U.S. Prisons Becoming Islam Battleground
Leona McIlvene
By RACHEL ZOLL-AP Religion Writer
June 4, 2005, 3:25 PM EDT
NEW YORK -- It's Friday on Rikers Island, time for weekly worship for
nearly a quarter of the city jail's 14,000 inmates.
The men, Muslims, file quietly into a classroom of white cinderblock
that serves as their mosque. Incense burns to chase away a sour smell
from the hall, as the inmates sit quietly on sheets stamped
"Department of Corrections" covering the linoleum floor.
Imam Menelik Muhammad is delivering the day's sermon. As he stands
beneath a Quranic prayer on the wall facing Mecca, he urges the
prisoners to reform. "You will not be considered a Muslim," he
admonishes, "unless people are considered safe from your hands and
your tongue."
Across the United States, tens of thousands of Muslims are practicing
their faith behind bars. Islam is most likely to win American converts
there, according to U.S. Muslim leaders, and the religion has for
decades been a regular part of prison culture.
But the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks have brought new scrutiny to Muslim
inmates, many of whom are black men focused on surviving
incarceration. While prison chaplains of various denominations argue
that Islam offers a spiritual path to rehabilitation, others say it
has the potential to turn felons into terrorists. The FBI calls
prisons "fertile ground for extremists."
The reality is harder to read: Those on opposing sides have such
divergent views they seem irreconcilable. Who's right matters not only
for national security, but for the development of American Islam
itself, which is struggling to be accepted alongside the major faiths
in the United States.
Ever since the 2002 arrest of Jose Padilla, a felon and American
Muslim convert who authorities say planned a "dirty bomb" radiological
attack after he left jail, law enforcement officials, politicians and
even a few evangelical leaders have warned that Muslim inmates are
ripe for terrorist recruitment.
Sen. Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, has said: "Wahhabi
influence is inculcating them with the same kind of militant ideas
that drove the 9/11 hijackers to kill thousands of Americans."
Wahhabism is a strict form of Islam practiced in Saudi Arabia, which
was home to 15 of the 19 hijackers.
Chuck Colson, founder of the evangelical Prison Fellowship Ministries
and a Nixon administration official, predicted that "radical Islamists
will use prisons, packed with angry and resentful men," to avenge
Islam.
"Prisons continue to be fertile ground for extremists who exploit both
a prisoner's conversion to Islam while still in prison, as well as
their socio-economic status and placement in the community upon their
release," FBI director Robert Mueller said Feb. 16 to the U.S. Senate
Intelligence Committee.
Prison chaplains and others, however, say such warnings are
dangerously ignorant.
In interviews with The Associated Press, chaplains, prison volunteers,
correctional officials, inmates and former inmates all insisted that
there was no evidence of terrorist recruitment by Muslims in their
prisons -- although banned pamphlets and books sometimes slip in.
Chaplains describe the typical inmate convert as a poor, black
American upset about racism, not Mideast politics; someone who turned
to Islam to cope with imprisonment. When they get out, these men are
so overwhelmed by alcoholism or poverty that the crimes they are most
likely to commit are the ones that landed them in jail to begin with,
chaplains say.
"They don't care about Osama bin Laden," said Imam Talib Abdur Rashid,
who worked for years as a chaplain in New York state's prison system.
"They have their own beefs that have nothing to do with shariah
(Islamic law), the Taliban or Wahhabism, and everything to do with
slavery, segregation and the history of U.S. racism."
In other parts of the world, such as England and France, there is
growing concern about militants trying to recruit inmates, which in
turn is fueling fear about American prisons. Historically, radicals
have consistently tried to gain followers behind bars.
But if extreme teachings are reaching U.S. prisoners, experts say
small-time operators acting alone are more likely to be responsible
than an underground movement or someone in the ranks of professional
chaplains.
Just defining the scope of the Islamic presence behind bars in the
United States is tricky.
Though on the federal level they comprise about 6 percent of roughly
150,000 inmates, there are no nationwide statistics on Muslims in
state prisons.
Experts believe the largest numbers in state prisons can be found in
New York, where Muslims comprise roughly 18 percent of the 63,700
inmates; Pennsylvania, where the figure is about 18 percent out of
41,100; and California, where state officials don't tally religious
affiliation but the figure could easily be in the thousands.
The bottom line is that the percentage of American Muslims in prison
is almost certainly higher than it is in the general population, where
the number of Muslims could be as high as 6 million, or roughly 2
percent.
Islam took hold in prison in the 1940s, through the Nation of Islam.
Leaders of the religious movement, which mixes Muslim traditions with
black nationalism, were imprisoned for refusing to fight in World War
II and, as a result, their teaching spread behind bars. Among their
most famous prison recruits was Malcolm X.
Another boom came two decades later, when Muslim inmates sued prison
administrators, accusing them of violating religious freedoms. The
inmates won, and transformed jailhouse practice of all faiths.
Starting in the 1980s, get-tough sentencing laws filled jails with a
disproportionate number of blacks, leading to another spike in
conversion. But by this time, many blacks who once belonged to the
Nation of Islam had embraced orthodox Islam instead -- and that is
what the majority of inmates practice today.
