Judge orders halal meals for ’93 World Trade Center bomber

DENVER – A judge says a Muslim man serving a life sentence for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing must continue to get meals conforming to his religious beliefs.

But U.S. District Judge R. Brooke Jackson in his order Friday did not require prison officials to make extra efforts to provide Ahmad Ajaj access to an imam.

Ajaj started getting halal meals on the eve of his trial last month after he was transferred prison in Colorado to Terre Haute, Indiana.

He objected to attending classes with the Indiana prison’s imam because he believes the cleric is an adherent of Sufism, Islam’s mystical strain.

Jackson said it doesn’t violate Ajaj’s religious rights to meet with someone with different views and that he still could have phone or email contact with another imam.