Each year, tens of thousands of inmates in the U.S. are converting to Islam while incarcerated. The latest installment of the “CBS Mornings” series “The State of Spirituality with Lisa Ling” explores why the faith is connecting with so many behind bars.
Converting to Islam in prison
Most days, Rami Nsour heads to his local post office to find his mailbox stuffed with letters from incarcerated people from all over the country seeking his spiritual guidance and Islamic education resources. Nsour is the founding director of the Tayba Foundation, the first organization in the U.S. to offer a distance-learning program in Islamic education to inmates.
“When we started about 15 years ago, that was the main need that we heard from Muslim prisoners,” Nsour said. “So, we developed this organization to fill that gap and that need.”
Islam is the fastest growing religion in U.S. prisons. Nsour said his organization has served over 13,000 individuals and he estimates that around 90% of them converted to Islam and most while behind bars. Nsour believes many are converting while incarcerated because there is so much physical and spiritual confinement in prison and people find spiritual freedom within the faith.
“Because it has a level of submission, so you submit to a certain regiment, there’s five daily prayers, there’s a method,” Nsour explained. “They see that those walls can’t confine them anymore.”
Amin’s story
Muhammad Amin Anderson was attracted to Islam for many reasons, including the spiritual freedom it provides him. He converted to Islam about two years into a 30-year sentence for a gang-related murder.
“When I came to prison, I didn’t have my humanity … but after entering prison, I recovered my humanity,” he said, crediting Islam for helping him recover it.
Born Christopher Anderson in Philadelphia, he was the son of a preacher, but as a teen, Anderson answered the calls of the streets.
“I actually fell into drug addiction for about a year and a half,” he said. “I got involved with a group of guys and they were selling drugs in our city.”
In his 20s, Anderson ended up participating in a gang-related murder. Once he was confined to a prison cell, Anderson began reflecting on his life, faith and personal spirituality.
“I spent my years in prison learning about other faiths,” he said. “Islam was the only one that made sense for me.”
As Anderson’s spirituality grew deeper, he became connected with the Tayba Foundation and Nsour, who began teaching Anderson in prison by phone.
“There’s only so much that you can do with self-learning,” Nsour explained. “So, I started taking his phone calls, started sending him material, answering his questions, and really taught him over the course of about 17 years to the point that then he was able to teach in the prisons.”
Misconceptions about converting
There are still widespread misconceptions about why people are converting to Islam in prison. For some, there is a perception that inmates are becoming radicalized by the faith, which Nsour said could not be further from the truth.
“The numbers don’t show that,” he said. “Does it exist? Yes. But it’s a rare instance in the same way are there people who are Christian extremists, who are radicalized in prison, who might go on to do a terrorism act? Yes.”
According to the National Institute of Corrections (NIC), violence due to prison radicalization by Muslims in the U.S. is a rare event and there’s little to no evidence it’s happening. In fact, Nsour said, many converts are attracted to the faith by observing how Muslims inmates carry themselves.
“They’ll notice that person is different. He’s not falling into the same ruts of how other people might behave in prison,” Nsour said. “So, they ask them and then he’ll say, ‘well, it’s my Islam and my Islam teaches me about my character.'”
Getting a second chance
Anderson was released from prison in July after serving his full sentence. At his parole hearing, he said the chairman called him an exceptional inmate. Anderson credits Islam for him being portrayed that way and for being able to turn around his life. Now outside of prisons walls, Anderson feels his work is just beginning and he is grateful he is being given a second chance.
“I believe God gave me a second chance to come out here to serve humanity,” he said. “Because the person’s life I took, he doesn’t have a second chance. So, I think I owe it to him. I owe it to his family. I owe it to his children to do something with my life.”
Anderson now now has a job with the Tayba Foundation and is enjoying a quiet and prayerful life. Nsour told CBS News in his 15 years of doing this, it’s rare for an inmate to denounce Islam once they leave prison, which he says is evidence it’s not just a phase behind bars.
