Not all of the federal government’s techniques for controlling the practice of Islam were successful. One of the government’s strategies, for example, was the denial of First Amendment protections to Muslim prisoners. The Justice Department argued that since the NOI was not an authentic religious movement—but rather a “cult” that operated as a political organization—its followers in prison did not have the right to meet or conduct religious services. By redefining Islam as a “cult,” the government could avoid the messiness of legal protections for religious expression. But the repression of Islamic practice in both state and federal prisons ended up expanding rather than limiting the rights of prisoners to practice the religion of their choice.

XREF: Connects to broader dynamics where legal repression backfires and expands rather than contracts rights through litigation and precedent.

Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ Th…, loc. 400