Ct. inmate claims the state’s Department Of Corrections is forcing him to accept a religion or abandon his understanding of God
A prisoner has filed a federal civil lawsuit against the state of Connecticut saying he is denyed his right to love and honor God from the perspective of the Nation of Gods and Earths.
Kevin Harris is serving a life sentence for a 1993 murder in Bristol. Harris is a sincere adherent of the Nation of Gods and Earths, a God Centered Culture commonly known as the Five Percenters, which was founded in New York City in 1964.
The Nation promotes the reality of God free from religion and teaches that theBlack man is God.
According to court papers, the state has classified the Nation of Gods and Earths as a “disruptive group”, comparable to a prison gang or racial supremacist group because they teach that the Blackman is God.
“This is theological persecution, cut and dry,” says Born King Allah, the executive director of the National Office Of Cultural Affairs that fights for the rights of NOGE prisoners.
“It strikes me un-American that a Department of Corrections has been given the authority by the state to deny Kevin Harris the inalienable right to God as he understands him. In 2015, the Connecticut DOC is dictating who and what is God to prisoners in their care, custody and control. They are in direct violation of the Constitution of the United States of America and are also violating the separation between church and state.”
The department’s administration allows the director of religious services to decide what a religion is based on whether there is a body of literature stating principles that support the practices and whether the practices are recognized by a group of people who share a common ethical, moral or inrtellectual view.
In the lawsuit filed on Jan. 26, Harris said officials in 2013 seized NOGE/Five Percenter lessons and literature “necessary for his living and practicing his God centered Culture” from his cell as contraband and has denied his appeals to get it back.
Karen Martucci, a Corrections Department spokeswoman in Connecticut, declined to comment on the departments reasoning, citing the pending litigation.
David McGuire, an attorney for the ACLU of Connecticut who is not involved in the case, says under a federal law passed in 2000, the state must allow prisoners with a sincere religious belief to practice that religion in prison in the “least restricitve way” while still maintaining safety and security in the prisons.
“The NOGE/Five Percenters practice to live a God centered Culture that recieves the same constitutional protections granted religons,”
says Born King Allah.
“85% of the world chooses a religious path to God, Mr. Harris is one of the 5% who chooses instead a God centered Cultural path. America cannot be allowed to discriminate against him even as a prisoner because the path to God he chooses is non- religious. God is not a slave to religion and every man, woman, and child has the right to love and honor God as they see fit. To punish or deny a man God because his path to God is different from yours is illegal.”
The Five Percenters have been treated as a security threat group because of the Holvey Report, which was written by Ron Holvey, an ex-correctional office from New Jersey. His report gave birth to security threat mangement units springing up in prisons systems across the country and court rulings on his allegations have been mixed. A federal judge in Virginia last year ruled that Ron Holvey’s allegations should be upheld and have classified the NOGE/Five Percenters as a gang.
A federal judge in Michigan in 2009 found that while prison security is a “compelling state interest” he found no evidence that the Nation of Gods and Earths/Five Percenters advocate violence and ruled they are not a gang and should have access its literature in prisons.
In Oct. of 2013 the NYSDOCCS entered into a settlement with the NOGE/Five Percenters granting them the same rights and priviliges they give to religious groups in their prison system.
The Nation Of Gods and Earths teaches that the Blackman is God free from religion. That only 5% percent of the population knows and teaches the truth. 10% percent are rich slavemakers who use money, violence and religion to enslave the poor and the 85% are the poor mentally dead people caught in the middle.
Its theology has been included in the lyrics of hip hop music by many artists like Rakim, Brand Nubian, Erykah Badu, Busta Rhymes and Wu Tang Clan.
