Jewish inmate loses bid to pray in group, Muslim inmate who joined Taliban wins similar bid

Meece was denied for security reasons. The prison in Marin County Mujahid John Walker Lindh's case argued against his bid for group prayer for the same reasons. The differences? William Harry Meece is not a member of a protected victim class in today's politically correct society. He didn't have the ACLU arguing his case.

Ah, but Meece is on death row and Lindh is not, you say? Lindh should be. He should have been tried and convicted of treason, since he was captured while firing on American troops in the company of enemy forces. The fact that he was not is yet another manifestation of the politically correct favoritism accorded Muslims in the courts and in society in general today.

This is, paradoxically, why Islamic supremacist groups like Hamas-linked CAIR keep whining about a nonexistent "Islamophobia": portraying Muslims as victims is a big business, with huge benefits.

"Death row inmate loses bid to pray with Jewish inmates," from the Times of Israel, January 14:

JTA — A Kentucky death row inmate was denied his request to pray on the Jewish Sabbath in the prison’s chapel.
The Kentucky Court of Appeals ruled Jan. 11 that William Harry Meece, 40, can pray in his cell, the Associated Press reported.

Meece had petitioned to be allowed to pray in the Institutional Religious Center at the Kentucky State Penitentiary in Eddyville on his own or with Jewish inmates, according to AP. Meece said it was a burden to pray in his cell, in part because of the toilet there. Meece lives separately from the rest of the prison population in an area with other death row inmates.

The three-judge appeals court panel said Meece can cover the toilet with a sheet and pray in his cell.

Meece, who is awaiting execution for killing three people in 1993, sued the Kentucky Department of Corrections in 2007 for the right to pray outside his cell, accusing the department of violating the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act that allows prisoners to worship as they please.

The prison says it is a security risk to allow Meece to join services with Jewish inmates from the general prison population.

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dumbledoresarmy | January 14, 2013 8:31 PM | Reply

Y'know, there are bad apples in every group, but I wonder what percentage of the US prison population is Jewish, as compared to what percentage is Muslim?

And do the percentages of the US prison population that are Jewish, on the one hand, and Muslim, on the other, mirror the known percentage of those groups within the general US population?

That is: Jews are about 1.65 percent of the total US population; but do they comprise 1.65 percent of the *prison* population?

And: Muslims (they *claim* a similar percentage (1.65), but I don't believe it. One source I saw recently suggested there were 1.3 million definitely identifiable Muslims in the USA. Let's be pessimistic (while distrusting the Muslim boast of 5 to 6 million) and round it up to 2 million , that would make them about 0.5 percent of the total US population.

Question: do Muslims make up just 0.5 percent of the total *prison* population or...more?

I have a strong suspicion, based on some of the stats that have been coming out of Scandinavia and the UK of late, that persons identifying or identifiable as Muslims/ of Muslim background would be disproportionately present in prisons, that is, that they are being caught engaging in prison-worthy offences at a rate higher than that of those at least nominally identified as belonging to other belief systems.

darmanad | January 15, 2013 6:28 AM | Reply

One should not use the differing results in the two Lindh and Meece cases to argue that Islam has priority treatment over Jewish or any other denomination. It would be firing blanks to take aim on these court decisions as evidence of favored treatment for Muslim convicts.

First, Lindh is in a federal prison while Meece is in a state prison. This distinction is critical because the 1993 law that was the basis of the ruling in Lindh applies only to the feds. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_Freedom_Restoration_Act . Accordingly, the legal standard by which the unreasonablness of the restraint on the right to practice religion was different in each case.

Second, perforce the facts of each case are different. While not spelled out it may be that the Hanbali school of Islam truly places great significance on praying together. More importantly, allowing Lindh to pray with other convicts was determined not to be an unreasonable security risk. After all, the Muslim convicts were allowed to get together for games and other events. Therefore under applicable federal law, the refusal to allow the Lindh and other Muslims to to pray together was deemed to be an unreasonable burden on their right to practice their religion.

In the Meece case the risk factors were perforce different. We have no good way of knowing, but it is easy to so postulate inasmuch as he was on death row and the death row inmates are segregated at all times from the rest of the prison population.
I am no expert of Jewish ritual, but I have never known that the presence of a toilet nearby somehow delegitimized prayer.
Additionally, Meece was asking to be able to pray alone in the state prison chapel ergo the concept of a minion was not in play (assuming there were 9 other Jewish convicts in the state pen seeking to conduct religious services together - a highly dubious assumption).

Option61c | January 15, 2013 1:07 PM | Reply

While I have nothing but distain for either of these persons, and I am most definitely not a lawyer, I can shed some light on Meece’s argument. I am a former Orthodox Yeshiva student and I can tell you that from day one it was drummed into us that among other things you do not take a book with G_d’s name in it into the bathroom and you ABSOLUTELY MUST NOT say the blessing for washing hands until AFTER you exit the powder room.

I must confess that I do not recall hearing the reasons for these and other practices but I have always carried the belief that these kind of things are the ultimate in disrespect for the almighty. My use of "G_d" in my writing is also a holdover from that time.

In the end, it's all part of what makes Jews Jewish.

Option61c | January 15, 2013 1:08 PM | Reply

In the end, it's all part of what makes Jews Jewish.

Option61c | January 15, 2013 1:45 PM | Reply

In the end, it's all part of what makes Jews Jewish.

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