The prison authorities appear to be treating all ordinary Muslims as potential terrorists, an approach that may just make the problem worse.
Our guest writer is James Brandon, head of research and communications at Quilliam, the counter-extremism think tank
A new report by the Chief Inspector of Prisons on ‘Muslim Prisoners’ Experiences’ in UK jails has created considerable waves in today’s media, with The Times reporting on its front page that many prisoners are converting to Islam to benefit from “the protection of powerful Muslim gangs”.
Such reports of prison radicalisation are becoming ever more common – and with good reason. As my own report on Islamist extremism in British prisons, published last year, showed, at least five convicted terrorists originally adopted extreme interpretations of Islam during their time in British prison. Four of them were converts.
Today’s report, based on interviews with 164 Muslims prisoner in eight jails, fleshes out some of these trends, explaining some of the ways in which Islam is practiced in British prisons, where around 1 in 8 prisoners are Muslim.
It’s section on converts, for example, in particularly enlightening. Prison converts are quoted as saying that Islam “helps you with discipline in your life”, provides “strength and guidance and protection, of course” or gives “a feeling that someone cares and is looking over you”. One convert even explains that the prison’s superior halal food was the initial reason for him becoming Muslim.
Troublingly, the report also found that many Muslim prisoners felt that they had been mistreated or victimised by prison staff on account of their religion. It also recorded many Muslim prisoners as feeling they were being treated as potential terrorists simply for being Muslim – and feeling that they could not communicate effectively with prison staff.
Frustratingly, the report failed to ask more pertinent questions. In regard to converts, we are told nothing about what sort of Islam these prisoners adopted. Are Muslim prisoners adopting Islamism, the violent and intolerant interpretation of Islam that is the inspiration for al-Qaeda and other radical groups? Or have they adopted more tolerant, inclusive and mainstream sufi forms of Islam?
How will these converts interact with people of other faiths, beliefs and backgrounds when they are released from prison? The report does not say. Likewise, in regard to victimisation of Muslim prisoners by staff, we learn nothing about how widespread this problem is, or in which prisons such perceptions are most common.
The report also provides little in the way of analysis. This sometimes leads it into absurdities. For instance, the report simultaneously relates that many non-Muslims are converting in large numbers in order to receive better treatment in prison and that Muslim prisoners were more likely than non-Muslims to feel that they have been ‘treated unfairly’, ‘victimised’ or ‘threatened’ by staff. Which is it? Why does the Inspectorate of Prisons not seek to explain such discordant impressions?
Although the report has flaws, however, it provides plenty of food for thought. There are clearly substantial problems in the treatment of Muslim prisoners. Too many Muslims and ethnic minority prisoners have complained of suffering racial or anti-Muslim abuse from staff for such concerns to be lightly dismissed. Likewise, it is clear that Muslim prisoners, and particularly new converts, are not receiving adequate spiritual support and guidance from official Muslim chaplains.
In combination, these factors could be disastrous. They risk creating a vacuum into which extremists may step – by providing vulnerable Muslims with protection against anti-Muslim staff, offering ideological indoctrination instead of genuine spiritual guidance and even by portraying mistreatment by individual prison staff as part of a wider ‘war on Islam’.
Fortunately, however, these problems have clear solutions. Prison staff need to be trained to understand the difference between Islam, the religion, and Islamism, the totalitarian ideology. This will stop them seeing all Muslims as terrorists-in-waiting. Muslim chaplains need to be encouraged to reach out to vulnerable Muslim prisoners, and particularly converts, to give them advice on how to live as Muslims in a diverse society like the UK.
In both cases, it is important to understand that while Islamist radicalisation is a risk in British prisons, it certainly cannot be tackled through treating all ordinary Muslims as potential terrorists. Indeed, such an approach may just make the problem worse.
9 Responses to “Staff must realise not all Muslim prisoners are terrorists-in-waiting”
Quilliam
Quilliam's Head of Research and Communications, James Brandon writes @leftfootfwd about radicalisation in prisons http://bit.ly/9v1Ead
Think Debate
RT @leftfootfwd: Staff must realise not all Muslim prisoners are terrorists-in-waiting: http://bit.ly/9v1Ead @QuilliamF
Thomas Byrne
RT @leftfootfwd: Staff must realise not all Muslim prisoners are terrorists-in-waiting: http://bit.ly/9v1Ead @QuilliamF
Javeriah
RT @leftfootfwd: Staff must realise not all Muslim prisoners are terrorists-in-waiting: http://bit.ly/9v1Ead @QuilliamF
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