Since post 9/11,
Muslim prisoners have been closely looked at for ties to extremist or radical
groups on the outside of prisons. This is no secret as the Department of
Justice (DOJ) often reports on such findings through their annual reports on
prison populations and radicalization trends.
Since the Kingman
riots in the first week of July, the Arizona prisons have been on the verge of
imploding due to misunderstandings and misconceptions on Muslim needs or
practices. Muslims celebrate Ramadan which in most cases, is a peaceful
demonstration of their faith. When there are cultural misunderstandings,
disrespect or ignorance issues, there are always chances of conflict and that’s
a management issue in teaching religious sanctities as well as cultural
diversity training.
It is a foregone
conclusion that the Muslim prison population will be looking for the courts to
find relief and protection under the law. It will seek to expand their right to
worship and practice their worship exercises in a more lenient manner than it
is today. Ramadan, a month long celebration is tolerated but often ridiculed or
subject to bad jokes and offensive inconclusive misunderstandings. We should
expect more lawsuits coming from the Muslim population within the next few
months or at the very least, some legal backlash for the inconsistent manner
Muslims are being treated today.
The writing is on
the wall on that matter and many more. How does this impact the elected and
appointed state officials who traditionally and politically been a proven
interference or barrier to acquiring better living conditions inside prisons.
Prisons cost money and special accommodations are just not on the negotiations
table for Muslims to receive any more than the other groups inside prisons.
However, in
general terms, even after the Kingman riots, none are being reported to be
“threats” or “dangerous” at the moment and that’s a relief we can all live by
today. As the DOJ reports no significant
evidence of such influences throughout our prison systems, it is fair to say
Arizona is safe from any imminent threats today.
However, this does
not mean the future is safe from radicalization or influences of Muslim
propaganda and other messages designed to stimulate evolution and revolution in
various means. One could venture to say, approach determines response thus if
the prison systems approach these Muslims with aggression or biased
perceptions, the according response would be fear, and resistive posturing
accordingly to the approach intensity, cultural understandings and tone.
From here on,
legislators need to begin to inform themselves of the Muslim religion and focus
on facts, rather than myths or other misunderstood biases. There will be
various and contradictory religious related type of competing events, which may
shape looming disruptive elements if this matter is ignored.
The biggest
inaccuracy of the Muslim world is fear – since post 9/11 the “fear of
radicalization” has dominated the newspaper and television headlines and it
will be hard to ignore such worries. This will result in political fear
mongering by elected and appointed officials in charge of public safety. There
won’t be any fact checking and policies will be based on biased perceptions
rather than a qualified and quantize research effort to develop sound best
practices related to the Muslim world inside prisons.
In other words,
there will be a “lessons learned” approach rather than a qualitative and
quantitive study. This would be comparing facts to propaganda and will insult
those informed of the religious standards and create conflict.
The prison system
needs to heed cautious approaches to this topic and sensitive matter. It must
avoid fueling a confrontation by not preparing staff in their responsibilities to
be sufficiently trained to understand and communicate Muslim needs.
Moreover, they
need to set aside the myths related to extremism and focus on the behaviors of
the groups they are supervising and managing and not add any fuel to this
matter by imposing predisposition or pre-determined biases to the environment.
This may be interpreted as suppressive in nature and create a backlash which
may cause violence.
The influence of
poor policy writings and interpretation will be used essentially as oppressive and
wrongful barriers towards the religion and given the opportunity to magnify any
such ill written policies, prisoners may use this as a tool to organize and
spread their individual religious ideology to others by showing a deliberate
attempt to block or restrict Muslim religious leaders from practicing their
faith.
The solution is
better education and training for administrators and staff working the prison
populations. Secondly, there must be a better organized effort to focus on
religious pluralism inside prisons and connect those needs to the communities
for pre-release considerations into the community once released from prison.
This applies to all religions, not just the Muslim faction and groups.
Legislators must
direct, through either a statutory resolve or a legislative order, direct
Arizona prison administrators to recognize these strategies as being essential
to the life cycle with broader correctional goals, including reducing
recidivism and ensuring that healthy religious communities remain a source of
support for prisoners and prison officials alike inside the institutions,
private or public.
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