A Geek in Prison - A Life Series by Charlie Shrem (Part 6 - On Muslims and Jews)
This is Part 6 in a series about my life as a Geek in Prison. Click my name to follow me and check out my blog for the Preamble and Parts 1-5. All names are changed to protect inmates privacy.
This is a post I've been wanting to write for a while, even since I was in prison. The following is my personal experience in prison. I do not know what happens in other prisons or county jails rather I am writing about my personal experience.
When I first got to prison I lived in Unit 1, Range 3. This was known as the "Party Range" because at night it was very loud. The Ranges downstairs were quieter and the majority were older folk where my Range had a lot of younger inmates who didn't give a shit about anything.
Basically, the ideal place to put a 24 year old 5'4" kid from Brooklyn.
I grew up in a very religious Jews Orthodox family, went to Yeshivah and studied to be a Rabbi. The advantage of growing up in Brooklyn was that I lived in a giant melting pot of world cultures. My family taught me to be tolerant of other people and having lost family members to religious extremism, I grew up hating any type of intolerance for any religion. At any early age I travelled a lot and became friends with Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Mormons and people who identified with Religions that don't even have a Wikipedia page. I may not be religious anymore, but I have an immense about of respect for anyone who pledges their devotion and faith to a higher being.
Thats me. But what about everyone else? What can I expect from other inmates especially in a prison setting where statistically the level of education is a lot lower.
I followed the advice of a friend who spent some time in prison "Respect first and be respected second"
When I walked into my cube that morning, Omar was praying. His prayer rug was taking up all the the floor space of the cube. How do I act in this scenario? If I just hover at the entrance of the cube, its extremely disrespectful as I don't want him thinking that I'm rushing him. In prison, perception is everything. I left my bags at the entrance and introduced myself to the inmate in the cube a few over, this way I give Omar his space and time to finish praying.
Respect first, be respected second.
Turns out, Omar was one of the leaders of the Lewisburg Muslim community and we got a long great. When you have a lot of time and nothing to do, respectful conversations about religion and politics go really well.
We talked a lot about his learnings growing up and mine. What are his and my views about homosexuality? Punishment? Abortion? Politics? Very heated discussed with wildly different views, but they never turned violent because of the respect we had for each other.
Over the next few weeks I got to know my fellow brethren in the Jewish community and we hung out all the time. Turns out, many of them are good friends with members of the Muslim community as well.
In prison, you are not defined by your religion, you are defined by who you are and how you act towards other people. Having said that, if others know you are a member of a specific community, if you act in a bad way they will judge the community in that way. You represent the people you spend time with.
We shared resources. The chapel, the kitchen, various rooms to pray were all shared by all the religions.
On Friday evening, we had our Sabbath services around 530pm. This was our time set by the chaplain on the official schedule. We liked our seating a certain way and the Muslim community that had services from 430-530pm liked their setting arrangement differently than ours.
When we walked into the chapel at 530pm, the Muslim community was reorganizing the chairs from their seating arrangements to ours to save us set up time. This was respect.
During a Muslim holiday, they asked us if they could use the chapel during our regular services. Of course we agreed, this was respect.
Respecting our fellow man for who they are and not by stereotypes goes a long way in how they treat you back.
Maybe the world can learn a few lessons from my time in Prison.
What are your thoughts? Im always responding in the comments!
Until next time, Shalom and Salaam
-Charlie
(Photos courtesy of KPBS.org)
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You are one of my top three favorite authors on Steemit @charieshrem and I appreciate all you do for the community. Peace and love.
Thanks Barry !
When I first landed in remand, I was jammed in a tiny cell isolated from every other cell with Muslims. Well, one was a proper Muslim, a Moroccan Berber, former Communist, and he had with him a side-by-side arabic-english Qur'an.
Being dominated by these folk in number, and curious, with no other interest other than studying my Bulgarian language learning text, I read the Qur'an twice. First time to familiarise, second time because I decided I liked the thing enough that I wanted to try it.
I converted, 'officially', practised for some 6 weeks or so, and I still basically consider that my view on the Other is shaped in a big way by Islam. What I liked about it most was the way they took on the old judaic stuff, and kept very strictly to it. I was raised a Seventh Day Adventist, and this funny little 'Great Disappointment' sect that sprung out of the 19th century USA is very strict at the dietary regime, and I already grew up without pork in my diet. I still don't like it, and it somewhat disagrees with my digestive system anyway.
However, there was some serious conflicts. They segregate foreigners and bulgarians and gypsies in the Bulgarian prison system, and most of the foreigners were from the middle east and north africa. But aside from my Berber friend, most of the rest I was stuck with for 3 months were horrid, badly behaved teenagers who had no concept of bedtime. For me it was a big problem, because they essentially deprived me of sleep by making a racket all night until 2am in the morning. That left me many nights with only 4 hours sleep and after dawn I was unable to rest, even when they were quiet.
I enjoyed reading your story, and it is interesting to me just how fast Islam has spread into the USA now. I am not one for engaging in meaningless, non-effectual rituals, and after about 18 month homeless (after 1 year in detention) since then, I started to pray, as per the instructions in 4 Philippians 6-7. I have even started up again because it helps me with my Steem writing.
update
I just want to make a remark on something hilarious that just happened. I follow @xeroc on streemian. He voted here, and then, lo and behold, I look at my notifications on esteem, and there I am, voting on myself. I swear I didn't mean to vote on my own comment! :)
I was looking forward to reading the post about Omar! I grew up in the inner city and was very much a minority in most situations and grew to feel comfortable. I found out the same thing...if you give respect, you get respect. Sometimes I was tested but each interaction in which you gave respect and showed your character you gained reputation points (much like Steemit). I'm really digging this series. Thanks!
Thank you for your interesting post @charlieshrem.
If one may add to the dialogue a thought....religion is man by man's effort to seek the approbation of God....Christianity is a relationship with God through His Son, Jesus Christ.
Thank you for the opportunity to express thought.
My favorite line:
This is so true. Labels make us stupid. Our brains are trying to be efficient and save some glucose, but doing the extra work of not using a stereotype or label is so very important. Each human is unique and should be treated as such.
I grew up near Melah ( Jewish neighborhood in Marrakech) we had no problem to live together
Very cool! Can you tell me more?
We live together very peacefully. We buy from Jews because the goods are very cheap but I don't know how they make profits!
Hahah that's awesome !
^ enjoying reading your posts^
Having recently returned from a trip to Israel, I enjoyed reading your Jewish sentiments. Excellent story-telling as standard from the Shremster!
How was your trip ? Where did you go ? I spent my childhood in Israel
I flew Krakow - Tel Aviv - the busiest flight out of Poland - due to the locality of Auschwitz! I travelled to visit a friend in Haifa. Haifa is one of the Middle East's most picturesque cities. The views from the top of majestic Mt Carmel (546m) are breathtaking!
I've recently been trying to learn more Hebrew, but I'm finding it as murderous to learn as Polish. I had a Jewish grandmother and did consider moving to Israel under the Aliyah program, but its just way too hot for me there to make a permanent move - so nice vacations are just fine for now :)
I really enjoy this series! I did not grow up with any religious framework, so I've quilted together the pieces from traditions that make sense to me. Yoga works really well for me for connecting to guidance and ideals. Did you study the spiritual aspects of yoga in your time in prison? How do you relate it to your Judaism? Did various faiths participate in your practice? Did they share insight for how yoga fit with their religion? Thank you for sharing @charlieshrem - blessings~*~
Thank you @charlieshrem. I look forward to your posts. I have voted for you as a witness.