Conn. Inmate Sues to Get Halal Meat

A Connecticut prison inmate has sued the state, claiming that his religious freedom as a Muslim has been violated by the lack of halal meat.

{snip}

“I am a American Muslim and I am being denied the halal meat for the two Islamic feast days,” Collins [Richard Collins] said in his complaint. “The halal meat for the two feasts have great ‘spiritual meaning’ to the Muslim community all over the world.”

{snip}

Collins was sentenced to 70 years after he was convicted of killing a man in Bridgeport in 2002. He recently won an appeal granting him a new trial.

Brian Garnett, a spokesman for the prison system, said that it meets the requirements set down by a court decision that ruled that New Jersey prisons were not required to serve halal meat, which has been slaughtered according to religious rules.