Prison Outreach

“Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today.” - El Hajj Malik Shabazz

There is no greater example for the potential a person whose journey to Islam began in a prison than Malcolm X. He is a man who is well known and is in no need of an introduction. Merely reading his life story through his autobiography is a major influence for many people to choose Islam.

There are many people within the prison system that have and are following in his footsteps by serving the deen of Islam. There are even more people that have the potential to be like him. We, as a community, must dedicate ourselves to assisting them to gain access to material that will greatly enhance their study and understanding of Islam.

Read the letters of some of these men: Yusef Wiley, Amin Brazel, and Rodney Thomas.

To this end, TAYBA FOUNDATION is developing the “El Hajj Malik Shabazz Distance Learning Program” to offer quality Islamic education to the Muslim inmate population.

Muslim inmates within the U.S. prison system are currently benefiting from the curriculum and methods that the TAYBA FOUNDATION is developing.

In an effort to properly assess the religious instructional needs of Muslim inmates, TAYBA FOUNDATION conducted a survey that was sent to various prison institutions.

The following items were ranked by inmates in their own words amongst the top religious needs:

Islam in U.S. Prisons

In the United States, 15-17 % (about 350,000) of the approximately 2.3 million State and Federal Prisoners are Muslim. 8 out of 10 people in U.S. prisons who seek faith become Muslim.

It is our duty as a community to offer services to this growing population and their needs have largely been neglected. Many Muslim inmates identify with the story of Yusuf a. They feel that just as the king forgot about Yusuf a, so too the community has forgotten about them. It is for this reason that some Muslim inmates refer to themselves as the “Forgotten Believers”. (Statistics taken from Siraj Islam Mufti, a retired chaplain in the US Dept. of Justice, in his article titled “Islam in American Prisons”, found on www.islamonline.net)

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