INDIANAPOLIS - A U.S. judge ruled Friday that an American convicted of fighting alongside the Taliban must be allowed to pray daily in a group with other Muslim inmates at his high-security prison in Indiana.

Barring John Walker Lindh and other Muslim inmates from engaging in daily group ritual prayer violates a 1993 law that bans the government from curtailing religious speech without showing a compelling interest, Judge Jane Magnus-Stinson ruled.

The judge issued a permanent injunction blocking the prison from enforcing its ban on daily group prayer, but she said her ruling does not prohibit the prison from taking less restrictive security measures.

Group prayers had been allowed once a week and on high holy days such as Ramadan or Christmas in the Communications Management Unit at the prison complex at Terre Haute, Indiana. But at other times, inmates had to pray alone in their cells. The same restrictions applied to inmates of other religions, prison officials said.

Lindh said that didn't meet the Qur’an's requirements, and that the Hanbali school of Islam to which he adheres requires him to pray daily with other Muslims. Lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana, which represented Lindh, argued that prayer was restricted even though games and some other group activities were not.

Prison officials had argued that it would be dangerous, unaffordable and unfair to other inmates.

The U.S. attorney's office, which represented the prison, declined immediate comment on Friday's ruling.

Ken Falk, legal director of the ACLU of Indiana, noted Friday that witnesses testified prisoners were allowed for many years to pray daily while they were out of their cells, both in the multi-purpose room and throughout the prison "and it never caused any problem."

"To now argue that this somehow going to be a major security problem was incorrect," Falk said.

Lindh is serving a 20-year sentence for aiding the Taliban during the 2001 U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan.

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