Koran page. (Creative Commons)

From allegedly having their Korans thrown in the trash to being denied meals appropriate for their religious diet, prisoners of Muslim faith in federal prisons continue to complain they are being abused and discriminated against.

In the latest semiannual report to Congress about potential civil rights and civil liberties violations in federal prisons, which was released Tuesday, the Justice Department's inspector general's office said it opened 14 new investigations in the first half of 2011. The reports were first mandated by the post-9/11 Patriot Act.

Most of the investigations are eventually closed because allegations cannot be substantiated.

But the latest report notes one investigation that did uncover an email trail. The complaint came from a federal Bureau of Prisons employee, who had received an email with racist remarks from a fellow employee. The report stated:

"BOP investigators determined that the sending employee had received the e-mail from another employee and had forwarded it to several staff, including the complainant. Both BOP employees admitted sending the offending e-mail and acknowledged that the racially inflammatory statement in the message was inappropriate for the workplace....One of the employees resigned and the other employee received a written reprimand."

In another closed investigation, a chaplain received an oral reprimand in response to an allegation of "a pattern of incompetence and bias when dealing with Muslim inmates and Islamic issues."

An inmate complained, among other things, that the chaplains at the prison issued memos "restricting the size of prayer groups and the duration and location of daily Muslim prayers."

Read the full inspector general report here.

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