Recently in Jihad in prisons Category

Hysen Sherifi's jihad continued even in prison. "Convicted terrorist accused of plotting to kill witnesses," from the Associated Press, January 24 (thanks to EZ Rider):

RALEIGH, N.C. – A North Carolina man sentenced to prison recently as part of a homegrown terrorist ring has been accused in a federal court document of plotting to kill witnesses who testified against him at trial.

An affidavit unsealed in federal court Monday accuses Hysen Sherifi of plotting against the witnesses from his jail cell. Authorities say an FBI informant posing as a hit man met with Sherifi's brother and a female friend and accepted $5,000 and a photo of an intended victim.

FBI agents have arrested the brother, Shkumbin Sherifi, and Nevine Aly Elshiekh, a school teacher. Now in federal custody at the New Hanover County Jail, each is charged with a felony count of use of interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire.

Hysen Sherifi, 27, was sentenced to 45 years in prison earlier this month in what prosecutors described as a conspiracy to attack the Marine base at Quantico, Va., and targets abroad. Five others, including construction contractor Daniel Patrick Boyd, have been sentenced to federal prison terms for terrorism charges related to raising money, stockpiling weapons and training in preparation for jihadist attacks....

Shkumbin Sherifi and Elshiekh await a scheduled first appearance Friday in federal court in Wilmington. The two have applied for court appointed lawyers, who have not yet been assigned....

The informant soon befriended Sherifi, who requested help in hiring someone to kill three people who had testified against him at his trial, according to the affidavit. Sherifi specified that he wanted the witnesses beheaded and that he would be provided photos of the severed heads as confirmation of the deaths, according to the document.

FBI agents said in the document that they arranged for a second informant to pose as a hit man and monitored Sherifi during a series of jailhouse visits with Elshiekh.

Following a Dec. 21 visit at the jail, Elshiekh left a voicemail on the fake hit man's cell phone, identifying herself as "Hysen Sherifi's friend," according to the affidavit. It added that the FBI observed and recorded subsequent meetings between Elshiekh and the fake hit man, during which she provided names, addresses and photos of those targeted and $750 in cash toward the first murder.

Agents also observed Elshiekh meeting with Shkumbin Sherifi, who met with the FBI's fake hitman on Jan. 8, the court document said. According to the affidavit, the brother traveled from Raleigh to Wilmington to provide the hit man another $4,250 in cash.

The affidavit provides no information about the nature of the relationship between Hysen Sherifi and Elshiekh, but a woman with that same name was quoted in media reports from last year's terrorism trial in New Bern. The names of the witnesses allegedly targeted were redacted from the affidavit....

The Sherifi brothers and other family members emigrated from Kosovo following the wars that ravaged the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s. A call to the Sherifi family home in Raleigh on Tuesday was not returned.

Hysen Sherifi and others arrested in the terrorism conspiracy were members of the Islamic Association of Raleigh, the largest Muslim congregation in the Triangle. Several members of the mosque also routinely made the 4-hour round trip for the trial in New Bern to support the accused, who they described as innocent men being railroaded by overzealous federal authorities.

Messages to the media contact listed for the mosque were not returned.

What a surprise.

Here yet again we see dhimmi authorities responding to Islamic supremacist demands by effectively imposing Sharia restrictions upon non-Muslims. An update on this story. "Ohio's response to Muslim lawsuit over prison meal preparation riles state pork industry," by Andrew Welsh-Huggins for the Associated Press, October 5 (thanks to Twostellas):

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A decision by Ohio officials to remove all pork products from prison menus in response to a lawsuit by Muslim inmates is not sitting well with the state's pork producers and processors.

Both promise action of their own, including a possible counter lawsuit, to address what they consider an unfair and illogical decision.

"We really think it's not in the best interest, frankly, of the whole prison system," said Dick Isler, executive director of the Ohio Pork Producers Council. "It seems like we're letting a small group make the rules when it really isn't in the best interest of the rest of prisoners."

Pork is inexpensive and nutritious and compares well with other lean meats, he said.

Ironically, the inmates' lawsuit doesn't involve pork at all; it demands that non-pork meats like beef come from animals slaughtered according to Islamic law. But the prisons system responded by simply removing pork as an option altogether.

Assistant prisons director Steven Huffman has spoken with Isler, but the system isn't changing its mind, spokeswoman JoEllen Smith said Wednesday.

She said she couldn't comment on the lawsuit specifically, but said removing pork assures that inmates' religious practices aren't jeopardized by pork coming into contact with other food during preparation....

In a federal lawsuit, death row inmate Abdul Awkal complains that the state is restraining his religious freedoms by not providing meals prepared according to Islamic law, known as halal, while at the same time supplying Jewish prisoners with kosher meals.

Awkal, joined by a second inmate not on death row, says the vegetarian and non-pork options aren't good enough. The inmates say food must be prepared in specific fashion, such as ensuring that an animal is butchered by slitting its throat and draining its blood, to conform to Islamic beliefs.

Prison guidelines for Muslim inmates already provided that meals will be "free of all pork and products containing or derived from pork."...

Abdul Awkal is in prison. He is in prison for murder. Ordinarily prisons are not dedicated to the convenience of their inmates. But before Islamic law, everything must bend. "Ohio Muslim inmates sue over meal preparation," by Andrew Welsh-Higgins for the Associated Press, October 3 (thanks to all who sent this in):

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A Muslim death row inmate says the Ohio prison system is denying him meals prepared according to Islamic law while at the same time providing kosher meals to Jewish prisoners, according to a federal lawsuit that alleges a civil rights violation.

Condemned inmate Abdul Awkal says the prison system's failure to provide halal meals is a restraint on his religious freedoms.

Awkal, joined by a second inmate not on death row, says the vegetarian and non-pork options offered by the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction aren't good enough. The inmates say the food must be prepared in specific fashion, such as ensuring that an animal is butchered by slitting its throat and draining its blood, to conform with Islamic beliefs.

"The issue of eating Halal meals is especially important to me because I face a death sentence," Awkal said in a filing in federal court earlier this year. "It is important to me that I follow the requirements of my faith as I approach death."...

Awkal, 52, is scheduled to die in June for killing his estranged wife, Latife Awkal, and brother-in-law Mahmoud Abdul-Aziz in 1992, in a room in Cuyahoga County Domestic Relations Court....

Ohio argues that it provides both non-pork and vegetarian meals to Muslims and says the courts have sided with this practice. The state also says that providing halal meals could hurt Ohio financially, given the current budget situation....

For Muslim inmates, prison rules say, "The diet will be free of all pork and products containing or derived from pork. The institution will provide nutritionally adequate meat and non-meat alternatives."...

California provides packaged kosher meals to Jewish inmates and halal meals prepared at prisons for Muslim prisoners. Meats used for the halal meals are cooked separately from other prison food, said spokesman Paul Herke.

The state serves about 4,100 halal meals a day at a cost of about $3.50 per day, compared with about $2.90 a day for regular prison meals....

Ohio says requiring halal meals could mean new dietary plans for as many as 2,000 inmates, while Awkal's lawyers believe the figure is lower because not all Muslims eat halal meals.

The excuse du jour for the threat of violence is a desire for revenge after bin Laden's death, though they weren't exactly a group of pacifists up to that point, either. "Muslim Boys gang are 'planning massive attack' at Belmarsh prison in revenge for Osama bin Laden killing," by Greig Box-Turnbull for The Mirror, August 2 (thanks to Weasel Zippers):

Governors at Britain’s top terror jail believe al-Qaeda extremists are planning a major attack as payback for Osama bin Laden’s death.

Security has been stepped up to “unprecedented” levels at Belmarsh prison after warnings that the Muslim Boys gang is plotting a revenge mission. A 15-strong riot squad in stab-proof vests has hidden around the jail’s chapel during Muslim prayers on Fridays in case of an attack.

Another team of officers has been on standby ready to assist.

Prisoners on House Block One, which includes 39 terror suspects, added to the tension by staging a mass show of defiance on Friday.

Inmates refused to return to their cells and a source says “staff very nearly lost control of the jail”.

The standoff was only ended when officers brandished batons and demanded a retreat as they marched towards the prisoners.

The source said: “It’s a powder keg waiting to go off.

“There are concerns it will take an officer’s death before the Muslim Boys are tackled seriously.

“The levels of security being employed are unprecedented.Management are worried the Muslim Boys are planning an incident in Bin Laden’s honour on a scale never seen before.

