'Tactics backfiring' as jails try to curb radical Islam

[Ms DD]

'Tactics backfiring' as jails try to curb radical Islam

 

 

Alan Travis, home affairs editor

Friday April 13, 2007

The Guardian

 

 

The Prison Service's attempts to curb the growth of radical Islam in jails by restricting communal prayers and reading of the Qur'an during work breaks are exacerbating the problem, according to the first in-depth study of Muslim prisoners.

The research, based on interviews with 170 current and former Muslim prisoners, also reveals that bans on access to certain TV programmes and newspapers in high-security prisons have also backfired.

 

The four-year research project by Aberdeen University anthropologist Gabriele Marranci also finds that a small minority of former young Muslim offenders are vulnerable to recruitment by militant organisations as a result of their prison experiences. He says that individual members of Islamist militant organisations have tried to "talent scout" young Muslim ex-prisoners without disclosing their affiliations.

 

He also voices "extreme concern" that some had told him they had converted their group and formed an Islamist gang, although most Muslim former prisoners were uninterested or did not want to become involved. But the research challenges media claims that Muslim inmates have been radicalised by imams.

"I found no evidence to suggest that the Muslim chaplains are behaving or preaching in a way that facilitates radicalisation," said Dr Marranci. "On the contrary, my findings suggest that they are extremely important in preventing dangerous forms of extremism. However, the distrust that they face, both internally and externally, is jeopardising their important function."

 

The research shows that Muslim prisoners were subject to stricter surveillance than other inmates, especially when they adopted religious symbols such as beards, veils and caps: "Growing a beard is, in almost all establishments I visited, interpreted as 'radicalisation' of the individual," said Dr Marranci, a lecturer in the anthropology of religion.

 

The study, which interviewed prisoners in England, Scotland and Wales, also claims that security policies in prisons, including restricting prayers in a communal space or reading the Qur'an during work breaks, are exacerbating rather than suppressing radicalisation.

 

He warns that the continuing atmosphere of suspicion surrounding Muslim prisoners increases a sense of frustration and depression which a strong view of Islam can help to overcome.

 

"The respective prison services have tried to do something to address the issue of radicalisation but they're heading in the wrong direction. This is largely because the measures they have put in place have been fuelled by attempts to exempt themselves from negative media coverage and criticism." He said that far from tackling the spread of radical Islam, Prison Service efforts were facilitating "essentialist views of Islam", which was not to be confused with extremism.

 

The Prison Service in England and Wales said last night that governors were becoming increasingly aware of the risks of radicalisation and admitted that there were a "very few circumstances" where security considerations, including supervision problems, had led to communal prayer meetings being limited.

 

"The Prison Service tries extremely hard to ensure that wherever possible access to true religious material or sermons is unrestricted," said a spokeswoman. Prisoners were allowed to pray individually at the times required by their faith.

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/prisons/story/0,,2056214,00.html