Islamic law on death row.
"The issue of eating Halal meals is especially important to me because I face a death sentence"
On January 7, 1992, Awkal murdered his estranged wife, 22-year-old Latife Awkal, and his brother-in-law, 24-year-old Mahmoud Abdul-Aiz, at the Cuyahoga Domestic Relations Court. Awkal honor killed his wife. Mrs. Awkal had filed for divorce and custody of their 16-month-old daughter. Awkal chased Mrs. Awkal and Mr. Abdul-Aiz into a room in the courthouse and shot them both at close range.
Awkal then tried to get away, clutching his 15-month-old daughter and pointing his gun at himself and then her. A sheriff's deputy shot Awkal in the back. He was arrested in the courthouse basement.
Now he wants halal meals in order to secure those 72 virgins. Don't the honor killings secure his place in paradise?
Halal for death row inmates? Now that's rich.
Ohio Muslim Inmates Sue Over Meal Preparation FOX newsCOLUMBUS, Ohio – A death row inmate says the Ohio prison system is denying him meals prepared according to Islamic law -- known as halal -- while at the same time providing kosher meals to Jewish prisoners, according to a federal lawsuit that alleges a civil rights violation.
Condemned inmate Abdul Awkal says the prison system's failure to
provide the halal meals is a restraint on his religious freedoms.
Awkal, joined by a second inmate not on death row, says the vegetarian and non-pork options offered by the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction aren't good enough. The inmates say the food must be prepared in specific fashion, such as ensuring that an animal is butchered by slitting its throat and draining its blood, to conform with Islamic beliefs.
"The issue of eating Halal meals is especially important to me because I face a death sentence," Awkal said in a filing in federal court earlier this year. "It is important to me that I follow the requirements of my faith as I approach death."
A judge has given lawyers and inmates for the state until next month to finish filing documents bolstering their arguments, ahead of an expected January trial.
Awkal, 52, is scheduled to die in June for killing his estranged wife, Latife Awkal, and brother-in-law Mahmoud Abdul-Aziz in 1992, in a room in Cuyahoga County Domestic Relations Court.
Joining Awkal in the lawsuit is Cornelius Causey, 35, serving 15 years to life for murder and aggravated robbery convictions out of Hamilton County.
Ohio argues that it provides both non-pork and vegetarian meals to Muslims and says the courts have sided with this practice. The state also says that providing halal meals could hurt Ohio financially, given the current budget situation.
[...]For Muslim inmates, prison rules say, "The diet will be free of all pork and products containing or derived from pork. The institution will provide nutritionally adequate meat and non-meat alternatives."
Ohio prison officials declined to comment beyond documents filed in support of the state position.
[...]Ohio says requiring halal meals could mean new dietary plans for as many as 2,000 inmates, while Awkal's lawyers believe the figure is lower because not all Muslims eat halal meals.
