave testimony of his conversion from Islam to Christianity, and also of his critical posture of the kingdom's judiciary on his website.
According to the Open Doors report, this arrest comes barely five months after the daughter of a member of Saudi Arabia's religious police was killed for writing online about her faith in Christ.
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The same story from a different report: Christian convert lands in jail in Saudi Arabia
For more info on Nation Of Islam and their extra set of cultist beliefs: NOI on Wikipedia, Yakub on Wikipedia, NOI and antisemitism on Wikipedia.
Cross Posted on Weasel Zippers
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