Around both of the Eids I usually call as many Muslims as possible to give them greetings. This Eid I called Mr. Ray Royer, the father of my imprisoned friend Ismail Royer. Mr. Royer has known me since I was a teenager and I knew his son even before he was a Muslim and was there when he took shahadah and we had many adventures together. So, the situation with Ismail and his 20 year prison sentence saddens me very much ( however, in all honesty, despite my friendship with Ismail, I am more saddened by the life sentence given to Sheikh Ali al-Timimi as he is the most innocent of the lot).
Mr. Royer informed me that Ismail has been transferred to the Greenville, IL federal prison and that because he has not been allowed a contact family visit for the last three years he had just went on hunger strike for a few weeks which recently. Let us all pray that Allah makes it easy on Ismail. Some people in his life have made his time in prison easier on him and some have made it harder so let’s do out part by praying for him.
This conversation has also reminded me that I need to rekindle the Muslim prisoner penpal program and Eid Card program I had earlier started. I will be compiling a list of Muslim political prisoners in American jails soon and encourage all to write. If you do not this can make a difference in the lives of Muslim prisoners let me give you the example of my friend Hammad Abdur-Raheem. When Hammad was released I saw him at the Dar al Hijrah Masjid and he thanked me for all the letters he received and said it lifted his spirits.
