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.”
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