Prison Chaplain Sues New York Post for $20 Mil.

Melody Rashada, a teacher at an upstate New York mosque and a chaplain in the New York State prison system, filed a $20 million lawsuit against the New York Post in Manhattan Supreme Court on Thursday, claiming she was libeled in a September 2010 op-ed piece.The article, written by Patrick Dunleavy, a former deputy inspector general within the prison system, suggested that Rashada helped radicalize four former inmates who were charged and eventually convicted of plotting to blow up a Bronx synagogue. Rashada, who only advises female inmates in the Beacon Correctional Facility in New York, charges that the article is defamatory and was "written with legal malice." According to the suit, she describes herself as "politically moderate” and “abhors terrorism and violence.”Her lawyer said she had no contact with the would-be terrorists. "She didn't know any of them," said John R. Lewis, her lawyer.The op-ed drew a connection between the Newburgh, N.Y., mosque where Rashada teaches and the four men implicated in the plot. Dunleavy specifically names Rashada and four other Muslim clerics that work both in the prison system and at the mosque, claiming that their mentor, Warith Deen Umar, former head of the state prison ministerial system, is a member of the Wahabbi/Salafist sect of Islam, which adheres to strict interpretations of the Koran. "Inmates from the chaplains' prison congregations have also sent thousands of dollars to pseudo-Islamic charities, such as the Holy Land Foundation and others, which in turn provided material support for terrorist organizations," Dunleavy wrote in his piece. Rashada denies being a member of the Wahabbi sect. "[Rashada] has never engaged in the radicalization of inmates, nor encouraged inmates, or any other people, to engage in terrorist acts," her lawyer said in court papers.The Post has not yet responded to a request for comment.

Performance Marketing

Prison Chaplain Sues New York Post for $20 Mil.

Janon Fisher

About

Subscriptions

Events

Publications

WORK SMARTER - LEARN, GROW AND BE INSPIRED.

Subscribe today!

Janon Fisher