A Muslim man is embroiled in a religious discrimination lawsuit at a Maryland county jail, where job applicants for the position of chaplain are made to sign a statement affirming that they are Christians. Lawyers from the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) “sued Prince George’s County on behalf of Edrees Bridges, who has been a volunteer chaplain at a county jail in Upper Marlboro since 2018.”
The CAIR lawsuit argues that “that kind of religious test is illegal under the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause,” and “claims the statement violates Bridges’ religious freedom rights,” even forcing him to abandon his religious beliefs as a Muslim, should he sign the statement.
The challenge has legal and Constitutional merit, but it is no accident that it came from CAIR, an unindicted co-conspirator in a Hamas terror funding case. CAIR has earned its reputation of finding legal and political loopholes to advance its agenda to the detriment of the greater good — in this case, for the inmates in Prince George’s County. In 2018, CAIR sued Riverside Regional Jail in North Prince George, Virginia for allowing for a Christian space. CAIR filed an injunction demanding “Islamic programming,” “pork-free meals,” and a dismantling of the Christian “God-Pod” for promoting what CAIR called “segregation.”
CAIR seeks Muslim representation among prison chaplains without acknowledging how that representation has proven to be problematic. In 2011, Michael Downing, who was LAPD Deputy Chief at the time, addressed the House Homeland Security Committee; he warned: “We have ongoing cases that involve convert prison radicals that are out in the community now.” The hearing focused on the threat from “Prislam,” which Downing described as “an extremist ‘cut and paste’ version of Islam practiced by inmates.”
Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Smith stated in that same hearing that the Prislam ideology was one which “he saw in some New Folsom prison inmates whom he prosecuted for plotting to attack Jewish targets in Los Angeles and the LAX airport.”
According to Patrick Dunleavy, author of The Fertile Soil of Jihad: Terrorism’s Prison Connection: “If we continue to downplay the threat, we do so at our own peril.” He added that he “would not be surprised to find a copy of al-Qaida’s Inspire magazine in any prison.”
American federal prisons have more recently been described by experts as “breeding grounds” for terrorists. The implications are immense. “Prisons have long been criticized for a culture that can make some inmates more dangerous than when they entered, but the possibility that typical felons could become lone wolf terrorists upon earning parole is a disturbing new wrinkle.”
By contrast, Christianity has a longstanding positive impact in prison ministry. In the best interests of the prisoners collectively — and for society at large — programs in prisons have focused on restorative justice. Restorative justice is rooted in compassionate Christian beliefs.
“Prison Ministry of America, which also is named as a defendant in the suit, has a contract with the county to provide religious services to jail inmates. The statement on its job application says Prison Ministry of America employees are ‘committed to a lifestyle of Christianity and agree with our statement of faith.’”
The problem is not only an American one. In the UK, jihad recruitment in prisons has earned them the reputation of being jihad training camps, where Muslim prison gangs beat prisoners who won’t convert to Islam. Prison staff are afraid to stand up to Muslim inmates for fear of being called “racist.” A Christian prison chaplain in the UK was banned for ten years for warning about “Islamic extremism” in jails.
Many prisoners may be adversely affected, depending on the outcome of the CAIR lawsuit, if it results in more Muslim representation and fewer Christian chaplains.
“Lawsuit: Only Christians could apply for jail chaplain job,” by Michael Kunzelman, ABC News, May 27, 2021:
COLLEGE PARK, Md. — Applicants for a chaplain’s job at a Maryland county jail had to sign a statement affirming that they are Christians, a Muslim man claims Thursday in a federal lawsuit accusing the county and a contractor of religious discrimination.
Lawyers from the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights group, sued Prince George’s County on behalf of Edrees Bridges, who has been a volunteer chaplain at a county jail in Upper Marlboro since 2018.
Bridges, 49, learned in April that the county was hiring a paid chaplain. He asked for an application but couldn’t complete it because all applicants were required to sign a “Statement of Applicant’s Christian Faith” that would force him to abandon his religious beliefs as a Muslim, his lawsuit says.
Prison Ministry of America, which also is named as a defendant in the suit, has a contract with the county to provide religious services to jail inmates. The statement on its job application says Prison Ministry of America employees are “committed to a lifestyle of Christianity and agree with our statement of faith.”
