Since the early 1960s, incarcerated Muslims have used legal action to establish their rights to religious freedom behind bars and improve the conditions of their incarceration. Inspired by Islamic principles of justice and equality, these efforts have played a critical role in safeguarding the civil rights not only of imprisoned Muslims but of all those confined to carceral settings. In this sweeping book—the first to examine this history in depth—SpearIt writes a missing chapter in the history of Islam in America while illuminating new perspectives on the role of religious expression and experience in the courtroom.
SpearIt is Professor of Law at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and author of American Prisons: A Critical Primer on Culture and Conversion to Islam.
"Pushing past stereotypes and toward the sublime, SpearIt has crafted the definitive book on Islam’s imprint on the American carceral state. With Muslim Prisoner Litigation, SpearIt seamlessly merges an untold history with unsung civil rights contributions made by incarcerated Muslims, piecing together a landmark work for scholars and advocates but also any reader committed to the spirit of justice."—Khaled A. Beydoun, author of The New Crusades: Islamophobia and the Global War on Muslims
"This book makes a groundbreaking and compelling argument that the seldomly analyzed influence of Muslims and their religion was central to prisoner rights litigation in America. SpearIt undermines the stereotypical conflation of Muslims and violence and innovatively describes the Muslim 'jihad' in America’s prisons as engaging in nonviolent litigation to win rights for Muslims and for all prisoners."—Jules Lobel, coeditor of Solitary Confinement: Effects, Practices, and Pathways toward Reform
"Muslim Prisoner Litigation importantly centers the role of Islam in the making of prison law jurisprudence, persuasively demonstrating how imprisoned Muslims challenged the carceral state and fundamentally altered the history of prisoners' rights and Islam in the United States."—Garrett Felber, author of Those Who Know Don't Say: The Nation of Islam, the Black Freedom Movement, and the Carceral State
208 pp.6 x 9
9780520384859$29.95|£25.00Paper
Aug 2023