“Security around the past three Friday prayers has been massive.”

The prayers at the Category A prison in South-East London are attended by high profile terror figures including hook-handed preacher of hate Abu Hamza.

The Muslim Boys, a splinter group of al-Qaeda, are thought to have been plotting since Bin Laden was killed by US troops in May.

As we recently learned from the second round of Peter King's hearings, it is the height of "Islamophobia" to suggest that jihadists are recruiting for the jihad in prisons. And yet here is evidence that it is happening in Indonesia; of course, it's inconceivable that anything like this could be happening in prisons in the U.S. -- right?

"The Roots of Radicalism: Militants Teach Jihad in Indonesia's Prisons," by Emily Rauhala for Time Magazine, July 1:

There's a downside to jailing Jihadis: They corrupt your prisons. It's a problem that's keenly felt in Indonesia, where a decade-long crackdown on extremist groups has dramatically increased the number of radicals in jail. Terror experts have long worried about putting so many convicted terrorists in one place. Now, an investigation by the Associated Press confirms that doing time in Indonesian prisons gives extremists a chance to proselytize and plot.

The agency spent two days inside Porong prison, near Surabaya, in June. During that time, they witnessed the extent to which convicted terrorists influenced other inmates. Part of the problem is over-crowding: One cell-block, Block F, is supposed to be reserved for extremists but houses 50 others .The Jihadis, who typically sport beards and distinctive clothing, are idolized by the rank-and-file. Many volunteer to preach, earning their trust. "We only explain what they should know about jihad," said a man named Syamsuddin who is serving a life sentence for his role in a gun attack on a karaoke club. "It's up to them whether to accept it or not."

Unfortunately, many do. Here's a scene from Block F:

Nearby, nine men wearing traditional Muslim shirts sit on a floor listening intently to a religious lesson by Maulana Yusuf Wibisono, who stockpiled explosives for a 2004 suicide bombing of the Australian embassy in Jakarta that killed 10 people.

These men, part of the ordinary prison population, diligently copy what Wibisono writes on a small white board. "It's still too early to invite them for jihad," said the 42-year-old terrorist. He is the former leader of the East Java military wing of Jemaah Islamiyah, the group behind the 2002 Bali bombing. "To change their way of life is more important."

Many are in awe of the terrorists' piety and dangerous reputations. Militants also get extra food and other goods, both from supporters and through police attempts at rehabilitation, adding to their sway in prison. Often bearded and clad in robes, sarongs or ankle pants, they stand out from the other inmates....

An update on this story. Those objecting to the hearings have resorted to two primary arguments. One is that Muslims are being singled out for reasons of sheer bigotry. Playing that card is emotional blackmail (see also: this attempt to compare the King hearings with Japanese internment camps), and an attempt to stop the discussion in its tracks. Some will fear being branded as bigots, while others will seize on the opportunity to score political points by branding others as such.

The other angle is to claim that the problem is so infinitesimally small -- the work of that Tiny Minority of Extremists -- that it is a non-issue. But compare the track record on violent radicalization of prisoners by, say, the Salvation Army. And there is also the word of experienced law enforcement officials who testified that yes, Virginia, there is a problem.

Lastly, the visible, violent "radicalization" is the tip of the iceberg. Any attempt to indoctrinate prisoners to accept any totalitarian, supremacist system should automatically be exposed. And if claiming to combat "Islamophobia" -- the feeling alleged to be harbored by any who criticize something to do with Islam -- were not so politically fashionable, these hearings would be far less of a spectacle. "Law Enforcement Officials at King Hearing Claim Radical Islam Infiltrating U.S. Prisons," from Fox News, June 15:

A former New York prisons official testified Wednesday that radical Muslims have made "sustained efforts" to indoctrinate inmates in America, at the second hearing on Islamic radicalization held by Rep. Peter King.

The first round of King's hearings on domestic threats in March drew passionate protests, and the hearing Wednesday on radicalization in U.S. prisons drew similar objections. Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the top Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, said at the opening of the hearing that the threat of terrorism from U.S. converts in prison is "small."

"There are other threats to be concerned about," Thompson said.

Rep. Laura Richardson, D-Calif., suggested the hearing was "racist," asking why Muslims in prisons are being targeted as opposed to other religious or ethnic minorities.

And which race is Islam again?

But law enforcement officials called to testify said Islamic radicalization in the prison system is a real threat.

Patrick Dunleavy, a retired official in the New York State Department of Correctional Services, said radical Muslims have been trying to convert U.S. inmates to their cause for decades.

"Despite appearances, prison walls are porous," he said. "Individuals and groups that subscribe to radical Islamic ideology have made sustained efforts to target inmates for indoctrination."

Kevin Smith, former federal prosecutor in California, cited the case of Kevin James and Levar Washington, who pleaded guilty in 2007 to "conspiracy to levy war against the United States through terrorism."

Smith called it a "seditious conspiracy" hatched inside California's prison system.

Michael Downing, a top official in the Los Angeles Police Department, described the conversions as a "phenomena of low volume," but one that holds "high consequence" considering the sheer size of the U.S. prison population.

"We do have a problem," he said. "Prisons are communities at risk."

King, R-N.Y., claims the prisons are a hotbed of radical conversion, but that he's not targeting Muslims.

"What I'm targeting is violent terrorists and extremists, and ... the fact is that Al Qaeda itself has said it will recruit within the Muslim-American community. That's the reality," he told Fox News.

Members of several New York organizations that protested the first hearings were back for the second round, saying the hearings play on stereotypes of both Muslims and prisoners. A coalition of civil rights, religious and interfaith groups met on New York's Long Island Tuesday. [...]

Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, there have been at least four cases of American Muslims being radicalized in prison.

Bert Useem, a professor at Purdue University, pointed to the relatively low number of confirmed cases in claiming Wednesday that the threat of prison radicalization is relatively low.

"Prisons have not served as a major source of Jihad radicalization," Useem said.

King said that the Obama administration has been working with him to address the issue, noting that Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is setting up a task force to look into radicalization in the prisons.

King said the next hearing after Wednesday's will likely be held in late July and will focus on reports of Americans joining Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, a Yemen-based offshoot of Al Qaeda that has been linked to attempted attacks on U.S. targets, including the foiled Christmas 2009 bombing of an airliner over Detroit and explosives-laden parcels found on cargo flights last year.

And will anyone who knows what to look for be vetting this material for jihadist incitement and Islamic supremacist hate? What do you think? "Va. inmate's win in suit against government a rarity," by Tim McGlone for The Virginian-Pilot, May 15:

Rashid Qawi Al-Amin succeeded where thousands of Virginia prison inmates before him have failed: He prevailed in a lawsuit against the government.

Al-Amin won a settlement with the state that forces the prison system to supply him, and the Greensville Correctional Center library, with Muslim reading materials, CDs and DVDs. He'll also receive $2,000.

Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli's office decided to settle the seven-year legal battle after a series of court rulings in Al-Amin's favor. The state admitted no wrongdoing in the settlement but did agree to perform eight different acts to satisfy Al-Amin's claims....

In 1989, Al-Amin, then known as Donald Tracey Jones, was convicted in Norfolk Circuit Court of murder and use of a firearm, and sentenced to 52 years in prison. Police said the shooting was drug-related. Jones, a New York native, was in his early 20s at the time. He's scheduled to be released in 2016.

Not long after entering prison, he changed his name to Rashid Qawi Al-Amin, which in Arabic means "wise, strong and trustworthy." He says the prison system refused to acknowledge his new name.

Al-Amin became part of a swell of converts to Islam within America's prisons. Some joined the Nation of Islam while others chose the Sunni or Shia sects. Al-Amin became a Sunni. Corrections officials sometimes refer to the religion as Prislam.

Through the years, Al-Amin has filed no fewer than 10 state and federal lawsuits challenging his conviction and sentence and fighting for his religious rights; he lost them all except this one. He was part of a lawsuit filed by Muslim inmates challenging the Department of Corrections' grooming policy that prohibits beards. The inmates lost....

Al-Amin filed this religious rights suit in 2004. U.S. District Judge Raymond A. Jackson in Norfolk dismissed it in 2005 on procedural grounds, but the federal appeals court reinstated it. That process alone took three years.

In 2008, Jackson threw the case out again, citing a lack of merit, but the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sent it back to Jackson to hear arguments. The judge offered to appoint a lawyer for Al-Amin, but Al-Amin refused counsel....