It also asks applicants to affirm that they “believe in one God, Creator and Lord of the Universe,” that “Jesus Christ, God’s Son, was conceived by the Holy Spirit” and that “the Bible is God’s authoritative and inspired Word.”
The lawsuit says that kind of religious test is illegal under the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause, which prohibits government from establishing a state religion. It also claims the statement violates Bridges’ religious freedom rights.
Bridges said he was shocked and saddened to learn that his Muslim faith would exclude him from the applicant pool.
“I have always encountered people that have been open to that diversity of ideas, diversity of thought,” he said in an interview Thursday. “As a chaplain, one of the core ingredients to being a chaplain is to be there for all.”…..
mortimer says
Actually, the US constitution says that the federal CONGRESS may not make laws to establish a national religion, because at the time, a number of STATES DID HAVE ESTABLISHED CHRISTIAN DENOMINATIONS as the official state religion. The Congregational Church was established by early Puritans in New Hampshire, Connecticut and Massachusetts, an establishment those states retained into the 1800s.
According to some lawyers, who have studied this question, It may still be possible for a state to establish a religion, whether atheism, agnosticism or Islam or Zoroastrian or (egad) a Christian denomination, if that is what the majority want.
Historical context:
Although the establishment clause of the First Amendment clearly prohibits the creation of a NATIONAL church, when the amendment was ratified in 1791 it DID NOT ELIMINATE established churches in those states where they still existed; indeed, it would have encountered opposition in those states if it had sought to do so.
Today’s Supreme Court interprets the 14th amendment so that it applies the provisions of the First Amendment equally to both the federal and state governments.
commonsense says
Thanks for your informative comment.
Clifford Fodor says
And county and city governments.
mortimer says
All Muslims convicted of jihadic crimes should be required to read Robert Spencer’s new, updated ‘Did Muhammad exist?’ to relieve them of their delusional ideas regarding world war against disbelievers.
gravenimage says
Mortimer, your idea that if pious Muslims–those willing to harm and kill in the name of Islam–are forced to read Robert Spencer–a “filthy Infidlel” whom they despise and want to murder–that they will all leave Islam is pretty damned iffy, I’m afraid.
mtman2 says
Just reveal the facts = no author letting those that want the truth to research info…!
CogitoErgoSum says
I don’t see the need for a paid chaplain anyway. People in jail who want to speak to someone about their religion can put in a request to see whomever they would like to see and the request can be either approved or denied by the proper authorities in charge of the jail. Why pay one person to talk to another person who is in jail about religion? I would think that a person devoted to his/her religion would be willing to do such a thing for free.
gravenimage says
Traditionally those drawn to Christianity in prison have seen less recidivism. That is the reason.
Of course, the same is *hardly* true of Islam.
mtman2 says
Ah NO = the idea is to bring “criminals” into the realm of Godly principles found only in the Christ + Scriptural foundations America was formed from…as it was from the beginning by Christ followers doing Prison Ministry for century’s.
Changed hearts change mindsets, lifestyles and history.
Ray Jarman says
Two points jumped of the paper as I read this article.
First: “No Religion, which more than doubled in size between 1993 and 2000. The prison population as a whole grew by 55 percent over the same period. Between 1993 and 2000, the number of Muslims doubled.” When children are denied the basic concepts of good an evil as well as the consequences of both in the two to six years of childhood, they enter adulthood without a strong foundation that used to help choose right over wrong. I think that if people look at the percentage of people in prison today as compared to the years following the 1963 Supreme Court ruling Abington School District v. Schempp where the eight to one decision ruled against the school district, one would find that the increase in crime has been significant.
The second point is that Muslims are the fastest growing population to be incarcerated while the members of the Jewish community are not even mentioned.
livingengine says
nice work by CHRISTINE DOUGLASS-WILLIAMS!!
gravenimage says
+1
somehistory says
A religious organization can have the requirement that all employees affirm the same belief.
The jail has a “contract” with a religious organization, and that organization has the requirement.
