"One in 10 inmates behind bars turns to Islam."
It was small story in a local newspaper called the Daily Herald out of Everett, Washington, but it spread quickly around the internet, thanks to that startling claim.
The paper's February 2009 investigation declared that so-called "prison Islam" was the fastest-growing religious group in U.S. correctional facilities.
Some of those worshippers claim affiliation with the Nation of Islam (NOR), a black separatist movement that was launched and promoted by two convicts, Elijah Mohammed and his protégé Malcolm X. Strictly speaking, however, NOR has little in common with orthodox Islam; it is more accurately described as a political pseudo-religion, held up to African-Americans as an alternative to "pacifist" "Eurocentric" Christianity.
However, Lawrence Mimiya told the Daily Herald that most Muslims in prison today are Sunni converts. Mamiya, a professor at Vassar College who studies Muslim prison ministries, says that "just one in five who convert to Islam while in prison continue on in that faith once they are released."
(Note: the number of Muslims in the U.S. population at large is estimated at one percent, or 8 million individuals.)
Some experts question the importance of such "1 in 10" statistics, however. For example, by their own admission, many inmates convert to Islam merely to receive special perks, like prayer rugs, incense and superior halal food.
However, that fact should still give readers pause: after all, these endless "religious" demands demonstrates radical Islam's innate sense of superiority, and its demand to be seen as "special." It doesn't help matters that groups like the ACLU file lawsuits to guarantee such special treatment to Muslim inmates. After a 2008 suit, for example:
"U.S. District Judge Clarence Brimmer approved an agreement on Wednesday that allows [Wyoming] prisoners receiving religious meals to keep their meals in their cells until the next meal is served. It also requires the prison to install a new microwave for inmates that won't be used for pork, which is forbidden to Muslims and members of some other religions."
In another lawsuit settled in November 2008, a California jail was ordered to allow female Muslim inmates to wear "county-issued" headscarves - and to pay $45,000 in "damages" to the aggrieved prisoners.
Robert Spencer of JihadWatch notes the ironic insanity of such lawsuits:
"Once again a Muslim in America demands that non-Muslims accommodate his particular practices and beliefs, rather than considering that he has to adapt his own behavior to American mores -- especially since he is in prison!"
Indeed, Islam teaches that "infidels" are obliged to pay the "Jizyah" - an onerous tax/ransom - to their Muslim superiors. Many radical Muslims view the booty won in such parasitical lawsuits as a variety of "jizyah" - a "ransom" they are forced to extort surreptitiously until they can establish their worldwide "caliphate."
However, in some ways, ACLU collaboration with our enemies is a laughable sideshow when compared to more serious implications. A highly regarded 2006 study called "Out of the Shadows" simply states the obvious: that "tight-knit communities of Muslims in prison are ripe for radicalization, and could easily become terrorist cells."
Stephen Schwarz of the non-profit group Islamic Pluralism explains why:
"Radical Muslim chaplains, trained in a foreign ideology, certified in foreign-financed schools and acting in coordination to impose an extremist agenda have gained a monopoly over Islamic religious activities in American state, federal, and city prisons and jails."
Richard Reid, the so-called "shoe bomber" and Jose Padilla, the "dirty bomber", are two of the most famous Muslim convert/prisoners turned would be terrorists.
If captured and incarcerated after committing or plotting terrorist acts, Muslim radicals create further problems within the international prison system, according to a 2008 report by the NEFA Foundation.
"While in prison," according to the report, "jihadists have caused officials fits by radicalizing fellow inmates, planning jailbreaks, distributing propaganda to associates, continuing to exercise operational control over their organizations, and plotting attacks."
Change has been slow in coming. Only recently has the Federal Bureau of Prisons (FBOP) begun conducting more thorough background checks on religious "service providers" such as Muslim chaplains. According to the 2007 research paper "Radicalization: Behind Bars and Beyond Borders," the FBOP has relied on "just ten Muslim chaplains for the entire federal prison system. These ten chaplains were responsible for vetting and endorsing contractors and volunteers who enter prisons to provide religious services, a Herculean task when one considers the thousands of contractors and volunteers who enter prisons each month."
Encyclopedia of Terrorism author Harvey W. Kushner is an internationally recognized authority on the subject. His first hand experience running educational and vocational programs at New York's Rikers Island prison has given him a unique perspective into the way the system operates.
He explains that, along with political correctness and the constant threat of costly, frivolous lawsuits, the prison system's entrenched bureaucracy and "culture" make reforms difficult. Overstretched administrators sometimes find it beneficial to permit gang activities - Islamic and otherwise - because that way inmates will "police" themselves, albeit crudely.
Kushner adds that given the current economic climate, anti-jihadist prison reforms will now be even lower on the list of priorities than ever before.
Clearly, Americans have reason to be concerned. In some respects, the very institutions intended to keep the public safe are instead serving as accidental breeding grounds for violence and radicalism. Since large bureaucratic institutions like the Federal Bureau of Prisons are notoriously slow to evolve, it would be unrealistic to expect this situation to change in the immediate future.
Meanwhile, after being released from prison, Muslim felons return to the community and attain employment in Muslim run businesses. Along with halal food restaurants, these businesses (according to Harvey Kushner) include Nation of Islam security outfits, employed by local law enforcement to keep order in largely African American communities.
