The US Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday sent back to the district court for further proceedings a claim by prisoners that their religious rights were being violated when Indiana prison officials excluded a faction of the Moorish Science Temple of America from entering the prison to conduct services. The prison's superintendent had excluded the group "until such time as your problems have been resolved to my satisfaction and that of [persons in the parent organization]".
In Easley-El v. Ridley-Turner the 7th Circuit said: "Plaintiffs and their chosen spiritual guides are entitled to know what they must demonstrate before the prison will permit services to be held, and the district court then must determine whether the prison's conditions are valid." The record was unclear as to whether prison officials were taking sides in a theological dispute within the religious organization, or were concerned with legitimate issues about the conduct of the religious organization or the number of inmates interested in it.
The Moorish Science Temple of America teaches that all Blacks are descendants of the Moors and advocates that African-Americans return to Islam.
