WASHINGTON, Oct. 20, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today welcomed a Virginia federal court’s ruling in Young v. Newton that Virginia’s Riverside Regional Jail’s Christians-only area of the facility — known as a "God Pod" — had "established an official preference for Christianity" in violation of the religious rights of three Muslims on whose behalf CAIR sued. According to the court, that official preference had the effect of creating a religiously-segregated area of the jail. The Chaplain in charge of the God Pod was a private chaplain provided by Good News Jail & Prison Ministry, whose stated purpose is to "reach every inmate in the world with the Good News of Jesus Christ that they may become growing disciples." The God Pod was the only religious program offered at Riverside Regional Jail. READ THE DECISION: https://www.cair.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/GodPodDecision.pdf As the court explained, "Christianity was preferred at Riverside Regional Jail while the [Life Learning Program] was in effect in violation of Plaintiffs’ constitutional rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments and the Virginia Constitution." The federal court enjoined the jail from maintaining a "God Pod" or otherwise preferring Christianity. […]