The settlement calls for the Department of Corrections to spend up to $2,500 on Islamic library materials for the Greensville Correctional Center, where Al-Amin is housed. The department will also hire a Muslim inmate to work in the library. And inmates at Greensville will be allowed to donate religious materials to the library, subject to security review.

Al-Amin was even allowed to submit his own list of Islamic reading materials, movies and CDs.

The department also agreed to allow Al-Amin to use his religious name and to allow inmates to assist in the preparation of religious meals. Finally, the department agreed to pay Al-Amin $2,000 to cover the costs he expended fighting the suit, mostly for filing fees and postage....

A number of religious organizations around the country have been trying to break the stereotypes and fears of Islam, particularly in prison settings - some officials in Washington and TV pundits have railed against the "radicalization" of prison Muslims.

Gary Friedman, communications director for the American Correctional Chaplains Association, called that notion "overblown" and said officials should be more worried about white supremacists in prison.

"It's just been getting more attention because of the attitudes toward Muslims in this nation since 9/11," he said.

Still, Friedman said he was surprised by the outcome of the Al-Amin case.

"That's a terrible settlement. It sets a very bad precedent."

While prisons should allow access to any mainstream religion, he said, officials need to be aware of the separation of church and state.

"Public funds should not be used to purchase sectarian materials," he said....

Indeed.

For those of us who no longer believe in Santa Claus, there remains a single consolation: the series of grim, deliciously wicked presents that pour down our chimney from the Grinch. In the absence of St. Nick, some ghastly Krampus dashes through the skies (like Jack the Pumpkin King in the kids' classic The Nightmare Before Christmas) dropping cynics like me such gifts as Rat-in-the-Box, walking and talking Chucky dolls, and baby zombie reindeer. There's no other scientific explanation for the appearance of this news story in the Christmas eve Post-Tribune. It seems that in Gary, Indiana, a holiday event was held to honor the memory of Michael Jackson, entitled (naturally) "Christmas for the Children." Given the persistent, documented charges that Jackson liked to do a whole lot more than cuddle with kids, perhaps the gift the King of Pop might have preferred was some "Children for Christmas."

The party was sponsored by the Gary-based not-for-profit the United Urban Network, whose CEO, Cassandra Cannon, explained, "Today, we decided to honor a Gary native who cared a lot about children and he has said in the past that he would love to return to his hometown and help the children." The prospect of Jackson's ghost returning to Gary and prowling the city to "help the children" seems better suited to Halloween than Christmas--bringing us back again to Tim Burton territory. The event apparently featured "pasta dishes, tamales, vegetable, salad and cake, children and adults," and Christmas songs by "American Idol's Season 9 contestant Marcus Jones and Michael Jackson impersonator Dashon Butler," most prominently "The Little Drummer Boy."

The reason I commend this blessed event to readers of Jihadwatch was the photo that accompanied this Evening Without Irony. The caption read: "Jihad Muhammad explains the principles of Kwanzaa while lighting a candle on the Kinara at United Urban Network Inc./Steel City Renaissance 'Christmas for the Children: A tribute to Michael Jackson.'"

I would cheerfully have given up my Christmas in New York City to have sat instead over tamales in Gary, Indiana, and learn from Mr. Jihad Muhammad about the principles of Kwanaa--a holiday entirely unknown in Africa, or indeed anywhere on earth before it was invented by Maulana (Swahili: "master teacher") Ron Karenga (real name: Ronald McKinley Everett) in 1966. The African-American online journal Chicken Bones offers this account of Karenga's career:

He was born on a poultry farm in Maryland, the fourteenth child of a Baptist minister. He moved to California in the late 50's to attend LA Community College. He later moved to UCLA, where he got a Master's degree in political science and African Studies and by the mid 1960's, he had established himself as a leader of the black movement- a self described "cultural nationalist". He had purposely used the term "nationalist" to distinguish his group from the Black Panthers who were Marxists. He wanted a separate black state while the Marxists worked for integration.

The friction between his group and the Panthers mirrored the centuries of tribal warring in Africa. Both groups were heavily recruiting at UCLA in the 60's and vying for control of the newly developed African Studies Department. Karenga and his group backed one candidate for dept. head and the Panthers another. Both began carrying guns on campus and on Jan. 17. 1969, about 150 students gathered at the lunchroom to discuss the problem. Two Panther members had been admitted to the college as part of a federal program that helped black high-school dropouts enter the university. The meeting turned violent and ended with two of Karenga's group, George P. Stiner and Larry Joseph Stiner killing two. The Stiner brothers shot two Panthers John Huggins, 23 and Alprentice "Bunchy" Carter, 26 - dead.

UCLA chancellor Charles E. Young, scared that the violence would hurt admissions said "The students here have handled themselves in an absolutely impeccable manner. They have been concerned. They haven't argued who the director should be; they have been saying what kind of person he should be." The remarks were made after the shooting and the university went ahead with its Afro-American Studies Program. Meanwhile, Karenga's group grew and performed assaults and robberies always following the law laid down in The Quotable Karenga, a book that laid out the "True Path of Blackness." "The sevenfold path of blackness is think black, talk black, act black, create black, buy black, vote black, and live black."

On May 9, 1970 he initiated the torture session that led to his imprisonment. The torture session was described in the L.A. Times on May 14, 1971. "The victims said they were living at Karenga's home when Karenga accused them of trying to kill him by placing crystals in his food and water and in various areas of his house. When they denied it, allegedly they were beaten with an electrical cord and a hot soldering iron was put in Miss Davis' mouth and against her face.

Police were told that one of Miss Jones' toes was placed in a small vise, which then was tightened by the men and one woman. The following day Karenga told the women that 'Vietnamese torture is nothing compared to what I know." Miss Tamao put detergent in their mouths; Smith turned a water hose full force on their faces, and Karenga, holding a gun, threatened to shoot both of them. The victims Deborah Jones and Gail Davis were whipped with an electrical cord and beaten with a karate baton after being ordered to remove their clothing."

Karenga was convicted of two counts of felonious assault and one count of false imprisonment. He was sentenced on Sept. 17, 1971 to serve one to ten years in prison. After being released from prison in 1975, he remade himself as Maulana Ron Karenga, went into academics, and by 1979 was running the Black Studies Department at California State University in Long Beach and converted to Marxism. Kwanzaa's seven principles include "collective work" and "cooperative economics." He is still there and everyone has almost forgotten the cruel and vicious attacks committed on his fellow blacks. Kwanzaa has been successfully marketed and is now heralded as a great African tradition.

The silver lining is that rather than "de-whitinizing" Christmas as Al Sharpton purported - it has polarized the holiday season -Hanukkah for Jews, Kwanzaa for Blacks, and Christmas for whites.

As Ann Coulter points out, "Coincidentally, the seven principles of Kwanzaa are the very same seven principles of the Symbionese Liberation Army, another charming invention of the Least-Great Generation." Coulter also reports that Karenga was, in effect, a stooge of the FBI--who supported him behind the scenes in a covert attempt to split the Black Panther Party.

Suddenly, it makes more sense why someone named Jihad Muhammad would be an expert in the principles of Kwanzaa--a divisive and religiously meaningless holiday created explicitly to encourage African-Americans to cultivate racial separatism. Much as Communist activists did in the 1920s and 30s, Muslim evangelists are trained to target African-Americans, to prey upon their very real grievances and cultivate imagined ones, the better to detach them from their historic patriotism and deep-seated Christian faith. Muslim preachers especially single out black men in prison, and leave out the most revolutionary and political implications of Islamic faith--as admitted by the manual "Methodology of Dawah" by Shamim A. Siddiqi, designed to aid Muslims in the propagation of their faith:

Almost every community has its Imam. He is the virtual leader of the community and all its members are loyal, faithful and obedient to him. Many of these communities have Dawah programs that are strictly restricted to the Afro-American community of America. Normally the Afro-American population of prison is the center of Dawah work. In some localities it is also conducted in Black neighborhoods around the mosques.

Through their Dawah activities, these communities approach the Afro-American people, who are already depressed and deprived, and are in quest of their true 'identity'. Islam is presented to them. The concept of Tawheed (Oneness of God) is explained to them in an academic fashion without telling what this Kalimah demands from a Muslim. Aqidah is explained without giving the details of the impact of Iman Billah and Iman Bil- Akhirah, and without telling what revolution it must bring in the life of an individual and the society in which he lives.

