Three incarcerated Muslim men in late June sued the Oregon Department of Corrections in federal court on the grounds of religious discrimination, teeing up the most forceful effort yet to mandate state prisons ensure accommodations for Islamic holidays and the prevention of pork consumption.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Oregon chapter announced the suit in early July, representing inmates who say that since the COVID-19 pandemic, the state’s prisons have denied them religious accommodations to pork-free meals and meat slaughtered under Islamic guidelines, called Halal, as well as equal guest visitation rights on holidays such as Eid-al-Fitr. The custom in the Muslim religion marks the ninth month of the holy year for Muslims, known as Ramadan, and is commonly associated with prayer and fasting. Next year’s holiday is set to begin in February.

The plaintiffs include Amir’Whadi Hassan and Niaz Khoshnaw, who are serving sentences for second-degree assault and murder, respectively. Another, Hamza Mohammed Jama, was released in January after serving sentences for sexual abuse and assault. The men were housed primarily at the Eastern Oregon Correctional Institute in Pendleton.

“By misstating Eid dates, denying congregational prayer, withholding family celebration, and reducing the holiday meal to a token portion — while granting comparable or superior accommodations to Native American, Jewish, Christian, and secular groups — Defendants have intentionally subjected incarcerated Muslims to unequal treatment on the basis of religion,” reads the 29-page complaint filed in the U.S. District Court of Pendleton.

Amber Campbell, a spokesperson for the corrections department, declined to comment on the lawsuit. But the allegations echo an earlier case from 2018 in which another Muslim inmate sued Department of Corrections staff for denying him access to Halal meals. Officials settled in 2020 and gave the plaintiff, a Turkish man who was a legal permanent resident of the United States and sentenced for first-degree rape, access to Kosher meals and $15,000.

But in the most recent case, the prisoners’ lawyers argue that such an option for the plaintiffs is inadequate, instead seeking a permanent order reinstating “family-guest Eid celebrations on the proper lunar dates with customary halal meals” and damages to “remedy the years of unconstitutional discrimination.” A specific monetary amount is not specified

The attorneys partially attribute the men’s plight to a lack of a statewide policy on visiting accommodations for Muslim holidays, saying inmates filed complaints and requests only to be told by the department that policies were cleared by an unnamed and unidentified state-approved Imam, a Muslim faith leader that often begins prayers in mosques.

“Plaintiffs spent up to $75 per week on commissary in an effort to supplement their diets, yet still experienced symptoms of starvation, including fatigue, muscle weakness, brain fog, and exacerbation of chronic health conditions,” the complaint says. “Without access to certified halal food from the facility or commissary, Plaintiffs had to choose between observing Ramadan and maintaining their health.”

A post-COVID shift
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the lawsuit says that “officials accommodated Plaintiffs and other Muslims’ religious holiday celebrations by providing Muslims a halal feast of lamb or fish, served family-style, for Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha,” the latter of which often lasts for three to four days. But that quickly changed in the years following, the suit alleges.

On one occasion, the dispute over accommodations reached a peak when surplus meat available for inmates during Eid was not provided and instead thrown out, according to the lawsuit, which did not provide additional details. The suit, however, does allege that the incident prompted a documented grievance.

Another written grievance by Khoshnaw received a response in September 2024 from a facility chaplain, arguing that existing policy on family and events “would remain in place until a consistent statewide policy emerges,” his lawyers say. No such Oregon policy exists yet, the complaint says. And it’s unclear how many inmates this would affect, since the state doesn’t publish figures on religion in its demographic reports on prison population.

But the plaintiffs also made a similar request for accurate and timely recognition of their Eid holidays in March 2025, a request that the lawsuit says was partially granted. Prayer took place on the correct day with timely congregational worship and a shared meal, according to the suit, but the “long-standing family-visitation component” was not in place, they say.

The lawsuit also alleges that there were few, if any preventative measures for contamination with pork.

“Every faith group deserves equal treatment,” said CAIR Staff Attorney Aya Beydoun in a July 1 news release. “By denying halal meals and blocking family visitation for Eid — while extending those same accommodations to other religious groups — ODOC is violating both the Constitution and federal law.”

The lawsuit is not the only active case alleging anti-Muslim discrimination in Oregon led by the Council on American-Islamic Relations. The group announced July 3 another federal civil rights suit against the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office, alleging officers ordered two Muslim women remove their hijabs before photographing them for mugshots.