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"                      <p class=\"imgtitle\"></p>           GALVESTON &ndash; A Texas Department of Criminal Justice inmate claims he is not being served meals prepared in accordance to his religion's laws, recent court documents say.<br /><br />Cornelius Boulard Jr.'s lawsuit against TDCJ alleges that the defendants did not provide Boulard, a practicing Muslim, with a halal diet plan.<br /><br />The suit was filed Feb. 23 in the Galveston Division of the Southern District of Texas.<br />Halal allows Muslims to eat dairy products, fruits, vegetables, meat from animals with cloven hooves and fish, but prohibits the consumption of pork and blood.<br /><br />Boulard, an inmate at the Stringfellow Unit in Rosharon, shows that a majority of states and the Federal Bureau of Prisons provide a halal diet. TDCJ has the facilities to meet the dietary needs of its Muslim population, but refuses the plaintiff to access them, the suit alleges.<br /><br />Boulard claims he repeatedly attempted to address the issue to no avail.<br /><br />\"The defendant(s) have never demonstrated the existence of any compelling government interest for their decision to substantially burden the plaintiff's religious exercise by denying him a halal diet, or demonstrated how the failure to provide a halal diet is the least restrictive means of advancing any such alleged compelling government interest,\" the original petition says.<br /><br />Consequently, the complainant asks U.S. District Court Judge Kenneth M. Hoyt to issue a ruling requiring TDCJ to provide a nutritionally-sufficient halal diet or a conforming kosher diet.<br /><br /><em>Case No. 3:11-cv-00092 </em><br />"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://setexasrecord.com/stories/510615222-muslim-inmate-claims-tdcj-denied-religious-dietary-restrictions>