Miami – A federal lawsuit on behalf of four jail inmates is challenging Miami-Dade County’s refusal to provide meals that meet Muslim religious standards.
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The lawsuit, filed Thursday, says the policy in place since October 2014 violates the rights of Muslim inmates to exercise their religion and asks a judge to strike it down. The county provides kosher meals for Jewish inmates but not halal meals for Muslims.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida and Council on American-Islamic Relations Florida are representing the inmates.
The lawsuit says Muslims must eat a general population diet that does not meet religious standards that prohibit eating certain animals, require animals to be slaughtered in a particular way and mandate separation of halal foods.
A Miami-Dade Corrections and Rehabilitation Department spokeswoman declined to comment.
I remember back in the sixties and seventies when I worked on a very friendly basis with several Muslim from Lebanon and India, they bought meat at the same kosher butcher shop that I did.
They had asked me for a recommendation for a kosher butcher shop telling me that they were allowed to eat kosher meat since it is slaughtered by a Jew, who by their religion is considered a ‘believer’ but they could not eat Christian slaughtered meat since they were considered idolators.
Has something changed?
There is an arab woman I see from time to time. She goes to Landau very early in the morning before the crowd comes and buys her chicken/meat there. All you can see are her eyes. I figure if Landau’s stuff is good enough for her then kosher meat should be good enough for them. Otherwise, they can stick to pita, water, and coffee.