The extent of this problem is revealed in statistics issued in June, 1963. At that time there were 183 legal petitions and 42 appeals by NOI prisoners pending in the Federal courts of Washington, D.C., and Virginia. NOI prisoners were termed a "cult of harassment" by District of Columbia officials, who declared that the volume of complaints was causing administrative and investigative backlogs that interfered with the normal work of the Corporation Counsel's office.
Typical of the complaints from Muslim prisoners was a charge that Lorton officials had not lived up to an agreement to grant special concessions during Ramadan, the Muslim's month of fasting. Actually, Ramadan is the ninth month of the Mohammedan calendar year; but, on account of the Mohammedan year being a few days shorter than the Gregorian calendar year, this fasting month occurs during various months of our year. For convenience, therefore, Elijah established that the month of December would be Ramadan for his followers.
Lorton officials were cooperating with Elijah's rule when they allowed Muslim inmates special mealtimes during December so that they would be served before sunrise and after sunset, as is the Ramadan custom. Mealtimes for the Muslim prisoners were based on sunrise and sunset tables of the United States Naval Observatory. In spite of this consideration, Muslim prisoners protested that it was not dark enough to eat at the designated times
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