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- Soeren Kern: Britain: Muslim Prison Population Up 200%
- Peter Martino: Dismantle the EU's "Political Wing"
- Nina Rosenwald: Gatestone Weekly Roundup
Britain: Muslim Prison Population Up 200%
by Soeren Kern
August 2, 2013 at 5:00 am
August 2, 2013 at 5:00 am
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"Nowadays
jails are run mostly by Muslims ... It hurts as a Muslim to have someone
disrespect my religion. If we deal with him one time, with violence, and show
him what time it is, he will never disrespect our religion again ... For
Muslims, you'd say it's good, but for non-Muslims, it's very, very bad." —
Jay, five-time former inmate, quoted by the BBC
The number of Muslim convicts in British prisons has surpassed the 11,000
mark for the first time, according to data included in a new report produced by
the British Parliament.The statistics -- from a July 29 House of Commons research report entitled, "Prison Population Statistics" -- show that the number of Muslim inmates in England and Wales jumped to 11,248 in 2012, up from 3,681 in 1997. Stated another way, over the past 15 years, the number of Muslims in British prisons has jumped by more than 200%.
The rate of increase of Muslim inmates in British prisons is eight times faster than that of the overall prison population, and the numbers show a clear overrepresentation of Muslim convicts: Muslims, who make up roughly 5% of the British population as a whole, now make up 13% of the British prison population (compared to just 6% in 1997).
The growth in the number of Muslim inmates is fueling fears that British prisons are becoming hotbeds for Islamic radicalization.
Although most of the Muslims in British prisons are immigrants from Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, an increasing number of Muslim inmates are converts to Islam.
According to a research report recently commissioned by the British Ministry of Justice, many non-Muslim inmates in British prisons are being bullied into conversion or are embracing Islam in exchange for promises of protection from physical assault.
The study examines the Islamic "gang culture" inside the Whitemoor Prison in Cambridgeshire, which houses around 500 of the most dangerous prisoners in Britain. Researchers from the Cambridge Institute of Criminology who wrote the report found that more than one third (39%) of the prisoners at Whitemoor are Muslims.
Prisoners told the researchers that they had felt overwhelming pressure to convert. In some instances, they said, Muslim inmates had left Islamic literature in their cells and ordered them to "read this." In other instances, inmates were promised that if they converted to Islam, they would be safe from physical assault.
The report states that if loners, including sex offenders, converted to Islam, fellow Muslims would defend them; they could thereby gain safety from a large and dominant group. Others used their newly acquired faith as a tool for status in establishing influence.
Non-Muslims and prison officers inside Whitemoor described Islam as an "organized gang" and a "protection racket," which "glorified terrorist behavior and exploited the fear related to it."
Prison guards said there were "proper Al-Qaeda" members in the prison who were regarded with "awe" by younger inmates. Some prisoners described Whitemoor as a "recruiting drive for the Taliban" and fertile ground for hatred and a new generation of extremists.
Guards also said they had a policy of "appeasement" towards the powerful and growing Islamic prison population, particularly convicted terrorists who were feared to be recruiting future extremists.
The report states: "The threat of assaults motivated by religious fanaticism or extremist ideology added weight to the atmosphere at Whitemoor," and continues: "The new population mix, including high numbers of Muslim prisoners, was disrupting established hierarchies in the prison. Social relations among prisoners had become complex and less visible. Too much power flowed among some groups of prisoners, with some real risks of serious violence. There were high levels of fear in the prison. In particular, there were tensions and fears relating to 'extremism' and 'radicalization.'"
The report concludes: "More prominent, in practice, were pressures (and temptations) felt by some prisoners to convert to Islam. Conditions in the prison made participation in Islamic practices the most 'available' option for those looking for belonging, meaning, 'brotherhood,' trust and friendship."
Meanwhile, British media recently reported that Dale Cregan, a notorious quadruple murderer who is serving a life sentence at the Manchester Prison, is being targeted by extremist Muslims who want to convert him to Islam.
Cregan, who is of Irish Catholic background, is said to be afraid of rival gang members who have offered a bounty to anyone who attacks him in prison. Muslims have offered to protect Cregan if he converts to Islam. According to prison officials, Cregan is so well known that if he converts to Islam, it would be seen as a way to further increase the influence of Muslim gangs inside the prison.
Watchtower or Minaret?
Manchester prison, with it's minaret-like watchtower at right, houses the
murderer Dale Cregan. A Muslim gang is reported to be pressuring Cregan to
convert to Islam. (Source: Stemonitis)
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Jay, who has been in and out of prison for most of his life, openly admits helping to convert non-Muslim inmates to Islam, and has meted out violence against anyone who dares to "disrespect" his religion.