Or, at least they say they do.
Some inmates become Muslim in name only, either to seek protection
from prison gangs, enjoy privileges like holiday meals, or escape the
monotony of prison life through classes and weekly worship. Mika'il
DeVeaux, a Muslim convert who spent 25 years in New York prisons for
murder, encountered inmates who converted but had little or no
understanding of the religion. One inmate, he recalled, thought
converting would allow him to circumvent prison rules and wear a hat
that looked like a turban.
But for some prisoners, the change is authentic, and correctional
officials say Islamic observance actually helps them maintain prison
security.
Said Anthony Windle, who converted to Islam at Rikers Island while
awaiting trial on a drug conspiracy charge: "The more you learn, the
harder it is for somebody to feed you untruths and lead you in the
wrong direction."
Duval Rafq, who was convicted of rape and became Muslim two years into
his Connecticut prison sentence, said converting led him to accept
responsibility for his crime. Released five years ago, he worships at
Masjid Al-Islam in New Haven, and works while attending night school
for heating and refrigeration repair.
"My behavior all of a sudden changed and other people's attitude and
behavior toward me changed," Rafq said.
Despite such success stories, some lawmakers and analysts remain
convinced that radical Muslim chaplains, prison volunteers and Muslim
prison outreach organizations are escaping notice of law enforcement
-- and they note that just one militant inmate could create enormous
risk.
The Institute of Islamic Information & Education, based in Chicago,
was one example cited at a 2003 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on
terrorist recruitment in prisons and the military.
The traditionalist institute sends books on Islam to prison chaplains
and says it responds to more than 3,000 letters from inmates annually,
inquiring about Muslim dietary laws and teachings.
But its founder, Amir Ali, also runs another Web site.
In those postings, he calls al-Qaida leader bin Laden a "true Muslim"
who wouldn't hurt anyone and contends Hollywood producers fabricated
the videotapes that have been broadcast over the last few years of bin
Laden threatening more violence.
Ali, who left Pakistan for the United States four decades ago to earn
a doctorate, says Israel committed the Sept. 11 attacks to force
changes in U.S. immigration laws so that fewer Muslims would be
admitted. He has posted the names of Jews with links to the Bush
administration as evidence of Israeli manipulation and referred
readers to the Web site of David Duke, who has led several white
supremacist groups, to back up Ali's argument that Jews control the
media.
As startling as his opinions are, it's unclear what danger they pose
inside prisons, because the breadth of Ali's reach to inmates cannot
be measured.
Despite attracting the Senate's attention, several Christian, Jewish
and Muslim chaplains around the country said in interviews that they
had never heard of Ali or his institute.
Inmates are barred from using the Internet, and Ali's books and
pamphlets -- like all material sent to prisons -- are vetted by
chaplains and correctional officials. Literature that could agitate
prisoners is prohibited, but officials also concede that banned
publications sometimes get through. In the New York state system, some
inmates who are among the tiny minority of Shiite Muslims behind bars
said in lawsuits that Sunni chaplains handed out literature condemning
them.
Ali, in a phone interview, insists he keeps his political views
separate from his religious outreach, which at one time was partially
funded by a Saudi Arabian organization.
"As a citizen of this country, I believe I have a right to my views,"
said Ali, adding he's never been contacted by the FBI. "There's
nothing secret about it. None of this material goes to prison and none
of this material goes to anybody except those who visit this Web
site."
The Islamic Correctional Reunion Association, a one-man operation
based in Tinley Park, Ill., was also cited as a potential source of
radical thinking in the same Senate hearing.
Mohammad Firdausi, a retired Illinois prison chaplain who still works
directly with state inmates, has been sending prisoners pamphlets on
Islam since founding the organization in 1979. Samples that he sent to
AP primarily explained basic Muslim teachings.
However, they also included a pamphlet from the Al-Huda Islamic Center
in Georgia, whose literature has been banned in some state prisons.
The pamphlet's authors condemn terrorism, but write that "sometimes
violence is a human response of oppressed people as it happens in
Palestine."
"Although this is wrong, this is the only way for them to attract
attention," the pamphlet's authors said.
Firdausi, a native of India who emigrated for graduate work, said in a
telephone interview he opposes violence and supports interfaith
dialogue, but believes Muslims have the right to defend themselves if
they are under attack in places like Israel and Kashmir. Asked about
bin Laden, he said, "I don't think he even exists."
"We have so much advanced technology and with all this power we cannot
find this person? That is hard to understand," said Firdausi, who said
an FBI agent visited him twice after Sept. 11, but nothing came of it.
Paul Rogers, president of the American Correctional Chaplains
Association, an interfaith group, had not heard of either
organization, but said self-styled missionaries of all faiths commonly
set up one-person outreach efforts consisting of only a Web site or
post office box.
Many are either on an "ego trip" or trying to bilk money from
prisoners, he said. He discovered one such group that offered inmates
free Qurans, then charged them $15 to be kept on a mailing list.
Another issue is the background of chaplains who have face-to-face
contact with inmates.
