In Florida Jail, Kosher Meals Available While Halal Options Are Pulled

Image by COURTESY OF ALEPH INSTITUTE

By Seth Berkman July 26, 2013

Muslim inmates at a Florida jail are complaining that their diets are being unfairly altered while Jewish inmates continue to receive kosher meals.

Imam Jaabir Muhammad, a jail chaplain at the Palm Beach County Jail, told local news station WPTV that earlier this month, kosher and halal meal options were taken away from Muslim inmates.

“They made all of them vegans, vegetarians against their will,” he told the station.

A jail spokesperson reached by WPTV said that the maneuver was implemented to cut costs.

In June, the Florida Department of Corrections announced it would offer kosher meals in its state prisons by the end of the year. A month earlier, a Florida inmate, Bruce Rich, won a case in the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta for the right to be served kosher meals in prison.

Last year, the Forward reported on how kosher meals are popular with secular Jews, messianic Jews, Black Hebrew Israelites, as well as prisoners without any religious background.

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