According to Jay, "It hurts as a Muslim to have someone disrespect my religion. If we deal with him one time, with violence, and show him what time it is, he will never disrespect our religion again."
Jay first went to prison when he was 15 and says there were hardly any Muslims inmates back then. "At the beginning not many knew about Islam. There weren't many converts. The mosque was empty, but nowadays jails are run mostly by the Muslims," he says.
"There are certain brothers that convert purely on the basis that they read Islam and they want to believe in something that does good for them. Then other people because they want to be looked after. I've been in jail five times," he says, "and on my last occasion, I've seen jails being run by Muslim inmates. Muslim prayers on a Friday are very, very busy. In some prisons there's no space. In one jail I was in, they do the prayers in two sessions because there's no space."
The BBC investigation also includes an interview with the national chairman of the Prison Officers Association, Colin Moses, who says: "People are being radicalized, forcibly radicalized by these gangs. We see it as a real danger, now and for the future of prisons."
Moses says that those who are in gangs or have converted to Islam often do it to carry out criminal activities. "As the Muslim population grows, the gangs are becoming more and more prevalent by the week and they fight to take control of the drug trade and the dealing of mobile phones in prison. This will make our prisons even more violent," he says.
Speaking anonymously, a former prison officer who worked at the Long Lartin Prison in Worcestershire talks about cases where non-Muslim prisoners were seriously assaulted and intimidated for refusing to abide by unofficial rules imposed by Muslim gangs, for example about eating pork or listening to Western music.
Writing in the July 2013 issue of the prisoner's magazine, Inside Time, a "long serving prisoner" at Long Lartin has this to say: "We are able to cook our own food here but if we attempt to cook pork in the communal kitchen it is deemed dangerous, even a threat to your life. The kitchen is usually occupied by 90% Muslims and we have been told if we cook pork we will be stabbed. There have been incidents here where people have been targeted and pressured and bullied into converting to Islam."
He adds: "I am writing to inform people of these radical extremists views in this prison where I see no official steps being taken to combat them. Young Muslim men are being radicalized in here and one day they may commit acts of terrorism in this country. There seems to be nothing being done here to stop it and people are scared to speak out. I hope we get some feedback from this; it needs to be sorted out."
Soeren Kern is a Senior Fellow at the New York-based Gatestone Institute. He is also Senior Fellow for European Politics at the Madrid-based Grupo de Estudios Estratégicos / Strategic Studies Group. Follow him on Facebook.
Related Topics: United
Kingdom | Soeren Kern
Dismantle the EU's "Political Wing"
by Peter Martino
August 2, 2013 at 4:00 am
August 2, 2013 at 4:00 am
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The Muslim
Brotherhood is embraced as a friend and partner of Europe, but Jewish
sportsmen, artists and scientists are considered a dangerous threat to peace in
the Middle East. The EU's policies towards Israel and the Jews has become so
vicious, dishonest and unfair, that it is hard to avoid the conclusion that the
EU is an anti-Semitic organization. The sooner the "political wing"
of this organization is dismantled, the better.
Last week, EU foreign policy commissioner Catherine Ashton published an
article in the International Herald Tribune about her recent visit
to Egypt, reaffirming the European Union's support for every significant
political group in Egypt, including the Muslim Brotherhood. Rarely have the
double standards of the EU been so blatantly obvious.The article was published shortly after Lady Ashton, a British Baroness and former Labour politician with a past in the far-left Soviet-penetrated Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), had sent her fellow EU commissioners a letter informing them that the EU is about to impose binding requirements for labeling products produced by Jews in East Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the Golan Heights. At the same time, the EU has issued guidelines barring the 500,000 Jewish inhabitants of these regions from any EU funding, cooperation, awarding of scholarships, and research funds or prizes.
While the European Commission is waging a campaign against half a million Jews, its chief foreign representative is heaping praise on Jew-hating radical Islamists in Egypt. While in Egypt, Ashton even paid a visit to the deposed former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, a man who has called Israelis "blood-suckers," "warmongers" and "descendants of apes and pigs." Perhaps she cheered him up with the news of the EU's anti-Jewish boycott.
Ashton's article in the Herald Tribune was entitled, "Moving Egypt back to the democratic path." Back to the democratic path? As if Egypt ever has been a democracy? Sorry to disappoint you, Lady Ashton, but the only democracy in the Middle East happens to be Israel. With the exception of Lebanon, there has never been a democracy in the entire region apart from Israel. What Ashton seems to imply in her article, however, is that during Morsi's one-year of tyranny in Egypt, it was "on the democratic path."