Some rituals of religion and traditions of the Muslim Community are explained. A short account of the Prophet's (S) life is presented, without the revolutionary aspect. When Islam is acceptable to the new entrants in this concocted or abbreviated form, the ceremony of Shahadah is performed with great reverence. A non-Muslim thus becomes a Muslim, obedient to Allah (SWT) alone. The revolutionary aspect of Islam is rarely brought before the new converts, as in most of the cases the Da'ee himself is not conversant with it.

Will the Islamophobia never end?

"Muslim extremists attacked Feltham jail warder," from the Mirror, December 12 (thanks to Weasel Zippers):

Four young British Muslim extremists chanted religious slogans as they battered a prison officer. The gang chanted "death to the Kuffar" (non-believer) and "Allah Akbar" (God is Great) as they laid into the warder - who is in his 40s - after prayers.

It is believed they were trying to steal his keys to let other inmates out and start a riot at the notorious Feltham Young Offenders' Institute in Middlex.

A fellow officer came to his rescue as he hid under a pool table and used his baton to drive them back....

Yet a prosecutor says that "the jail offers Muslims meals without pork and allows them to pray together and perform ritual cleansing." So possibly this is an attempt to gain special status and special privileges for Muslim inmates in this jail.

"Muslim inmates suing Pierce County Jail," from AP, September 23 (thanks to Twostellas):

TACOMA, Wash. -- Two Muslim inmates from the Pierce County Jail in Tacoma are suing, claiming they are banned from practicing their religion.

The lawsuit was filed this week with the help of the ACLU and Public Interest Law Group in federal court in Tacoma.

The News Tribune reports that inmates Raymond Wesley Garland and Larry Edward Tarrer say the jail prohibits Muslims from group prayer, bans certain religious clothing and refuses to accommodate their diet.

You're in jail. When in jail, you should not expect special accommodation of your demands.

A deputy prosecutor who represents the jail, Craig Adams, disputes the claims. He says the jail offers Muslims meals without pork and allows them to pray together and perform ritual cleansing.

How odd, that the one thing that we know has nothing ever to do with any terror plotting anywhere by anyone -- Islam -- seems to figure into so many terror plots. "Terror accused tried to 'convert prison inmates to Islam,'" by Emma O'Sullivan for Australian Broadcasting Corporation's ABC News, September 23:

The Victorian Supreme Court has heard one of five men accused of a terrorist plot wanted to convert prisoners to Islam while he was in jail for an unrelated matter.

An undercover police officer is continuing to give evidence against five men accused of planning to attack the Holsworthy Army base in New South Wales.

The policeman's job was to make friends with accused man Wissan Fattal....

Fattal told the officer he did not want to apply for bail because he was busy converting young prisoners to Islam....

The Victorian undercover senior constable known in court as Hamza met Fattal at a Melbourne mosque in 2008.

He said he was instructed to find out if Fattal was likely to commit any acts in Australia in the cause of Islam.

The officer said he told Fattal he was a convert to Islam and sought advice from Fattal on religious matters....

That this is a news story at all reflects Western assumptions that simply aren't shared by someone like Mohammed Bouyeri. To a non-Muslim Westerner, Bouyeri's act was a cold-blooded, brutal murder, something far beyond all the bounds of decent and acceptable behavior, something that prison is designed to lead Bouyeri to think about and ultimately to repent of having done. But to Bouyeri himself, the murder was a noble and morally praiseworthy act of jihad, killing an Infidel who was at war with Islam, in accord with Qur'anic directives such as 47:4, 9:5, 4:89, 2:191, etc. So why should he have any regrets for that?

"Van Gogh killer has no regrets," from Dutch News, July 9 (thanks to all who sent this in):

Six years after murdering film maker Theo van Gogh, his killer Mohammed Bouyeri has no regrets about his action, the AD reports on Friday.

The paper has got hold of a letter written by Bouyeri to a Muslim group which turned up in Belgium.

In the letter Bouyeri writes that he has 'no regrets' about the choices he has made and the road he has travelled, the paper says. 'Not one second in all these years.'

Bouyeri is serving a life sentence for the killing.

The Dutch security service AIVD told the paper the letter is in line with other letters sent by him.

With Muslims established as a privileged class and non-Muslims converting to Islam simply to avoid the misery of second-class status, British prisoners already sound like Sharia entities. "Prisoners convert to Islam for jail perks," by Richard Ford in The Times, June 8 (thanks to Paul):

Inmates are converting to Islam in order to gain perks and the protection of powerful Muslim gangs, the Chief Inspector of Prisons warns today.

Dame Anne Owers says that some convicted criminals are taking up the religion in jail to receive benefits only available to practising Muslims.

The number of Muslim prisoners has risen dramatically since the mid-1990s -- from 2,513 in 1994, or 5 per cent of the population, to 9,795 in 2008, or 11 per cent. Staff at top-security prisons and youth jails have raised concerns about the intimidation of non-Muslims and possible forced conversions.

Dame Anne's report, Muslim Prisoners' Experiences, published today, says that, although several high-profile terrorists have been jailed recently, fewer than 1 in 100 Muslim inmates have been convicted of terrorism.

She says that prison staff are suspicious about those practising or converting to the faith and warns that treating Muslim inmates as potential or actual extremists risks radicalising them. The report says: "Many Muslim prisoners stressed the positive and rehabilitative role that Islam played in their lives, and the calm that religious observance could induce in a stressed prison environment. This was in marked contrast to the suspicion that religious observance, and particularly conversion or reversion, tended to produce among staff."

All prisons offer a halal menu, which some inmates see as better than the usual choices. Muslims are excused from work and education while attending Friday prayers. Some converts, who are known as "convenience Muslims", admitted that they had changed faith because they got more time out of the cells to go to Friday prayers. One quoted in the report said: "Food good too, initially this is what converted me."...

But of course, halal food is just the beginning.

Abdullah Muhammad Muslim, the former Johnnie Clagg

No doubt Abdullah Muhammad Muslim intended to fashion pipe bombs of peace.

Columbus, Ohio -- I wonder if Abdullah Muhammad Muslim goes to the mosque whose members informed Rifqa Bary's parents that she had converted to Christianity. In any case, note that he is yet another prison convert.

"Man Faces Gun Charges After Cache Of Weapons Found," from 10TVNews.com, April 16 (thanks to D. C. Watson):

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Federal officials said on Friday that a large amount of weapons were found at the home of a man who allegedly stole the identity of someone bound to a wheelchair and suffering from cerebral palsy, and used it to try to flee the country.

Abdullah Mohammed Muslim, formerly known as Johnnie Clagg, faces felony gun charges, 10TV's Andy Hirsch reported.

Muslim, 38, allegedly stole personal information from people and tired to use it to get a passport to leave the country.

Police stopped Muslim's vehicle on the city's southwest side in October. He was wanted on charges of identity theft and trying to falsify a passport.

After being arrested, federal agents went to his home and said they found an arsenal inside, Hirsch reported.

Investigators said they found two AK 47s, a 9mm semiautomatic rifle and more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition, pipe bomb materials, a ballistic face mask and vest, and a flak jacket.

Muslim's attorney said his client traveled from Columbus to tribal areas of Pakistan and that he converted to Islam while spending time in prison.

He said his client has no ties to any terror organizations.

Federal authorities agreed, saying this was not a case of terrorism...

Of course not! It never is -- not even when a Muslim shouting "Allahu akbar" mows down thirteen Americans at Fort Hood!

One would think that if Islam really were a Religion Of Peace That Has Been Hijacked By A Tiny Minority Of Extremists™, this would be a relatively easy process. All one would have to do would be show the prisoners the peaceful aspects of the Qur'an that they had overlooked, and explain to them how Osama bin Laden and the rest had misunderstood Islamic theology. Then their loyalty as Muslims would do the rest.

Why isn't this happening?

Because, of course, the prevailing dogma that Islam is a Religion Of Peace simply isn't true. The Qur'an and Sunnah teach warfare against unbelievers. The Muslim chaplains in the prison system in the UK, and the prisoners, know that. So what can the chaplains do?

"Prison is 'not taming' Islamist radicals," by Gail Champion for BBC Radio 4, April 13:

Government efforts to de-radicalise jailed Islamic extremists are failing, former inmates have told the BBC....

The Ministry of Justice said it was working "with a number of third-sector partner organisations" to rehabilitate prisoners.

Around 200 extremists have been jailed since the 2005 London bombings and some are now due for release from prison and are returning to their communities....

