By Cynthia Griffith 

May/Jun 25

The United States incarcerates more people per capita than any other nation. This prison population increased substantially during the Nixon Administration (1969-1974) after he declared a “war on drugs” in 1971. By his last days in office, the incarcerated population in the American prison system exploded from 300,000 to 2.3 million. 

This staggering rise in incarceration has been championed by every president since Nixon and has disproportionately affected American communities of color, especially the African American community.  

“Politicians from both parties used fear and thinly veiled racial rhetoric to push increasingly punitive policies,” said a report from the Brennan Center for Justice. “Nixon started this trend in 1971, declaring a ‘war on drugs’ and justifying it with speeches about being ‘tough on crime.’”

A Harper’s Magazine article reported that Nixon’s domestic policy chief, John Ehrlichman, admitted the war on drugs was designed to have precisely this impact on Black Americans. It amplified the presumption of guilt assigned to Black people since slavery and entrenched the racialization of criminality that began in earnest with lynchings. 

In January 1973, New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller – who unsuccessfully sought the presidential nomination of his party three times – launched his campaign for the Rockefeller Drug Laws. He demanded tough prison sentences even for low-level drug dealers and addicts. It was an idea that quickly spread, influencing state and federal law across the U.S. 

Extending these harsh policies while decrying that “gangs and drugs have taken over our streets and undermined our schools,”  President Bill Clinton signed the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act in 1994, allotting $12.5 billion to states to increase incarceration. Today, the nation’s prison population includes nearly two million men and women behind bars in 2025.

Like the corrupt dynasties mentioned in the Quran, including that of the arrogant Pharoah, much of this nation’s wealth is built on the backs of the poor and the systematically oppressed. One source of exploitation is Muslim Americans’ forced participation in underpaid prison labor. https://www.urban.org/urban-wire/how-economic-exploitation-shaped-americas-landscapes-disadvantage 

Incarcerated Muslims: Uncounted but Profitable

The U.S. extracts $11 billion annually from an underpaid prison labor force that contains a disproportionate number of Black Americans, many of whom are Muslims. Both PBS and The Atlantic reported that forced prison labor has bolstered corporate America for at least 60 years, catapulting capitalism to newfound heights, and laying the foundation for the superpower it has since become. 

It shouldn’t come as a surprise to believers, for God in his perfect Book warned us of such affairs, giving the example of the Pharaoh, the dictator who still serves as a symbol for power-hungry politicians, who set out to manipulate the Banī Isrāʾīl (Israelite) into oppressing and committing injustices against one another (Quran 17:5-7). Pinning members of the same sect against one another is a tactic that might be as old as time. The pressing question for America’s prison population though is: whose hands are assembling the military equipment that is massacring Muslims overseas?

Mass Incarceration and Coerced Labor: A Shameful Legacy on which to Build an Empire 

The destruction wrought in the aftermath of the United States’ “forever wars” cannot be understated. Millions have been killed, rendered permanently disabled, or forced to abandon their livelihoods and homes. Entire school systems have been dismantled. Children’s limbs have been amputated, and they have been terrorized and starved. But what makes the U.S. wealthy and powerful enough to wield oppressive forces over the historically Islamic world? The answer to this question lies in an unlikely source – the prison industrial complex.

Behind the bars of government-run and privatized correctional facilities lie innumerable untold Muslim stories, as 2 million incarcerated Americans dwell there in a perpetual state of captivity. With limited data available on the subject, imagine how many millions of Muslims have, for decades, toiled away, building vanity sets, army helmets, textiles, and military-grade surveillance equipment. Imagine how many of them potentially lived and died in their cells, the only worldly mark left to identify them is etched into a picnic table they put together for 13 cents an hour. Was it their forced labor that paved the railways, coal, and iron, that heralded this young nation to the forefront of global wealth?

While wealthy private prison profiteers reap the benefits of cheap labor, the incarcerated Muslim polishes their weapons in a bizarre, barbaric scene that one inmate likened to slavery movies of the past. A recent Wired exposé revealed that Unicor, alternatively known as Federal Prison Industries, forced more than 20,000 inmates across 70 different prisons to build everything from military electronics to Patriot missiles and more for only 23 cents an hour. The Patriot missiles they built sold for a whopping $5.9 million each, further cementing America as a military and financial superpower. 