Since Islam has no central authority or the equivalent of a major
seminary in the United States, Rogers said most prison officials turn
to local Muslim leaders to evaluate these outreach organizations and
chaplain candidates.
In New York state prisons, which are separate from city-run Rikers
Island, some say those safeguards failed.
Imam Warith Deen Umar, who worked for nearly two decades as leader of
the Muslim chaplaincy program for New York state before retiring in
2000, expressed support for the Sept. 11 attacks in a 2003 interview
with The Wall Street Journal. The newspaper found two other New York
prison chaplains had made similar comments.
Umar, who said he was misquoted and insisted he did not support the
hijackings, was subsequently banned from New York prisons and lost a
contract for chaplaincy work in federal prison.
Some chaplains insisted Umar should not be seen as typical of prison
imams. Before becoming a chaplain, Umar, a one-time Nation of Islam
leader, spent two years in prison on a weapons possession charge
related to an alleged conspiracy to kill police, and was hired at a
time when former convicts were allowed to hold the job. But
ex-convicts have been barred from the chaplaincy for about two
decades.
The secrecy surrounding terrorist investigations makes it hard to know
whether the government has found new evidence of radicalization among
prison converts.
In September 2003, FBI supervisory special agent Andrew Black told a
conference for correctional officers in Ohio that there have been no
documented cases of U.S. inmates joining al-Qaida in prison. Asked if
that was still the case now, an FBI spokesman in Washington said the
agency could not comment.
Meanwhile, 10 full-time Muslim chaplains in federal prisons told
Justice Department investigators in a report last year that they had
witnessed no attempts by al-Qaida or other terror groups to radicalize
inmates.
Gary Friedman, a lay chaplain and chairman of Jewish Prisoner Services
International, said irresponsible politicians and religious leaders
have trumped up the idea of a Muslim threat behind bars to score
points with voters or promote conservative Christianity.
"It's a crusade," Friedman said. Neither Colson nor Schumer would
comment.
A related, and some say even bigger, challenge for law enforcement is
monitoring inmates when they get out. Padilla, who has not been
charged, turned to radical Islam after he was released, federal agents
said.
The same occurred with Richard Reid, who was convicted of attempting
to blow up a trans-Atlantic flight with explosives in his shoes. He
was a prison convert in England who became involved with militants
after he was freed.
In the United States, chaplains say a culture change in prison makes
the spread of extremism less likely.
Back in the 1970s, many Muslim inmates were veterans of black
nationalist movements who felt a connection with Third World
anti-colonial struggles and antipathy toward U.S. government policies.
Many linked their plight with that of the Palestinians.
Jimmy Jones, a Muslim who worked for about 25 years as a chaplain in a
New Haven jail and still counsels inmates, said that way of thinking
is no longer the norm. Jones said he heard a couple of young inmates
cheer the Sept. 11 attacks, but he contended their response came from
"adolescent bitterness" about being incarcerated.
"I think people are confusing what people say with what people might
do. The younger inmates don't know anything about the Third World or
about Egypt or the Middle East. They're not making those kind of
connections," said Jones, a professor of world religion at
Manhattanville College. "Al-Qaida would have more success recruiting
at a college than in prison."
Copyright 2005 Newsday Inc.
Poppy - San Francisco Bay Area
of this in our local county jail. I suspect it is the prison
recruitment movement is larger and stronger than this article
indicates.
Jean Smith
Prison recruiting is going just fine.
<http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/breaking_news/11479566.htm>
Our allies seem to dispute the Islam Battleground idea.
<http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_6-6-2005_pg7_45>
--
110th Labour to keep alive in your Breast that Little Spark of Celestial fire
Called Conscience http://www.history.org/Almanack/life/manners/rules2.cfm
http://tinyurl.com/cf2u5 | Society's Disasterous
Decisions http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/diamond03/diamond_index.html
John
How many presoners do they have?
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The bodies of 16 people who were killed execution-style have been
discovered in western Iraq.
Police said that 22 Iraqi soldiers from the mainly Shi'ite south were
captured after leaving their base in the town of Qaim, a stronghold of
the Sunni Muslim insurgency near the Syrian border.
It was not immediately clear if the victims, who were in civilian
clothes and left in two different locations near Qaim, were those soldiers.
Many were blindfolded with their hands tied behind their backs.
Eleven of the bodies were scattered in a gravel pit and five were left
beside a desert road often used by soldiers.
Two of the men were beheaded.
Al-Qaeda's group in Iraq said it was holding 36 Iraqi soldiers, not 22
as reported by police, and demanded the government free all women
prisoners within 24 hours, according to a web statement.
The Sunni Muslim group, which has often captured and killed officials
and soldiers, said the 36 were being questioned about their "crimes
against Sunnis".
Sunnis, powerful under toppled Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, boycotted
the elections and members of their community are leading an insurgency.
Officials in western Iraq have said the captuured soldiers were members
of the once oppressed Shi'ite community, now dominant in Iraq after
winning January 30 elections.
Insurgents have captured and killed scores of Iraqi soldiers.