Last week’s news of Riker’s Island Prison Chaplain, Rabbi Leib Glanz, arranging a lavish bar-mitzvah party behind bars and a variety of other special privileges, for a Jewish felon was not to be outdone by Glanz’ boss, Imam Umar Abdul Jalil. While Rabbi Glanz was busy taking care of “his own”, the Imam was doing the exact same thing, in this case for rapper Foxy Brown.
I have no idea if Brown is Muslim, indicated that she was interested in converting, or if the Imam was just looking for a little star-power to enhance his image, but as one prison official stated, “It’s just out of control”. Rich and powerful people have been getting better treatment in prison for years, but the fact that those assuring it are chaplains is so wrong, it’s hard to know where to begin.
Perhaps was most disturbing is the use of religious authority to secure personal favors. Perhaps it’s the fact that these chaplains, charged with serving the entire prison population are playing to the ugliest tribal and ethnocentric urges which already animate both that population and, apparently, the chaplains own souls. Perhaps it’s the abuse of public trust which they are charged to maintain.
Whatever it is, it is up to both the city AND members of their own religious communities to take these characters down. In that sense, the issue is not simply how their bosses in government respond, but how their communities respond. While these missteps should not disqualify either man from ongoing spiritual leadership roles, it is clear that those same missteps must be addressed — the underlying thinking which makes it acceptable to break the rules under which we all live, for those who share our beliefs is a serious question and anyone with both real power and religious authority must address it.
Author, radio and TV talk show host, and President of CLAL-The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, Brad Hirschfield is the author of 
posted June 22, 2009 at 1:35 pm
Well today the NY Post reported that she did NOT GET SPECIAL TREATMENT.
they need to get their stories right. Foxy is always in a whirlwind of talk.. this was reported by the united press international today -
http://www.upi.com/Entertainment_News/2009/06/22/Prison-denies-Foxy-got-special-treatment/UPI-59791245682541/
posted June 23, 2009 at 3:05 am
Just look at the clowns running Evangelical Christianity like Pat Robertson and Ted Haggard. The problem is that most of the major religions actually promote bigotry, nepotism, cronyism, and hypocrisy.
My moniker, ‘New Age Cowboy’, is actually something in which I take pride. Hindus, Muslims, Christians, and Jews don’t actually have good track records, although there sources are beautiful. I’d rather be associated with wacked out Babyboomer spirituality.
I love Jesus, the Psalms, western mysticism, etc. But like Ghadi said (more or less), “I’d be a Christian (or fill in the blank with any other traditon) if it wasn’t for Christians (or fill in the blank with any tradition).”