Another such example of prisoner exploitation is the GEO Group, a for-profit prison corporation headquartered in Boca Raton, Fla. that faced criticism and legal challenges over its business practices. These legal challenges included California federal appeals court Judge Vince Chhabria’s decision of Jan. 6, 2021, upholding a $23 million judgment against the company for paying detainees $1 a day for their labor. For profit jailers not only lease prisons from the government but also own many of their own. GEO owns prisons in Florida, Colorado, and Washington State Following President Trump’s recent victory and his declaration for the imprisonment of undocumented immigrants, their stock rose from $14.45 per share to $35.35.

Prison Labor is Forced Labor

An Aspen Institute documentary dispelled the myth that prison labor is a voluntary activity. “Today, the majority of incarcerated workers in the U.S., who are disproportionately Black and people of color, are often required to work or face retaliation such as solitary confinement, denial of opportunities to reduce their sentence, and loss of family visitation,” stated the Aspen Institute researchers.

Renowned prison reform advocate Terrance Winn, described the grim scenario he endured while serving part of a life sentence at the notorious Louisiana prison known as Angola, where he was sent at the age of 16. Angola, a converted plantation, has its own graveyard due to the high death rate of its inmates. Prisoners are pushed to work in unfathomable conditions and forced to pick cotton under the threat of being beaten or sent to solitary confinement where more horrors await. Winn, who was tried as an adult, claimed that life at the largest maximum-security penitentiary in the United States “was like taking a step back into history.” A two-year PBS investigation revealed that facilities like Angola supply millions of dollars’ worth of crops to major companies such as Tyson Foods, Ballpark hotdogs, PepsiCo, Frosted Flakes, and Louis Dreyfus.

Waging Wars on Muslims Abroad while Stifling Muslims in the U.S.

As the corporate rolodex spins, American capitalism reigns, and much of this is to the detriment of Muslims in America and abroad. Muslim Americans are disproportionately impoverished, with a third of them living below the poverty line. Some experts correlate extreme poverty with a 15-fold increased risk of being charged with a felony. Impoverished Muslims face an increased risk of being forced into prison labor, where their hands will work for meager wages crafting products that bolster the American economy and are used to wage wars on Muslims abroad. And while they are under this institutionalization, they will not be counted as Muslims in America at all, effectively rendering them invisible wheels in the unrelenting war machine. 

Cynthia C Griffith is a social justice journalist with a passion for environmental and civil rights issues. She’s a regular contributor at Invisible People, where she broaches the subject of homelessness from a human-centric perspective.

The post Underpaid Prison Labor Adversely Impacts Muslims appeared first on Islamic Horizons.

By Cynthia Griffith

Mar/Apr 25

Islam is the fastest-growing religion in the world, but in the United States, not all Muslims are accounted for. The U.S. Census Bureau’s religious data does not include one of the largest populations of Muslim Americans: incarcerated converts. This is indicative of a larger effort to make it appear as if the growth of Islam is due to high birth rates and immigration alone, which is a fallacy. Additionally, this accounting practice illustrates a dismissive and dehumanizing attitude toward  incarcerated people who may embrace Islam. The implication  is that incarcerated converts are somehow less representative of the general population outside of  jail. This unjust message can then be used to perpetuate additional harmful stereotypes against Muslim Americans whether converts, prisoners, or other individuals within the Muslim community.

Islamic Horizons reached out to the U.S. Census Bureau to discuss this matter, and a representative confirmed the Bureau does not collect data on religious affiliations. They directed Horizons to the Bureau of Prisons (BOP). Horizons found that while the BOP collects data for categories such as age, race, ethnicity, and citizenship status, it does not account for the religious identity of inmates. 

This practice of not counting converts to Islam as Muslims dates to the early 20th century, and has prevented federal courts from interfering with inmate rights cases for many decades.

Some states are accommodating to the incarcerated Muslims’ religious needs, while others are not. For example, only 17 states allow inmates the right to religious head coverings, and some states make it difficult or impossible for Muslims to access alternative meals.

According to the Pew Research Center, “The U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics routinely reports on several characteristics of the U.S. prison population, such as age, gender, and racial/ethnic composition, but it does not usually report on the religious affiliation of inmates, and independent surveys of inmates rarely are permitted.”

Uttering the Shahada in Jail

Philadelphia native Faheem took his shahada in 1979 after he was sentenced to 10 years in the notorious Graterford Prison, about 31 miles northwest of Philadelphia. His story is emblematic of the decades-long pattern of embracing the Islamic faith in U.S. correctional institutions. Faheem described his time served as an awe-inspiring experience and proclaimed that even as far back as 45 years ago, the Muslim prison population was so abundant that they “pretty much ran the whole jail.”

