Father’s imprisonment drew father and son together and deepened both their faiths

Evidence

For the evening visits, Passaic County Jail would often allow visitors to stay for a while longer, and they would sit together, separated by Plexiglas and speaking into a phone, and talk for two hours about everything. During this time father and son became very close. They talked about Rami’s school, about his father’s case, about what Rami should say to his mother and what his future plans should be. They talked about his father’s health—he was having heart trouble since entering prison—and also about the people incarcerated with him. Abu Rami told Rami stories about other immigration detainees and how their detentions were tearing their families apart. And they discoursed about Islam. Since his incarceration Rami’s father also found his own faith growing. The Muslim inmates in Passaic were a large group who were very organized and devout. They leaned on one another, and Rami’s father began praying regularly with them. Father and son both became more religious around the same time, even if they followed two different paths. They compared notes on Islam. — Moustafa Bayoumi, How Does It Feel to Be a Problem? Being…, 851 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

The trip took forever, but it gave him time with his father. That arrangement lasted through his first semester of college, but then the authorities closed the Passaic County Jail. The family hoped this would mean that his father would again be released on immigration parole. Instead Abu Rami was moved to a jail in Bergen County, where visiting was limited to half an hour. Now the whole family piled into the car on Sundays. They would drive an hour each way for a half-hour visit and take turns talking through the telephone to the man stuck behind the plastic partition. There was no longer any time for those long, warm, continuous conversations Rami and his father had had before. … When Abu Rami told his son that the Muslim community in Bergen was much smaller than the one in Passaic, Rami felt that his father’s deen was dropping. “Be more of a masjid-goer,” Rami advised his father, using the Arabic word for mosque. “And you should have better friends.” His father nodded. — Moustafa Bayoumi, How Does It Feel to Be a Problem? Being…, 853 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: A father’s imprisonment deepened both his and his son’s Islamic faith — Moustafa Bayoumi, How Does It Feel to Be a Problem? Being…, 851; Limited jail visits eroded an incarcerated father’s religious community and morale — Moustafa Bayoumi, How Does It Feel to Be a Problem? Being…, 853; Imprisonment threatens the prisoner’s belief that past struggles had meaning

Broader Connections

• A father’s imprisonment deepened both his and his son’s Islamic faith #corroborates (0.97) — Moustafa Bayoumi, How Does It Feel to Be a Problem? Being…, 851
• Limited jail visits eroded an incarcerated father’s religious community and morale #complicates (0.78) — Moustafa Bayoumi, How Does It Feel to Be a Problem? Being…, 853