Shah Jalal Hussain, who also lives in London and spent 18 months in prison after being convicted of raising funds to support terrorism, claimed that prison imams were viewed with open hostility and as "puppets of the regime".

"A number of times he [the imam] was even attacked physically. He tried to press charges, but dropped them in the end. Prison didn't change my views at all, in fact it made me stronger in my beliefs," he said.

'No easy solution'

The government said Muslim extremists presented a complex profile and there were "no off-the-shelf interventions" which could be used to deal with them.

Instead, "offenders are managed based on individual risk assessments and sentence plans".

Harry Fletcher of the National Association of Probation Officers (NAPO) said once prisoners were back in the community, traditional risk assessment tools and strategies were proving ineffective....

What a surprise!

And prison authorities are afraid to cross them. "Islamic inmates hand back TVs to escape X Factor," by Ben Goldby for the Sunday Mercury, April 11 (thanks to Twostellas):

[...] Islamic inmate Abu Dira wrote to lag magazine Inside Time about the X Factor protest at the Worcestershire jail.

He said: "Many Muslims in Long Lartin have handed back their televisions, as they are viewed as nothing more than a distraction to religious study.

''I do not envisage hordes of crying Muslims lamenting the loss of X Factor."

The inmate also blasted plans to fight Islamic extremism by flooding the prison library with books from moderates, saying no-one would read them, "let alone accept the viewpoint of those individuals who align themselves with occupational forces".

Figures revealed by the Sunday Mercury last year show the Muslim population inside Long Lartin has doubled in just two years, with a quarter of all prisoners now followers of Islam.

Meanwhile, it has emerged that extremists held in the maximum security terror detainee unit are being given fresh sheets after every cell search by drug dogs - so that their religion is not offended.

Yet non-Muslim prisoners have complained that Islamic inmates are being offered preferential treatment as others are not offered clean sheets....

And a former Long Lartin prison officer has also claimed non-Muslim prisoners are being intimidated for refusing to abide by unofficial rules imposed by Islamic gangs, about eating pork and listening to Western music. One Christian prisoner was even stabbed for refusing to read the Quran, she claimed.

"Prison officers feel helpless against this situation," she said. "It seemed to me like the prison authorities were scared to upset the detainees so they had to be seen to protect them - even if they were in the wrong."...

Unlike many other imprisoned jihadists -- notably John Walker Lindh -- it looks as if Nidal Hasan will not have a chance to proselytize for Islam among his fellow inmates. "Ft. Hood suspect to be isolated in Texas jail," by Angela K. Brown for The Associated Press, April 9 (thanks to Orrin):

BELTON, Texas -- The Army psychiatrist charged in a deadly shooting spree at Fort Hood will be kept isolated from other inmates at the Texas jail where he's been transferred.

Maj. Nidal Hasan was airlifted from a San Antonio military hospital to the Bell County Jail in Belton at about 4 a.m. Friday.

Sheriff Dan Smith says Hasan will be kept in a cell in the jail infirmary and will be under 24-hour watch. Smith did not say whether Hasan is under guard because of fears for his safety or others....

Last month, Bell County commissioners finalized a contract with the military to house Hasan. Although the jail usually houses military defendants from nearby Fort Hood, which does not have holding facilities, a special agreement was required for Hasan because "unusual and extraordinary security measures" were necessary, the sheriff has said....

Why? Are outraged American prisoners targeting him? Or are his fellow jihadists planning a little bombing celebration in his honor?

These prisoners have committed crimes. That's why they're in prison. That can tend to lead to a certain curtailing of one's freedoms. Only because they recognize American officials as the hopeless dhimmis that they generally are do they dare to bring such a suit. Courtroom Jihad Update: "Inmates Say Prisons Violate Rights: Inmates In Federal Prisons Seek Added Face Time With Family and Friends," by Adriana Correa for NBC Chicago, March 31 (thanks to Twostellas):

A group of 60 to 70 Muslim prisoners in highly restrictive jail programs, in Terre Haute, Indiana and Marion, Illinois are suing because they don't get enough time to visit with family and friends.

The suit, brought by the Center for Constitutional Rights claims the prisoner's constitutional rights are being violated at the "Communications Managment Units," a set of experimental prison facilities.

They are taking a case to court on behalf of inmates that have been placed in highly secured prisons in the U.S.

The jail birds complain the prisons are not allowing them ample outside contact time with relatives and their buds.

Yes, lots of jihad to plan!

"Malcolm Moss, national chair of the Prison Officers' Association, said: "We are seeing more and more Muslim gangs in our prisons. Often Muslims who go to prison are forced into gangs for their own protection. And that culture takes over a wing, takes over an area of the prison. We see it as a real danger, now and for the future of prisons." -- from an article here

Notice how Malcolm Moss, though he is not one of those denying the problem of the takeover of British prisons by Muslim prisoners, can't quite state head-on what the real worry is.

For example, these Muslims who take over in prisons constitute a "real danger" -- but not just, as Moss states, "now and for the future of prisons." They constitute a danger, much more importantly, for all of British and, indeed, for the Western societies within which, as holders of British passports, they can now freely move and operate . After all, eventually most prisoners are released. And those who were Muslim to begin with, but perhaps did not take Islam quite to heart, have had a chance in prison to take it quite to heart. And what is more disturbing is that those who entered prison as non-Muslims, but accepted Islam in order to avoid being treated brutally by Muslim fellow prisoners, may -- rather than simply slough it off as they would their prison garb, once they are again out in the world -- come out as True Believers. Often what begins as an act of protective coloration ends up transforming the person who started out thinking he was merely making a temporary compromise in order to stay alive -- and that means he, and others like him, will emerge as Muslims, but Muslims who even when they were non-Muslims were at war with society and its norms.

This trend, of course, is nothing new. "Muslim gangs imposing sharia law in British prisons," by Andrew Gilligan for the Telegraph, March 15:

Non-Muslim inmates at the high-security Long Lartin jail have been forced by the gangs to stop playing "Western" music and take down pictures of women from their cells, according to one former prison officer there. Prisoners at the jail, although allowed to cook their own food, are not allowed to prepare pork for fear of offending the Muslim inmates, the officer said.

The officer, speaking to Radio Five Live's Donal Macintyre show, told how younger prisoners were targeted for forced conversion to Islam by the gangs. "They went along because they were intimidated. They genuinely weren't of the Muslim faith," she said. "I knew one lad quite well, who was approached by the radical Muslims and he changed. He was being controlled and bossed around and he wasn't even allowed to look at me or speak to me.

"He just seemed very frightened all the time. He used to be forced to pray at certain times and he was even forced to grow a long beard even though he didn't want to."

One Catholic prisoner who refused to convert was seriously assaulted after being repeatedly threatened by the gang, the officer said. "He said every so often they would come to his cell and hold the Koran up through the small window in the cell door and start running their fingers along their throats," she said.

The officer's testimony is consistent with findings by the official prison watchdog, the chief inspector of prisons. In a report last year, the inspector, Anne Owers, quoted a number of prisoners at Long Lartin about the increasing dominance of Muslim gangs in the jail.

Long Lartin was, said one, "turning into an American-style jail, [where] if you are not in a gang, you're in trouble. People are converting to Islam for protection."

Another said: "There is a gang culture here, which is an issue. There are issues with Muslim gangs wanting to overpower others. A lot of people are becoming Muslim just because it is a bigger gang."

Ms Owers says there is a similar gang culture in at least three other high-security prisons, Whitemoor in Cambridgeshire, Belmarsh in south-east London and Full Sutton in North Yorkshire. Some of the gang leaders are terrorist prisoners but most are in for ordinary offences.

Two Muslim former prisoners claimed in the BBC programme that Muslims "run" some London jails and describe how they watched al-Qaeda videos in their cells, brought in by corrupt prison officers. They also detail further bullying and abuse of prisoners who refused to convert to Islam and said that in one London jail, prisoners who wanted to play music had their stereos smashed. They said that the official prison imams appointed by the Home Office were largely ineffective and not respected by Muslim prisoners.

Malcolm Moss, national chair of the Prison Officers' Association, said: "We are seeing more and more Muslim gangs in our prisons. Often Muslims who go to prison are forced into gangs for their own protection. And that culture takes over a wing, takes over an area of the prison. We see it as a real danger, now and for the future of prisons."

Mr Moss called for more Muslim prison officers to be recruited as part of an urgent effort to "face up" to the gangs.

Why can't the current prison staff "face up" to the gangs? Who is in control in the prison?