Ashton begins her article by describing how she noticed, on her drive into Cairo after dusk, that Egypt's rival groups had "put their differences on hold" for a few hours to break the daily fast during Ramadan. If the Egyptians are able to do that, she remarks, they are surely able to "make their respite from turmoil permanent" and establish "a stable, democratic Egypt."
The EU's leading foreign policy maker is so naive as to think that if a torturer pauses his torturing sessions for a while because he is hungry and needs to eat, this proves that there is some good in him. In her youth Ashton was a fellow traveler of the communists who advocated the West's unilateral disarmament; today she is still appeasing the enemies of freedom.
The problem with the Egyptians, Ashton says, is that they do not yet understand that democracy requires a shared understanding of how decisions should be taken, a degree of mutual respect, and a willingness to respect the rights of minorities. However, she emphasizes, the EU is willing to help them and teach them how to do it. Ashton says that she went to see representatives of the whole political spectrum, including the Muslim Brotherhood. "In every discussion, I confirmed that our support and friendship will continue," she writes. "I was encouraged that every single group I met, whatever their other differences, welcomed that commitment."
She calls Egypt a country that is "vital" for Europe. Hence, she says, the EU wants to play a role in helping "Egypt return to democracy." "Every significant group must be included" in the process, including the Muslim Brotherhood, Ashton adds. All detainees, "including Dr. Morsi and his close associates," must be released. "The EU is a long-term partner and friend of Egypt."
Just think about this a minute: the EU appeases the Egyptians, including the most radical Islamists of the Muslim Brotherhood, with promises of money and everlasting friendship, while at the at the same time the EU has decided to label products from Israel, a real democracy, that are made in Judea, Samaria, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, and in the process hurting more Arabs, who are employed there, than Jews. It has begun to boycott half a million Jews living in these areas as well as countless businesses and institutions based there, including the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
While Egypt's Muslim Brothers are told that they can count on Europe's support and friendship, Jewish sportsmen, artists and scientists no longer get any EU support if they are Jewish and live beyond the 1949 armistice lines. The EU wants "every significant group" included in the Middle East peace process -- except Jews who happen to live beyond the 1949 Green Line. The Muslim Brotherhood is embraced as a friend and partner of Europe, but Jewish sportsmen, artists and scientists are considered a dangerous threat to peace in the Middle East.
Will Baroness Ashton visit Jewish settlers when she happens to be in Judea and Samaria? Obviously not, since the EU advocates their discrimination and impoverishment. But in Egypt, she rushes to the Muslim Brotherhood and Mohamed Morsi to wish them well.
The EU's double standards are also apparent from its decision to cut all financial and commercial links to the Jews beyond the Green Line, while at the same time it refuses to include Hezbollah on its list of terrorist organizations by making a hypocritical distinction between the so-called "military wing" of the organization and its "political wing." This way, it remains possible to raise funds for Hezbollah -- both its "wings" -- in the 28 EU member states.
Have the Jews from Samaria and Judea ever bombed buses on the European continent, as Hezbollah did two years ago in the Bulgarian city of Burgas? Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah's leader, will now be boycotted by Ashton in his capacity as "commander in chief" of the organization, but not in his capacity as its "president," but 500,000 Jews get harassed across an armistice line, in their political as well as commercial, scientific and other interests, without making any distinction between various "wings" of their activities.
The EU's policies towards Israel and the Jews have become so vicious, dishonest and unfair that it is hard to avoid the conclusion that the EU is an anti-Semitic organization. The sooner the "political wing" of this organization is dismantled and the EU returns to its origin as a free trade organization, the better.
Related Topics: Peter Martino
Gatestone Weekly Roundup
by Nina Rosenwald
August 2, 2013 at 3:00 am
August 2, 2013 at 3:00 am
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Give the nuclear store to Russia? Mark B.
Schneider warns of a U.S. end run around Congress to get yet another arms
control treaty with Russia – deliberately ignoring blatant
Russian violations of current treaties.
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Khaled Abu Toameh tells us
"the same anti-normalization movement that Mahmoud Abbas supports will be
the first to turn against him if he strikes a deal with Israel."
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Meanwhile, Fiamma Nirenstein reports, over
in Pakistan, Malala Yousufzai, the teenaged girl shot in the face for trying to
attend school, received an "apology" from the Taliban leader
responsible for the shooting. All she has to do is gives up her education,
"Return home, adopt the Islamic and Pashtu culture, and enroll yourself in
a girl's Islamic madrassa."
Related Topics: Nina Rosenwald
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