Orlando, USA - An inmate has filed a federal lawsuit against the Seminole County Jail, claiming his rights are being violated because as a Muslim he is not allowed to practice his Islamic religion.
In his suit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Orlando, Ernesto J. Holmes also points out that Jewish inmates in the county jail suffer similar violations of their rights.
The suit was filed as followers of both religions begin observance of the most holy days of the year.
For Muslims, the holy month of Ramadan began Tuesday. For 30 days, they refrain from eating and drinking from sunrise to sunset.
The 10-day Jewish High Holy Days began at sunset Monday with Rosh Hashana and will end with Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the most solemn day of the Jewish year.
Holmes complains in his suit that he is not provided the Muslim Juma prayer service on Fridays, does not receive Islamic materials or a prayer rug and is not provided with a daily menu to assure that he does not consume pork products, a violation of the Islamic faith.
Inmates of the Jewish faith aren't provided a means of attending Jewish holy days, supplied with religious materials and items such as prayer shawls and skullcaps or given kosher food, according to the lawsuit.
Seminole County sheriff's Chief Deputy Steve Harriett said his agency has not seen Holmes' suit, so he cannot comment on the specifics of it.
However, Harriett said the jail "considers any request that is of a religious nature, including requests related to diet."
Chaplains working in the jail are paid by the Virginia-based Good News Jail & Prison Ministry, Harriett said. Muslim and Jewish leaders are free to visit members of their faiths who wish to see them, he said.
Once his agency receives the suit and it is reviewed by its lawyers, "we will resolve it appropriately," he said.
Congress passed the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act in 2000, which says, "no government shall impose a substantial burden on the religious exercise of a person residing in or confined to an institution."
The law, which was upheld earlier this year by the U.S. Supreme Court, has prompted a number of lawsuits.
On the heels of that decision, Ralph Benning, an inmate at the Georgia State Prison in Hancock, Ga., received a yarmulke to wear in August. Yarmulkes, small circular caps worn by Jewish men and boys, had been banned in Georgia prisons along with other religious practices and articles of religious clothing.
Benning sued in 2002, citing provision of the 2000 act, and had been in litigation until shortly after the Supreme Court upheld the law.