A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice said: "It is ridiculous to suggest that any gang 'controls' a prison. The Prison Service has a wealth of experience in dealing with gang activity and managing prisoners who form gangs. Expert staff identify, challenge and disrupt those prisoners attempting to bully, influence or intimidate others. We have long established strategies to address gang behaviour, and to counter bullying, combat illicit mobile phones and tackle drugs."

If you've got the strategies... use them.

The spokesman said there was "no evidence" that al-Qaeda videos had been watched and insisted that bacon was not banned.

Yes, yes, "there is no compulsion in religion" (Qur'an 2:256) and forced conversion is forbidden in Islamic law, but when the prophet of Islam himself tells his followers to offer unbelievers conversion, subjugation, or war, the line between free choice and compulsion can get a little blurred.

"Rapist Jamaile Morally in boiling oil jail attack," by Justin Penrose for the Mirror, February 7 (thanks to Paul):

A jailed killer poured boiling oil over another inmate because he refused to convert to Islam.

Jamaile Morally, 26 - sentenced to life as part of a gang that raped, tortured and murdered a teenage girl and left another for dead - led two other inmates in carrying out the attack....

A prison source said: "There has been a real problem of extremist Muslims trying to convert other inmates to Islam."

No kidding, really?

More prison jihad. How did this man get to be approved as a chaplain? Was his adherence to the Religion of Peace™ enough to allay any concerns about his record?

The New York Post story below is essentially the same story I commented upon here, but the essential detail of Zulqarnain Abdu-Shahid's murder conviction has been added in. The editor, however, did not bother to remove the gratuitous moral equivalence of the mention of the rabbi who got in hot water for an illicit bar mitzvah for an inmate's son. Murder and box cutters equal an under-the-table bar mitzvah in our enlightened new multicultural world.

"Muslim chaplain 'smuggled' box-cutter blades into jail," by Reuven Blau and Dan Mangan for the New York Post, February 4 (thanks to Pamela):

A city Department of Correction Muslim chaplain who served 14 years in prison for murder and robbery was arrested today for carrying three utility blades and a pair of scissors into a lower Manhattan jail, authorities said.

The chaplain, Zulqarnain Abdu-Shahid, had the utility blades and scissors in his duffel bag when he arrived at the Manhattan Detention Complex in the morning, according to the city Department of Investigation.

Read the DOI release here (PDF)

The dangerous items were found after an X-ray machine alerted correction officers to the presence of metal in the bag, the DOI said.

Authorities did not say why Abdu-Shahid was visiting the jail, commonly known as the Tombs, or why he was carrying the scissors and the rectangular blades, which were 1-and-1/2 inches long by three-quarters of an inch wide.

Abdu-Shahid, 58, was arrested at the scene and charged with four counts of first-degree promoting prison contraband -- a felony carrying a maximum 7-year prison term -- and four counts of the same charge in the second degree, a misdemeanor.

The Staten Island resident, who is married with three children, was ordered held in lieu of $30,000 bail during a hearing in Manhattan Criminal Court last night, where he appeared in a long robe and navy blue skull cap.

His lawyer, James McQueeney said the blades were 'injector razor blades from an injector razor," and that when Abdu-Shahid told that to the correction officers who stopped him, "his explanation that he didn't know there were there [in the duffel bag] was accepted."

"He was allowed into the" Tombs after the blades were confiscated," McQueeney said. "Only later were questions raised about this." [...]

Abdu-Shahid was hired as a Muslim imam chaplain by the DOC three years ago tomorrow, and has a salary of $49,471 annually.

State Corrections Department records show that he entered state prison in September 1979 to begin serving a sentence of 15-years-to-life for a second-degree murder and a first-degree robbery committed in Manhattan. He was paroled in August 1993, and finished his parole in August 2001. [...]

But a city Correction source said of Abdu-Shahid's arrest, "It's a disgrace that taxpayers are funding Muslim chaplains who not only have criminal records, but also are promoting violence."

Abdu-Shahid's boss -- head chaplain Umar Abdul-Jalil -- himself was hired by the DOC despite having done a 14-year stint in prison for drug dealing.

Abdul-Jalil who also is a Muslim imam, last year was stripped of two weeks vacation as punishment for signing off on a plan by Tombs chaplain Rabbi Leib Glanz to allow a bar mitzvah party for the son of an inmate in that jail.

After The Post uncovered the bar mitzvah -- which included catered food, a live band, and scores of non-inmate guests, Abdul-Jalil among them -- the politically connected Glanz resigned as chaplain, as did Correction security chief Peter Curcio.

In addition to the party, Glanz had also routinely arranged other preferential treatment for Jewish inmates at the Tombs, including allowing them nearly unfettered use of his office and phone, and bringing them food from the outside, The Post disclosed....

Just so that you don't get the idea that the Post is "Islamophobic" for reporting on this story, Reuven Blau and Dan Mangan include a completely gratuitous reference to an illegal bar mitzvah party organized by a Jewish chaplain for an inmate's son. Box cutters = bar mitzvah. Check.

"Muslim chaplain 'smuggled' box cutters into jail," by Reuven Blau and Dan Mangan in the New York Post, February 3 (thanks to herr Oyal):

A Muslim chaplain for the city Department of Correction was arrested this morning for allegedly trying to smuggle in three box-cutters to a lower Manhattan jail.

The imam, Imam Zul-Qarnain Shahid, has worked as a DOC jail chaplain for three years, according to department sources.

Several sources said Shahid was caught this morning attempting to bring three box-cutters into the jail known as the Tombs during a visit there. It was not known why he was visiting the jail....

A DOC chaplain assigned to the Tombs - politically connected rabbi Leib Glanz - resigned last year after The Post exclusively revealed that he had organized a bar mitzvah party within the jail's walls for the son of an inmate. The bar mitzvah featured catered food and a live band, as well as dozens of non-inmate guests....

Probable prison convert, or prison jihadi. "Ex-con Ojore Nuru Lutalo arrested on Amtrak when passengers report him talking Al Qaeda, terrorism," by Larry Mcshane for the New York Daily News, January 29 (thanks to Pamela):

A recently released New Jersey prisoner was yanked off an Amtrak train in Colorado after fellow passengers heard him mention Al Qaeda and make threatening comments, authorities said.

Ojore Nuru Lutalo, 64, was free on $30,000 bond Friday after his arrest earlier this week at a Colorado train station.

Leftist/Jihadist Alliance Update:

The Elizabeth, N.J., man was traveling to Chicago after reportedly attending the Los Angeles Anarchist Book Fair last weekend.

Passengers riding with him Tuesday heard Lutalo speaking on his cell phone, declaring he hadn't killed anyone yet and demanding cooperation from a purported cohort.

"We have to work in small groups," he was quoted as saying in an affidavit. "They can hold you for 18 months. Do they have security on these trains? Are you with me or not?"

Lutalo later mentioned Al Qaeda before saying "17th century tactics won't work. We have 21st century tactics."...

The suspect - also known as Leroy Bunting - was freed in August after serving a 27-year term for aggravated assault, robbery and weapons possession.

But will prison officials do anything to keep this from happening in the future? What do you think? "Making license plates and terrorists," an unsigned editorial from the New York Post, January 23:

It should come as no surprise that up to three dozen American Islamists re vealed this week to have skipped off to terror training camps in Yemen were radicalized in US prisons.

The surprise would be if corrections officials did anything about it.

According to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, intelligence indicates that some 36 Americans who converted to Islam in prison have departed for the al Qaeda hotbed in the past year, claiming to want to study Arabic.

Intelligence officials told the committee that they'd lost track of some of the men, who they believe have slipped away to al Qaeda training camps.

This is a big problem, the report says, "because of the potential threat from extremists carrying American passports and the related challenges involved in detecting and stopping homegrown operatives."

No kidding.

Indeed, such study-abroad programs for homegrown jihadists seem to be all the rage these days. Last month, five Muslim students from Virginia were arrested in Pakistan as they tried to rendezvous with al Qaeda.

But what's especially outrageous about the Yemen 36 is the very real possibility that they were fed their poison by folks collecting government paychecks as Muslim chaplains....

Read it all.

Their loyalties, if this is true, were with Islam, not with the United States. That should not be surprising: it is a staple of Islamic thought that loyalty to one's fellow Muslims trumps all other loyalties. "Another spying scandal at Gitmo," by Paul Sperry for the New York Post, December 1 (thanks to Pamela):

A number of Arabic and Pashtu interpreters at the terror-war detention center at Guantanamo Bay are under active investigation for omitting valuable intelligence from their translations of detainee interrogations, among other security breaches. This could taint some of the evidence at the "9/11 trial" in New York and proceedings against other detainees.

