Quran, Prayer Rug Requested

January 12, 2008

Author: Jamie Satterfield

Source: KNOX News

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2008/jan/12/quran-prayer-rug-requested/

A Saudi Arabian man who allegedly admitted perusing child pornography is demanding a Quran and a prayer rug while behind bars.

Nasir Ehmood Alkhallefa, 28, insisted at an arraignment hearing before U.S. District Magistrate Judge Clifford Shirley on Thursday that officials provide him with the Islamic religious text and rug, a small embroidered cloth used to keep the area of Islamic prayer clean, while he is jailed pending trial on federal possession of child pornography charges.

Shirley told Alkhallefa, who has been using toilet paper to construct a makeshift prayer rug, to take up his demands with jailers in Blount County, where most federal inmates are housed.