“When entering prison, I was immediately greeted by the Muslims,” Faheem fondly recalled. “They had a huge community and were respected by everyone from all other religions. . . not to mention they had a massive impact on the guards.”

Faheem said it was the character of his Muslim brothers that drew him to Islam. “They were the intellectuals, the scholarly, community men, and they had developed a reputation for their cleanliness, unity, and leadership roles throughout the jail,” he said. “They pretty much ran everything – the cafeteria, the library, and the mechanical and academic departments. They did so in a just and orderly fashion, to the point where even non-Muslims referred to them for advice. The local guards were so impressed and influenced that many of them took their shahadas too, and you could see the dawah spreading far beyond the towering concrete walls.”

This Population Could Potentially Represent Millions of Uncounted Muslims

Excluding Muslim prisoners from the U.S. census when counting Muslim Americans is part of a broader effort to make Islam appear as if it is spread by immigration only and as if conversion plays little to no role in the astronomical growth of Islam. Census numbers in the contemporary United States tell a vastly different story.  

The United States has the highest rate of incarceration per capita in the world (World Prison Brief, October 2021). According to the Prison Policy Initiative , there are approximately 7 million prison admissions annually. While some people cycle in and out of the U.S. prison industrial complex more than once per year, many others are new to the system. These offenders are frequently jailed for nonviolent crimes. The Prison Policy Initiative also found that many who get arrested are innocent but find themselves imprisoned for days, months, and even years, simply because they are too poor to make bail.

Policies and legislation play a pivotal role in the criminal justice system. There are laws in place that target specific demographics of people and push them into the prison system for minor infractions. For example, it is illegal for a homeless person to sleep, stand, walk, or otherwise engage in life-sustaining activities in public. Doing so can result in a fine or even in an arrest. Recently, a homeless woman was issued a citation while giving birth on a sidewalk.

Faheem recalled a time in the not-so-distant past when unjust policies were used to target people like him – African American males in their late teens. Faheem was convicted on the count of possessing an illegal weapon at just 19 years old. Despite the fact that he never used the alleged weapon to incite violence, he was still given a lengthy sentence that would last well into adulthood. 

“Really, I got off easy doing ten years,” he said. “I can’t even count how many 18 and 19-year-olds who looked like me were given life sentences for petty crimes, and how many of them were innocent.”

Many Americans are aware of the vast injustices taking place in the prison industrial complex, but without hard data, we cannot even begin to imagine how many Muslims, converts, and born Muslims alike, have filtered through the system. If seven million arrests are made each year, how many millions of Muslims have, for decades, been uncounted and left out of the data? Untold stories of Muslim resilience move like modern folklore over city streets, anonymous sources of inspiration. How impactful would these tales be if they were told to the masses?

 The Need for Resources for Incarcerated Muslim Americans 

A former volunteer prison chaplain who wishes to remain anonymous and who used to visit an upstate New York maximum security prison once mused that the imprisoned convert’s journey is “akin to Hijrah, moving to a world of enlightenment.” He said, “We need more resources for people who take the shahada in jail to access upon release.” He also believes that care is needed for the families of the converts, a service which would make them closer to the family of Islam. 

Through the onslaught of mass incarceration, Muslim men and women behind bars are too often counted out – out of the data, out of employment opportunities, out of their families, and out of society altogether. Their stories are relegated to oral traditions spoken in small inner-city circles, and occasional mainstream media coverage. According to Oxford Research Encyclopedias, most mainstream media coverage of North American Muslims casts them in a negative light through techniques like othering and Orientalism. But their numbers are not few, and if they were accounted for, the ever-growing and sizable sum of Muslims in America would be made much clearer to the news consuming public at large. 

Islam is the fastest-growing religion in the world and it grows in some of the most formidable places on Earth. No 6 by 8 foot concrete cage can contain it. No barred metal door can hold it back. No amount of darkness can cover the light it shines on open hearts and yearning souls.

“I never committed another crime after becoming a Muslim in prison,” Faheem concludes.

May God continue to bless him and the countless other converts who share a similar story. 

Cynthia C. Griffith, a social justice journalist focusing on environmental and civil rights issues. She’s a regular contributor at Invisible People where she muses regarding the earth, space, faith, science, politics, and literature have appeared on several popular websites.

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The post Hidden Prisoners: The U.S. Census Bureau Doesn’t Count Incarcerated Converts as Muslims appeared first on Islamic Horizons.