Islaamic Rulings for Incarcerated Muslims

Abstract

Even in an age of digital research, printed books that can be held in one’s hands and read are far from being relics of the past. This is doubly true in the restricted environment of an American prison, where access to the Internet is out of bounds but books may be obtained through mail order or prison libraries. This publication seeks to overcome this Internet access gap by printing questions from an online Prison Q &A Forum as a slim booklet. It represents the new challenge posed by the fatwa-on-line phenomena, its influence in diverse settings, and the complexities of conflicting notions of religious authority. Eighty questions, purportedly from incarcerated Muslims in American prisons, are answered by thirteen shaykhs and published by a bookstore, self-described as “revolutionizing authentic salafee publishing” (back cover). Numerous questions in this booklet are familiar toMuslim prison chaplains, who are professionally trained to prioritize and negotiate religious accommodation within correctional institutions. For example, Question 11 reads: “I am locked in the cell with another Muslim and there is not enough room for us to pray side-by-side. Can we then pray with one of us in front of the other?” (p. 19). One shaykh says that it is permissible to do so because of the situation, reflecting the principle that necessity may alter prescribed ritual requirements. However, addressing this and other questions without an ...