Ibrahim Swedan was probably not aware that his conviction of 25 years in prison for selling and possessing drugs was going to be the beginning of his problems. Nine years after being sentenced, Swedan has reached out to The Arab American News as well as both civil rights and religious groups by writing letters from prison that claim he is being discriminated against because of his religious beliefs. 

A former Dearborn resident, Swedan is currently being held at a prison in the state of Georgia. But his problems hardly began there. Prior to that, he was serving his sentence in the state of New Jersey. He claims that since then the prison administration has treated him unfairly by not allowing him to practice his religious rights. He claims that the prison refuses to accommodate for him when he wants to pray, have been uncooperative towards him during the month of ramadan and have denied his requests for halal food.

The Arab American News has obtained documents from Swedan that show he has written letters and requests to the prison administration asking them to provide for requests. The documents also include responses from the prison administration that deny his requests and concerns.

In other letters that he sent out to both his family and civil rights groups, Swedan claims that everytime he issued complaints of discrimination, the prison has punished him by placing him in isolation for up to 3-4 months at a time. His sister Manar says that currently he is placed in one of these Isolation cells.

“The administration of the prison not only disregarded the documents that my brother sent them, they also ignored our requests to move Ibrahim to a closer prison in Michigan so we can visit him more often,” Manar stated.

Manar also claims that her brother is innocent and he was a victim of a set up. According to Manar, when Ibrahim was originally placed in New Jersey, the family had requested to have him moved to a closer prison. Instead she says they moved him even further to the state of Georgia.

“We felt that the administration did this as a way to punish us,” Manar added.

One of the organizations the Swedan family reached out to was the Islamic Institute of Knowledge in Dearborn. Mohamad Abou Hamdan, a representative from the organization said that they have tried to communicate with the prison administration as well but have not had any luck.

“We called the prison administration more than once to denounce the discrimination that was occurring with Swedan,” Hamdan stated. “The administration denied those allegations and said that they follow all the laws there. In the end, we did all that we could do. But this subject in particular is a case that a lawyer needs to pursue.”

Nabih Ayad, lawyer and civil rights activist has even taken up the case on his own spare time and has promised Swedan’s family that he will fight hard for his rights. He sent a letter to the prison administration asking about the discrimination claims that Swedan had been making, but the prison administration continued denying the claims, assuring that all prisoners received fair treatment.  

Ayad says that the fight for this case is far from over and notes that Swedan is just one of many prisoners facing similar problems. He also says he will not stop fighting for this cause. 

“We receive letters and calls regularly from prisoners in many different states in America where the prisoners are complaining about discrimination according to religion and ethnicity,” Ayad stated. 

A prisoner’s rights are protected in the 14th Amendment under the Equal ProtectionClause, which prohibits prisons from treating inmates unfairly. Prisoner rights are also reflected in the 13th Amendment. 

The state of Georgia has recently come under fire for the treatment of its prisoners overall. In 2010 thousands of prisoners from seven different prisons coordinated a massive protest demanding that major flaws within the system be changed immediately. These flaws included wanting better living conditions, better food and compensation for large amounts of labor. 

Manar says that despite the complaints and attempts made at assuring her brothers has fair treatment, his circumstance has still not changed and she is calling for more action.

“The prisoner, whether he was convicted of a crime he did or did not do, has rights that should be protected,” said Manar. “I hope the Arab American community stands up and helps us protect my brother’s rights.”