The mozlum….be he an imama, cleirc, mullah, or whatever they may call themselves, is not “there for all” as far as being able to “counsel” a person who claims to be Christian. The only way a mozlum is “there for all” is to convert to islam or to kill “all” who refuse to convert.
He just wants his dirty finger in the pie….to get paid to “convert” these guys who have committed, or have been convicted of committing, a crime.
Crimes of rape, robbery, assault, murder, child molestation, etc….are not crimes in islam. So how can a mozlum “counsel” a non moslum not to be committing crimes and still convert him?
If the government did their job, the c.a.i.r. “lawyers” would themselves be charged with crimes involving funding terror, lying to police, advising others to lie, etc. Instead, they take people and other entities to court to get their slimey hands in everywhere.
gravenimage says
Crimes of rape, robbery, assault, murder, child molestation, etc….are not crimes in islam. So how can a mozlum “counsel” a non moslum not to be committing crimes and still convert him?
…………….
Spot on, Somehistory.
Hoi Polloi says
Exactly. As a start, Why should any female US citizen ever have to encounter in an official capacity any muslim, let alone have any authority exercised over her in any form by any Muslim, ever? The US guarantees its female citizens full rights while islam states that they are half human. That fact alone, if we had a functional government, would grind their movement into our structures to a halt.
Further, on a practical basis, if stats rank “Muslims at 7 percent” of the prison population while they are (wiki) “about 1.1 percent of the total U.S. population…….one of the most racially diverse religious groups in the United States,” then we see that islam is dangerous and damaging to our country. We also clearly see the lie that resistance to islam is race-based.
Lastly, CAIR should have no standing in any court in this country.
At least people here work to build understanding.
gravenimage says
Hamas-linked CAIR sues Maryland County over Christian-only chaplain hiring policy at county jail
……………..
*Of course* CAIR wants to spread Da’wa at jails–violent felons are the most likely to convert to Islam, the creed of blood and death that sacralizes so many criminal impulses like robbery, rape, and murder.
Infidel says
That is the main reason for objecting. How many prisoners who enter jail are muslims at the time of entry? They convert as a result of being a captive audience, and also by the revelation that all the criminal acts that they do can get divine endorsement if done in the name of islam
gravenimage says
Yes–I know that in Britain, for instance, more male Infidels convert to Islam in prison than in any other setting.
Crusades Were Right says
If Mohammedans follow a code that condemns immorality, then how come there are ANY in prison?
Oh right, I forgot… they’re being persecuted. lol
James Lincoln says
Now if the United States could, somehow, stop categorizing islam as a protected religion, lawsuits like this could never happen.
But that would be a very heavy lift…
Infidel says
That is key to what needs to happen. Years ago, on JW and elsewhere, I recall someone by the name of a ‘Rob Scott’ writing a detailed amendment proposal under which, for the purposes of the First Amendment definitions, islam would not qualify as a protected religion. That is also why people like Terry Gain object to calling islam a religion, and I’ve seen authors like Ali Sina and Rebecca Bynum argue likewise
gravenimage says
Actually, I think that dismantling the First Amendment for Islam would be a mistake.
James Lincoln says
I truly understand your concerns, gravenimage.
Unfortunately, islam has enough religious components – however despicable – that it would be extremely difficult for the US government to stop categorizing islam as a “religion” without that action affecting other religions.
Maybe not impossible – I’m not sure – but *very* difficult.
I invite any Jihad Watch attorney-reader to weigh in…
OLD GUY says
Islam is a political organization aimed at world dominance and should not be considered a religion. If Hitler had called his NAZI’S a religion and we applied the same legal status to nazi’s we all would be speaking German today, except for the Jewish people who would have been slaughtered. Oh wait that’s the same plan that islam has for the world. The only difference today is that we are allowing ISLAM to hide behind their religious ideology to do the same thing.
Andrew Blackadder says
When Obama was in the Oval office he demanded of Prisons across America that they take Pork of the Menu, I guess he didnt want all those Jewish prisoners to get insulted… LOL.
However the Association of Pork Ranchers screamed about it as it would have cost them a lot and so it was reinstated.
islam is coming to take over America through the back door, because thats where they are the happiest, hint,hint,nudge,nudge, know what I mean, say no more…