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| Converts : Conversions in U.S.
Prisons |
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A prisoner at New York’s
Wende Correctional Facility hugs a guest
during an eid celebration. (Courtesy of
Jolie Stahl. Photos originally appeared
in “Black Pilgrimage to Islam”
(Oxford University Press, 2002))
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Muslim prisoners prayer
during an eid in the yard of New York’s
Wende Correctional Facility. (Courtesy of
Jolie Stahl. Photos originally appeared
in “Black Pilgrimage to Islam”
(Oxford University Press, 2002))
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Inmates holding copies
of Al-Mujaddid (The Renewer), a newsletter
produced by Muslim inmates at New York’s
Green Haven Correctional Facility. (Courtesy
of Jolie Stahl. Photos originally appeared
in “Black Pilgrimage to Islam”
(Oxford University Press, 2002))
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One of the most successful places for da’wa is in the
prison system. It is estimated that more than 300,000 prisoners
are currently converts to Islam and about 30,000 may be converting
each year, according to scholar Jane I. Smith. Since the prison
systems include a higher percentage of people of color, many
of those converting are African Americans, Latinos and Native
Americans.
The National Islamic Prison Foundation claims
to convert an average of 135,000 prisoners a year and federal
prison statistics estimate that 10 to 20 percent of
prisoners in America are Muslims. Sulayman Nyang,
a professor of African Studies at Howard University, estimated
that one
of 10 African-American Muslims today came to
the faith through a prison conversion.
Lawrence Mamiya, a religion professor at Vassar College says
that a vast majority of prison converts embrace Islam for
reasons of survival. Acceptance into the community of those
who are already Muslim is immediate and participation in Islamic
activities helps solidify a convert's sense of identity.
In prison, Islam becomes “a way of life that transforms
what they think about, what they read, how they view the crimes
they committed,” Robert Dannin, author of “Black
Pilgrimage to Islam” told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel,
in a story published July 7, 2002. |
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