Islamic advocacy group alleges hate incident at prison

CHESHIRE — The Hartfordbased Connecticut Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations is calling for state authorities to investigate an alleged act of anti-Islamic hate speech at the Cheshire Correctional Institution.

In a letter to Angel Quiros, acting director of the Connecticut Department of Correction, CAIRCT Chairman Farhan Memon said Shem Brijbilas, a correctional officer at the Cheshire facility, had been “the target of repeated homophobic and anti-Muslim harassment by other officers,” including through a false incident report circulated among staff in April.

The alleged report, framed to indicate it was written by Brijbilas, offers homophobic rhetoric, uses multiple racial slurs and suggests that Muslim-Americans are “inferior to the White Race” and should be on “bended knees to serve ... Aryan masters.”

It ends with “God Bless the United States of White America,” written in all caps, and “HH,” a common white supremacist notation for “Heil Hitler.”

In his letter, Memon noted there were multiple references to “‘14/88 SS’ which are codes used within the white supremacist and neoNazi movement in America.”

Brijbilas previously received a similar letter in 2017, which he reported, Memon said. He was told the paperwork had been lost when he asked about the status of that inquiry, Memon said.