Comments
So what is your solution to the problem, other than whining about it.
Shaidle doesn't propose solutions. She is a provocateur, hoping to follow in the career path of such luminaries as Ann Coulter, peddling in the inflammation of religious bigotry and racist opinion.
You want a solution Simon, ban religion in prisons. When one is convicted of a crime one loses their right to freedom and that should include openly practicing "Freedom of Religion". England rebuilt their jails to be Muslim compliant, toilets shifted costing the taxpayers a fortune because the Muslim inmates didn't want to poo in the direction of Mecca. How utterly absurb, how utterly cowardly of the Brits, how pious can a Muslim be if they are in jail for commiting a crime?
"(Note: the number of Muslims in the U.S. population at large is estimated at one percent, or 8 million individuals.)"
Ok, a quibble. At one percent of the U.S. population (about 3 hundred million)Muslim would number only 3 million and not 8
Apart from that, a very informative article.
geez zorphy - ya don't think that posting an informative article might be enough to evoke some discussion i suppose - where do these far.left.nutters. come from i ask. . . .
Do Hindus in prison receive vegetarian food, Jews kosher food?
They bend over back wards in jail for Islam but Christians are not given any special treatment or other groups. Nor should they be in my opinion as a Christian. It just means we have surrendered to the soul eaters.
If we go out of our way to accommodate ruthless customs, while suppressing our own at every turn.
Even a fool can see who is winning a social war by forcing the barbaric anti-Women Sharia law, backed by a Religion of conquest. Yet those of traditional Western Religions are closeted at every turn, or even out right persecuted by their own societies. We will be slaves while our birth right will be dissolved then given to others as a surety, for a false security by our trembling leaders.
Communal suicide by ideological folly.
JMO
Kathy Shaidle is provocative in the way a sleeper is provoked into wakefulness. When the media and governments resort to sleep-inducing circumlocutions like calling Jihadi terrorism "anti-Islamic activity", that's a pretty useful function.
WHAT in the name of God are these people doing with Korans in PRISON? THAT is the First Mistake. Are you telling ME that America can't control what happens inside of it's prisons????
Religion should be a non-starter in prisons with inmates making do with what they have. No special treatment should be provided to ANY church, sect or cult by the state.
www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2009/02/20/news/local/45-fruitsofthedevil.txt
<b>Are you telling ME that America can't control what happens inside of it's prisons?</b>
Once upon a time, people thought it was the job of government to control its prisons, roads and borders. Now they think the job of government is to redistribute the income of the top 49% of earners to the bottom 51% of parasites.
<b>Do Hindus in prison receive vegetarian food, Jews kosher food? </b>
Very funny. The only Jews you'll find in a prison are the lawyers going to visit their clients.
*Zorpheous: So what is your solution to the problem, other than whining about it* Why is practicing one particular religion a problem? The problem is with the dysfunctional Bureau of Prison system and the courts. We'd have a lot less trouble if we reverted to chain gangs, hard labor, no tv, no air conditioning, no luxuries of any kind, no special treatment for any prisoner....put them all to work in the public sector doing the hard labor that we are paying union workers to do now and we'll save billions in the budgets of all states and in the fed. Make the cons earn their daily bread instead of sitting around on their lazy keysters causing trouble and wasting taxpayer money.
Teach the cons a trade. Give them an opportunity at redemption. Teach them to be carpenters, plumbers, bricklayers, electricians, stonemasons, ironworkers, etc. Set up a jobs program in the prison system so that they start to learn the skills while in prison, and make it so that if they finish Journeyman-Apprentice training and get their license after they get out of prison, stay employed, stay clean and out of trouble that they can get their rights back - the right to vote, to drive a car, etc. so that they can re-enter society as full citizens instead of being permanently marked and condemned as they are treated now. But the program would have to be strict - couldn't just give it all back - have to earn it ...... but you gotta give them hope, give them a real chance at it..... otherwise the religious zealots will always be the ones who will have the edge - after all, they are the snake-oil salesmen who sell hope in a bottle to hopeless men...
ya know you just can't underestimate the stupidity of western people. the same people who gave us the ability to use critical analysis must also have given us the ability to tell sh-t form shineola.
subhanallah.The prisoners gel with islam so perfectly.Made for each other.Mashallah
I really enjoyed Harvey Kushner's book, Holy War on the Home Front. I read it in almost a day and it had a lot to say about Islam in prison.
This woman, Ms. Shaidle is not fully aware of what she is saying presumably because she knows farcically little about this issue.
Her piece is quite amazing, and a strong indicator of the degree of xenophobia America struggles with even in light of the progress we have made in terms pluralism.
Please Ms. Shaidle, either take the time that is required of any sane, rational, and well intentioned human being, to actually understand Islam and its teachings, or stop writing.
These people just do not understand that Islam will continue to spread whether anybody likes it or not (Allah has promised it in the quran). It just amazes me, the more you try to supress Islam, the more it defeats you from angles you weren't expecting, hahaha
why does America have to be so P.C. all the time? @ Simon: ya, if its a particular group causing the issue, then don't ignore that fact so no one is offended. Do you really think they aren't racist against us? the best way to fight a war is to target the group your fighting against. If you have an issue being safe my friend, then go join World Peace orginazation or whatever you left wing softies have a deal with it.
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