Remarkably, the Pentagon never cleaned up the "mole infestation" at its highest-security facility after the FBI busted a Muslim spy ring at Gitmo in 2003.

The 2003 probe involved at least two Arabic interpreters with high-level security clearance. Senior Airman Ahmad al-Halabi, a Syrian native, and former Army linguist Ahmed Mehalba, an Egyptian native, were later convicted of stealing or mishandling classified documents.

Six years later comes a new problem with Muslim personnel who have virtually unfettered access to detainees and intelligence at Gitmo. Professional military security and intelligence officials at Gitmo did the preliminary probe, then prepared a classified summary and are now briefing top officials and members of Congress in Washington. An active FBI criminal probe is also under way.

The possible new spy ring involves several Arabic linguists, some also Egyptian and Syrian immigrants. They're suspected of, among other things:

* Omitting valuable intelligence from their translations of interrogations.

* Slipping notes to detainees inside copies of the Koran.

* Coaching detainees to make allegations of abuse against interrogators.

* Meeting with suspects on the terror watchlist while back in the United States.

Officials say some of the suspected "dirty" linguists -- who met privately in a locked mosque at Gitmo -- have had access to 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed and other high-value al Qaeda detainees.

"Three years of investigations have revealed the presence of pro-jihad/anti-Western activities among the civilian-contractor and military-linguist population serving Joint Task Force Guantanamo," states a copy of a classified Gitmo briefing, prepared in May for the FBI, CIA and Congress' intelligence committees....

The symbolism of Abu Hamza's sermons going through the plumbing system is just too good. More on this story. "Hate preacher Abu Hamza secretly gives lectures on Islam... through the water pipes of his prison cell," by Rebecca Camber in the Daily Mail, November 17 (thanks to Kris):

Hate preacher Abu Hamza is delivering extremist sermons to prisoners through the water pipes of his cell, it has been claimed.

The Muslim cleric is defying a preaching ban imposed by prison bosses to radicalise inmates.

He is able to give his lectures through the plumbing that connects to neighbouring cells in Belmarsh Prison....

The Quilliam Foundation, a counter-extremism think-tank, has called for the 51-year-old to be removed from the mainstream prison population.

Its report on growing prison radicalisation says the authorities have tried to stop him giving sermons openly.

But a source told the thinktank that Egyptian-born Hamza has found a way to talk to his fellow inmates - through the pipes....

Jihad Watch Board Vice President Hugh Fitzgerald offers some ways and means to counter the ongoing problem of jihad recruitment in American prisons:

Members of various Da'wa groups and individuals are busily promoting Islam with what is, of course, a captive population. Already nicely identified by their condition as economically and socially marginal, with an axe to grind (and sometimes with justification), these prisoners are Jihad-fodder. They can be offered spiritual guidance by smiling and plausible souls, who tell them such things, palpably untrue, as that Islam is devoid of racism. But in fact Islam is the most racist of all belief-systems, for it requires complete identification with, and mimicking of, the mores and manners of a particular people: the Arabs, who are "the best of people." Islam even goes so far as to insist that the Qur'an must be read in Arabic (a rule that seems in recent years to have been honored in the breach) and that converts take on new, Arabic names and slough off their pre-Islamic identities, histories, and interests. There has never been an imperialism, a cultural and linguistic imperialism, so successful.

That is what Islam is really like. It asks the new convert to strip himself of his identity. It asks him to take a new name. It asks him to give up art -- no sculpture, and no paintings of people or other living things. It asks him to give up music -- no gospel music, no jazz, no nothing. In some Arab countries, this ban is violated -- but the ban is part of Islam, and that should be clear (one has only to consult al-Qaradawi). How many people will be willing to trade in, for example, their music for -- silence? "There is no place for humor in Islam," wrote Ayatollah Khomeini. How right he was. There isn't -- just look not at the hysterical faces of those frenzied mobs in Rawalpindi or Gaza, but simply at the dour hijabbed faces you can see in photographs -- with those Muhammad Atta deadfish eyes. Surely that is worth pointing out. There is hardly any science in Islam and there has not been for a thousand years, that is, not since the gates of ijtihad were closed (for the best "Islamic" scientists, such as ar-Rhazi, were in fact freethinkers and skeptics, and always in danger of being punished, even executed). Science has been thin on the ground in Islam since the pre-existing populations of Christians and Jews, who were the translators of those works of Greek science that quite a few, including converts and those born into Islam give such exaggerated signficance to, were after a few centuries reduced by conversion and dhimmitude to irrelevance. Any histories of science written today devote, on average, 1% of their text (I have checked) to the so-called "enormous discoveries" that Muslims routinely like to cite, and lazy non-Muslims often accept or parrot, because they figure that it is just too time-consuming to go and look up the real significance of "Islamic science." For more on this, one could consult the book by Rodney Stark on why modern science developed in Christian Europe, and not under Islam, nor in China. And for still more, one can find online exchanges on the reasons for the decline of science in Islamic societies between the sober historian of science Toby Huff, and the hysterical George Saliba, eager to protect Islam at all costs. His defensiveness grows ever more shrill and absurd as he attempts to impugn Huff's motives for even considering what is, after all, a major question: why, after a few centuries, did science under Islam (not "islamic science") disappear, save for a handful of astronomers who did not, pace Saliba, anticipate Copernicus. Here again, the confusion of history with self-esteem studies, which so many Muslim and Arab professors seem to make, is quite extraordinary.

This is the first official recognition that I know of of the rampant jihad recruitment going on in prisons. From AP, :

MIAMI -- Two men awaiting trial on charges of recruiting soldiers for worldwide radical Islamic holy war were ordered Friday to remain in solitary confinement after prosecutors said they could continue spreading Muslim extremism if allowed into the regular jail population.

"It would be a combustible, risky situation to put these individuals into the general population," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Frazier. "That facility is full of young, angry, disaffected young men."

U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke denied motions by Adhan Amin Hassoun and Kifah Wael Jayyousi to be moved out of the special housing unit at Miami's downtown federal detention center. But Cooke also said she will insist that the U.S. Bureau of Prisons provide them with greater access to their lawyers to prepare for what will be a lengthy, complex trial in fall 2006.

"I have to say this case raises a lot of concerns," Cooke said. "I'm going to hold the government's feet to the fire to make sure these things happen."

Hassoun, a Lebanese-born Palestinian, and Jayyousi, a Jordanian who has U.S. citizenship, are accused of raising money and recruiting operatives beginning in 1993 to fight for radical Islamic causes in Bosnia, Kosovo, Chechnya, Somalia and elsewhere. Much of the government's case is based on some 50,000 telephone wire intercepts dating back a decade or more.

Among their alleged recruits was Jose Padilla, a former Chicago gang member who converted to Islam and allegedly plotted with top al-Qaida commanders to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb" in a U.S. city. Padilla, whose plot never materialized, was designated an enemy combatant by President Bush and is being held without criminal charge at a Navy brig in South Carolina.

Why? Doesn't the staff know that the Qur'an teaches peace? Or does what it really teach make them susceptible to the appeals of Omer Sheikh? "Omer Sheikh dangerous and charismatic: prison officials," from the Daily Times, with thanks to Nicolei:

LAHORE: Accoring to prison officals, Ahmed Omer Saeed Sheikh is dangerous and charismatic. The British-born Islamist murderer of the American journalist Daniel Pearl has managed to convert the first four constables that were stationed outside his cell. This has moved prison authorities to rotate the guards staioned outside his cell almost every day. “He is capable of converting the entire jail staff,” said one official.

The convict paid tribute to Osama Bin Laden and condemned his victim as an “informer/spy of America” in an interview conducted by smuggling notes in and out of his cell, says a Telegraph report.

Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh said that he had met Bin Laden twice in Afghanistan and admitted to The Sunday Telegraph that he had been “involved” in the kidnap of Mr Pearl, a Wall Street Journal reporter who was beheaded on video in 2002 after being lured to a meeting in Karachi.

