Sulayman al-Faris wants to pray five times a day with his Muslim brothers.
You may remember him, although not by his preferred name. He was originally known as John Walker Lindh, the American man who traveled to Afghanistan to help the al-Qaeda-backed Taliban fight against the Afghan Northern Alliance.
He was captured during the U.S. invasion in 2001 and took part in a violent Taliban prisoner revolt in which several hundred other prisoners died and an American CIA officer was killed. Lindh has proven over and over that he’s a traitor to his country.
A federal grand jury indicted Lindh on multiple charges, including conspiracy to murder U.S.
citizens and providing support to terrorist organizations. He eventually agreed to a plea deal offered by the U.S. government. He pleaded guilty to supplying services to the Taliban and carrying an explosive during the commission of a felony.
Although sentenced to 20 years in prison, he’s on target to be released in just six years.
In the meantime, he continues to fight. Faced with restrictions on group prayer by Muslim inmates at his Indiana prison, he and other inmates sued and won.A federal judge ruled the prison’s leaders could show no compelling evidence it should be allowed to ban daily group prayer. The ruling allowed the prison to take less-restrictive security measures.
So now Lindh’s lawyers want the prison’s director held in contempt because he’s not allowing Lindh and other adherents to the faith to pray together five times daily, as required by their faith.
Of course, Lindh’s view of the faith also required him to conspire to kill Americans and others in pursuit of a perfect Muslim state. Does the United States Bureau of Prisons need to accommodate that, too?
Our nation is made great by the freedom of religion expression guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, that founding document of a nation abhorred by the people Lindh went to fight with. What is the Taliban’s position on freedom of religion, by the way?
Americans should go to great strides to rise higher, to afford those who would destroy us more liberty and protections than they would afford an American if the circumstances were reversed. Frankly, the fact Lindh is alive is a testament to the humane goals of the United States.
Our prison system should provide reasonable accommodations for prayer by Muslims and people of other faiths, but let’s remember these folks are in prison for a reason. Lindh and many of his fellow prisoners are considered extreme security risks. Is our courts system supposed to ignore the primary mission of the prison is to limit the liberty of properly adjudicated but still dangerous people? Is it really reasonable to expect - and does our Constitution really require - prison guards to increase their exposure to danger by providing fi ve daily group prayer sessions?
People give up many rights when they are convicted of crimes. I can’t fathom why an American who became a traitor to his country should be able to rest on the Constitution he despises so much. That’s not the strongest legal argument, but it’s one that seems fair to me.
Freedom of religion is founded on the principle of liberty, a concept Lindh and like-minded souls would be the first to eradicate if they were ever allowed to come into power. One need only look to the Taliban’s harsh and murderous treatment of those who violated its interpretation of the moral law of Islam when they controlled Afghanistan.
Thousands were slaughtered, women were raped and sold into slavery, and previously legal practices - from listening to music to watching television - were outlawed. Many Muslims criticized their actions as having no basis in the Quran.
So when this American Taliban fighter cries foul because he’s only allowed to pray together with other Muslims occasionally, it’s hard to muster much sympathy. If it had been a Christian in Kandahar in the late 1990s trying to pray, he would have lost his head.
Our nation is better than that and stands for the principle of protecting religious expression, But in the prison system, the inmates can’t be permitted to run the place. And that’s especially true for any man who views the Taliban as an example of a group worth fighting for.
GREG HARTON IS OPINION PAGE EDITOR FOR NWA MEDIA.
Opinion, Pages 5 on 04/22/2013