The Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations Michigan filed two civil rights complaints against the Michigan Department of Corrections on behalf of a pregnant Muslim woman in their custody.
CAIR says a Muslim woman housed at the Women's Huron Valley Correctional Facility who was not given access to a hijab and denied religious meal accommodations while in administrative segregation.
Siwatu-Salama Ra is being housed at the correctional facility after a recent conviction for a weapons charge for defending herself, her mother and her child from an attack that occurred at her mother's home in 2017.
CAIR is also filing a second complaint with the Michigan Department of Civil Rights for an African-American female religious leader who was denied clergy status at the same facility.
CAIR says that upon presentation of the proper paperwork for a clergy visit, the staff at the women's correctional facility questioned the validity of Michigan's Oldest Mosque as a true religious organization.
“It is troublesome that we were forced to file complaints against the Michigan Department of Corrections for denying appropriate food accommodations for an eight-month pregnant woman,” said CAIR-MI Executive Director Dawud Walid. “It is equally troubling that MDOC called into question the religious legitimacy of one of the oldest mosques in America, an institution at which I previously served as an imam.”
