Prison officers fear that Muslim inmates are turning to extremism

British prison guards are incresingly worried about the growing numbers of radical muslim inside prisons. Muslim ganags are pressuring other non muslim prisoners to convert to islam and muslim prisoners to practice a strict interpretation of islam.

In one prison, it is the muslim prisoners who 'police themselves' and the prison guards do not approach them. Also, al Qaida likes to recuirt potential terrorists from prisons. Times Online

Staff at a top security jail fear Muslim inmates are pressurising other Muslim prisoners to adopt extremist views and encouraging other offenders to convert to Islam, according to an inspection report published today.

Prison officers at Whitemoor jail also feared growing radicalisation and conversions among the 395 inmates, of whom almost one third were Muslims.

On one wing at the jail staff admitted that Muslim inmates “policed themselves”, the report said.

One inmate claimed to inspectors that inmates are converting to Islam because they want protection and that Muslim gangs in the jail provide it.

Not to mention preferential treatment....

“Some staff appeared reluctant to engage with Muslim prisoners, and the little information and training they had received about Muslim prisoners was related to monitoring them as potential threats to national security, which inevitably impinged on the way they interacted with them.”, the report said.

It added:”Prisoners said that staff attitudes towards them changed markedly for the worse if they chose to, or happened to, associate with those prisoners.

“There was a perception among officers that some Muslim prisoners operated as a gang and put pressures on non-Muslim prisoners to converrt, and on other Muslim prisoners to conform to a strict and extreme interpretation of Islamic practice.