CHEYENNE, Wyo. — The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit Thursday claiming that a Wyoming State Penitentiary policy restricting prisoners' mealtimes violates the constitutional rights of two Muslim inmates…. At issue is an alleged "20-minute rule" requiring inmates to eat their meals within 20 minutes after the food is delivered to a cell or common dining area, the lawsuit said. The lawsuit seeks for the inmates to be exempted from the rule because it forces them to choose between eating and practicing their religion. -- from this news article
The principle of American constitutional law that has been applied n cases where, it is claimed, the free exercise of religion has been infringed, is that of "reasonable accommodation." And in the case law, what is "reasonable accommodation" in turn requires an analysis of the state interest involved. The smooth functioning of prisons would be compromised, and an administrative headache created if such a claim were to stand, so that "20 minutes" would have to be lengthened. If it were lengthened, then no doubt it would have to be lengthened for all prisoners, for if it weren’t, a great many prisoners might -- and this is a worry -- start to claim that they, too, were Muslims. They might even decide to convert, since it takes nothing but a phrase, in order to obtain such a benefit, and then, having done so lightheartedly, find that "you know, there really is something to this Islam." It's a very dangerous thing to give in on.
That is the case law. A few years ago there was an attempt to deal with this situation by statute, the so-called RULIPA (which google). It tries to accommodate religion in such areas as land use and institutional -- including prison -- practices. How this case might be decided under RULIPA, how RULIPA relates to the prior case law or might if the case came to the Court, is unclear. And here one must put one's faith in the common sense of the Court, but it would be a Court whose members are no more acquainted with Islam than are most of our leaders.
Of course, this all begs the question: is Islam a religion in the sense in which the Framers understood that word, and as we today in the West understand that word? It is much more than a religion. It is a politics. It is a geopolitics. It is a program for, and justification of, world conquest for Islam and for Muslims. That can be found, quite easily, in the texts. Those who keep refusing to examine those texts, or examining the totalitarian nature of Islam, with its system of Total Regulation, and its justification for the mistreatment of all Unbelievers, or Infidels, have the responsibility to learn all this. This needs to be understood by those in Congress who pass such a statute as RULIPA, and by judges, including of course those on the Supreme Court.
Islam presents an unprecedented challenge, both to American jurisprudence, and to American society -- and to all Western states, and societies. A challenge and, if rightly understood, a danger that will not disappear, because it is based on texts that are regarded as uncreated and immutable, and the literal word of God. Every Muslim is, or is supposed to be, a literalist, and those who are not and who maintain silence about the nature of Islam are only encouraging unwariness on the part of naive Infidels. Thus they themselves are participating, even if they would not see it that way, in the Jihad whose instruments include Da'wa, and also a worldwide propaganda campaign of steady misinformation. So far, that propaganda campaign has been working, for it appeals, in many ways, to all kinds of fashionable tendencies -- the deep unexamined belief in the wonders of "diversity," the deep Family-Of-Man sentimentalism that insists "all people are the same the whole world over" and its bomfoggish corollary, "all religions mean the same thing" or "we all worship the same God."
If examined with care, by the well-prepared, all of this crumbles into dust. But who, nowadays, is used to examining anything? And how many, nowadays, can be included in the list of the "well-prepared"?
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