Sheikh rejected the “pillars of Western civilisation”, pledged allegiance to the one-eyed fugitive Taliban leader Mulla Omar and declared that jihad would never cease, even if Bin Laden and Omar were killed. “Islamic resurgence will continue even if all the better-known leaders are martyred or captured,” he said. His uncompromising pronouncements came as Mr Pearl’s parents, Judea and Ruth, noted with “sadness and disappointment” the failure of Pakistan to carry out Sheikh’s death sentence, imposed three years ago after he was tried for their son’s kidnap, and suggested that he could be implicated in planning bombings in London and elsewhere.

This is happening in American prisons also. From The Daily Telegraph, with thanks to Kevin:

AS many as six of the State's most dangerous prisoners have become supporters of terror mastermind Osama bin Laden after converting to radical Islam while in jail.

Intelligence obtained by the Corrective Services Department reveals some of the inmates to be supportive of bin Laden and terrorism.

Authorities are concerned by the potential for a terrorist cell to be formed inside NSW prisons....

The jailed bin Laden followers - who are of Aboriginal and Caucasian backgrounds, as well as Middle Eastern - are under close scrutiny and prison security measures have been tightened.

That means that some are converts.

A recent planned attack on Spain's National Court was plotted behind bars.

Seventeen people have been charged with terrorist offences for plotting to bomb the court with 1000kg of explosives earlier this month.

The attack was planned by inmates within a terrorist cell formed in prison.

The Sunday Telegraph can reveal that one of the converts to Islam is serving a life sentence in Goulburn's maximum-security Supermax prison for a shooting murder.

Prison authorities say he is open about his new faith.

Corrective Services Commissioner Ron Woodham said the inmate was of concern, given his background and extreme views.

But Mr Woodham said he was not among those prisoners who were openly supportive of bin Laden and terrorism activity.

"The other inmates who are supportive are in for murder, serious assault - they are extremely dangerous in their own right.

"Prisoners convert to faith all the time, but our intelligence has revealed that up to six have taken on very extreme views that are of great concern to authorities - particularly with recent events overseas, where the prison system has been used as a recruiting ground by terrorist organisations.

"We're watching every move they make, and we are working with law-enforcement agencies in other states to ensure that they are closely monitored."

French prisons are recruiting grounds for the global jihad.

From AP:

PARIS - French prisoners are often overwhelmingly Muslim, with many inmates converting to Islam while behind bars, an expert told a French newspaper yesterday.

Muslims often account for over half the population of many French prisons, while penitentiaries close to rough suburbs could have up to 80 percent Muslim inmates, Fahrad Khosrokhavar, a French author and academic, was quoted as saying in Le Figaro newspaper yesterday.

"Al Qaida continues to recruit members in U.S. prisons despite a government crackdown, FBI officials told a congressional panel." This from the World Tribune.

U.S. officials said Al Qaida's recruitment has been facilitated by Muslim clergy with access to federal and state prisons. They said the organization has succeeded in winning new members despite tighter rules instituted by authorities since the Al Qaida suicide attacks in September 2001.

'These terrorists seek to exploit our freedom to exercise religion to their advantage by using radical forms of Islam to recruit operatives,' FBI counter-terrorism chief John Pistole said. 'Unfortunately, U.S. correctional institutions are a viable venue for such radicalization and recruitment.'

Officials said Muslim chaplains have facilitated Al Qaida recruitment, Middle East Newsline reported. They cited the case of Warith Deen Umar, the administrative chaplain for the New York State Corrections Department, said to have preached that the Al Qaida suicide attackers who killed more than 3,000 Americans were heroes.

At the congressional hearing, a Pentagon official, principal deputy defense undersecretary Charles Abell, said the U.S. government has ended exclusivity granted to three Saudi-financed organizations for the training of Muslim chaplains. The Graduate School of Islamic and Social Sciences, in Leesburg, Va., and the American Muslim Armed Forces and Veterans Affairs Council, in Arlington, Va., recommend chaplains to the military. The Islamic Society of North America, based in Plainfield, Ind., refers Muslim clerics to the Bureau of Prisons.

Pistole told a recent session of the Senate subcommittee on terrorism, technology and homeland security that federal and state authorities have faced an uphill battle to halt Al Qaida recruitment in prisons. He said Al Qaida and other insurgency groups have exploited the isolation of inmates and offer them protection, positions of influence and a network they can correspond with both inside and outside of prison.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons maintains a presence on the National Joint Terrorism Taskforce as part of an effort to identify Al Qaida and recruiters for other insurgency groups in the federal prison service.

Officials said the federal prison system contains 9,600 Muslims, or 5.5 percent of the inmate population. The figure does not include members of such groups as the Nation of Islam or the Moorish Science Temple.

'The percent of federal inmates who identify themselves as Muslim has remained very stable for close to a decade,' Harley Lappin, director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, said. 'We have been managing inmates with ties to terrorism for over a decade by confining them in secure conditions and monitoring their communications closely. All inmates with terrorist ties are clearly identified and tracked in our information systems.'

Lappin said his agency has not hired any new Muslim chaplains since August 2001. He said the hiring freeze would continue until the completion of federal investigations.

Officials also told the Senate hearing that Al Qaida has sought to infiltrate the U.S. military, including personnel that work at Camp Delta. About 660 Al Qaida and Taliban detainees have been interrogated at the naval facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Pistole said the FBI sees the Al Qaida effort as a serious breach of national security. He said the FBI has launched an effort with the Defense Department and the Federal Bureau of Prisons to assess the units that examine the backgrounds of prospective chaplains and translators.

'In addition, the FBI is evaluating the protocols for ongoing security assessments of such employees during sensitive assignments, such as more frequent polygraph examinations,' Pistole said.

Recruitment of jihad warriors isn't just something that goes on in far-off places like Pakistan, Afghanistan, Jordan, Egypt, and Paraguay: it has also been going on in the Texas prison system.

CBS-TV in Dallas/Fort Worth has "uncovered a disturbing half-hour videotape apparently used as a recruitment tool in the Beto One Prison Unit in East Texas."

The confiscated video is titled 'A Message to the Oppressed' and carried a militant Islamic sermon in praise of terrorists to inmates before authorities seized it during Islamic services.

The tape features the anti-Semitic exhortations by the California-based Imam Muhammad Abdullah who claims that the 9-11 terrorist attacks were actually carried out by the Israeli and U.S. governments.

'Are we to believe that some person that some people walked in airports and hijacked airplanes and then just went and blew up buildings blew up the Pentagon? This is ignorance to the max.'

The Imam's tape ends by giving credit to Hamas, al-Jihad and Hizballah. All three groups are listed as terror organizations by the State Department....

Some terrorism experts say the videotape is new evidence of militant Islamic groups infiltrating prisons through religious programs. The Senate judiciary subcommittee on terrorism concluded recently that U.S. prisons and jails are a key area of recruitment for Al Qaeda and other terror organizations....

'There have been cases domestically here in the United States and some of the training we have received indicates that there is a possibility that there is a recruiting effort going on inside prisons,' said John Moriarty, Inspector General of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. 'As a matter of fact, in other states, other than Texas, there has been confirmation of that.'...

Comments Mark Briskman of the Anti-Defamation League: "You have a potential in this prison system, as these people begin to get out, in terms of recruiting them into whether it's al Queda or Hamas or Islamic Jihad, and possibly be recruited to fight overseas or possibly be recruited to perform terrorist acts in the United States."

The article notes:

Some prison chaplains say the discovery of the tape raises [concern] that religious freedoms in jail appear to have been abused to help spread a militant message that encourages terrorism.

Indeed.

In a continuation of the article, we meet Omar Rakeeb, who has "carried an Islamic outreach from his mosque in Midland as a Muslim chaplain to federal and state prisons."

He brought the videotape into the Beto One Unit, but he denies any knowledge of it: "'I didn't have anything to do with showing the tape,' Rakeeb said. He said an inmate ordered the tape to the chaplain's office. . . . Rakeeb was unable to explain who removed the tape from Rakeeb's office and who else, besides him, had access to a VCR to show it to inmates. . . .

The 55-year-old Chaplain said when asked about the message that he's not familiar with what Anti-Semitic means.

He declined to disavow the theory that Israel and Jews orchestrated the attacks that killed more than 3,000 innocent American office workers.

'Well, I heard that. I saw it in different...I heard it, I believe on TV and I read it somewhere on the Internet and heard people talking like that,' Rakeeb said. 'Usually, I just treat it as news, whether it is true or not, I have no way of knowning.'

The FBI warns that militant Muslim prison chaplains sympathetic to terrorists are trying to recruit inmates as future operatives.

(Thanks to LGF.)