Recently in Jihad in prisons Category

They stabbed him, but apparently did not succeed in killing him. "Muslim extremists hold Yorkshire prison officer hostage in Woolwich copycat attack," from the Yorkshire Post, May 28 (thanks to Twostellas):

MUSLIM extremist prisoners carried out an attack on a warder in a Yorkshire jail at the weekend, it was revealed this morning.

Three inmates held the warden hostage before stabbing him during a four-hour stand-off with guards on Sunday afternoon.

Reports said the attack at Full Sutton prison in Yorkshire was inspired by last week’s murder of Drummer Lee Rigby.

This morning it emerged that the victim was a former soldier. A leaked email, said to have been sent to all staff in the prison service, said the officer had been was chosen by the three Muslim inmates because of his links to the Armed Forces.

The email reads: “Three Muslim prisoners took an officer hostage in an office. Their demands indicated they supported radical Islamist extremism. “The officer taken was an ex-serviceman and, throughout the incident, threats were made to kill him.”

The incident is now being investigated by counter-terrorism officers.

A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: “An incident involving three prisoners took place at HMP Full Sutton on 26 May from 4.25pm and was successfully resolved at 8.40pm after staff intervened. A police investigation is ongoing.”

Newspaper reports initially claimed the attack was masterminded by the Muslim fanatic Parviz Khan, who is serving life a sentence for plotting to behead a British soldier, but a source said he was not being held at Full Sutton. Khan, from Birmingham, was jailed in 2008.

Unrepentant: "The Koran is the truth that invalidates all other religions. If you do not submit, he will severely judge you, and on the day of judgment you will enter hellfire."

"Man sentenced in plot against terror witnesses," by Michael Biesecker for the Associated Press, May 10 (thanks to Lookmann):

A North Carolina man was sentenced Friday to four life terms for plotting to behead federal witnesses whose testimony helped convict him for his role in an earlier plot to slaughter U.S. servicemen and their families.

Hysen Sherifi, 29, was one of six Raleigh-area Muslims convicted in 2011 of planning to attack the Marine base in Quantico, Va., and overseas targets.

Shortly after starting his 45-year prison sentence in the terror case, Sherifi approached another inmate to help him hire a hit man to behead government informants and FBI agents. He recruited his younger brother Shkumbin Sherifi, 23, and former special education teacher Nevine Aly Elshiekh, 48, to help pay the hit man and organize the murders.

But the inmate whose help Sherifi sought turned out to be yet another government informant. FBI agents then staged an elaborate sting that involved secretly videotaped meetings with a woman posing as the go-between for a fictional hit man named Treetop and doctored photos that appeared to show the corpse of a beheaded witness in a shallow grave.

Federal prosecutors recommended leniency for the two coconspirators, who pleaded guilty last year and agreed to testify at the elder Sherifi's trial on nine felony counts.

Citing their extensive cooperation, U.S. District Senior Judge Earl Britt sentenced the younger Sherifi to 3 years in prison, while Elshiekh got 3 1/2 years. They had faced as much as 10 years each.

Before Hysen Sherifi was sentenced, he lectured the judge about Islamic teachings.

"The Koran is the truth that invalidates all other religions," said Sherifi, who declined a court-appointed lawyer and represented himself at trial. "If you do not submit, he will severely judge you, and on the day of judgment you will enter hellfire."

"That it?" asked Britt, who has served more than three decades on the federal bench. The judge then tacked the four life sentences onto the end of Sherifi's earlier 45-year prison term, along with another 50 years on top of that.

"There can be no doubt Mr. Sherifi, the defendant in this case, meets the definition of a terrorist," Britt said. "He was the genesis of this conspiracy. He was the mastermind, though I'm hesitant to use that term because it affords him more credit than he is due."...

This is a problem all over the West. Islamic supremacists target prisoners for recruitment because they have in them a population that is already alienated and aggressive -- and they preach to them a religion of aggression and alienation (from the Infidels and their society).

"France struggles to fight radical Islam in its jails," by Alexandria Sage for Reuters, May 7 (thanks to Saucy):

(Reuters) - In France, the path to radical Islam often begins with a minor offence that throws a young man into an overcrowded, violent jail and produces a hardened convert ready for jihad.

With the country on heightened security alert since January when French troops began fighting al Qaeda-linked Islamists in Mali, authorities are increasingly worried about home-grown militants emerging from France's own jails.

But despite government efforts to tackle the problem, conditions behind bars are still turning young Muslims into easy prey for jhadist recruiters, according to guards, prison directors, ex-inmates, chaplains and crime experts interviewed over the last few months by Reuters.

"I have parents who come to me and say: 'My son went in a dealer and came out a fundamentalist'," said Hassen Chalghoumi, imam of the mosque in Drancy, a gritty suburb north of Paris.

Malian Islamists have warned France it is a target for attacks, most recently in a video that came to light on Tuesday. This has added to concern in a country which, according to the Europol police agency, arrested 91 people in 2012 on suspicion of what it categorized as religiously-inspired terrorism.

These numbers are by far the highest for any European Union country, although tiny when compared with France's estimated 5 to 6 million Muslims, the overwhelming majority of whom are peaceful, law-abiding citizens.

France, which has Europe's biggest Muslim population, is not alone. International studies show that prison radicalization is a problem in countries ranging from Britain and the United States to Afghanistan. However, France stands out because over half its inmates are estimated to be Muslim, many from communities blighted by poverty and unemployment....

The Federal Bureau of Prisons says that allowing this would pose a security risk. But who cares about that when Muslims must be accommodated?

"American Taliban fighter wants group prayer behind bars," from the Associated Press, April 10 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

INDIANAPOLIS Lawyers for American Taliban fighter John Walker Lindh asked a federal judge Wednesday to find the Federal Bureau of Prisons in contempt for not allowing Muslim inmates in a high-security Indiana prison unit to pray together five times a day, as required by their faith.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana filed the eight-page contempt motion in U.S. District Court in Indianapolis and sent a copy to The Associated Press.

The prisons agency has said inmates of all religions housed in the Terre Haute federal prison's Communications Management Unit have been allowed to pray together three times daily after a federal judge ruled in Lindh's favor in a lawsuit seeking the prayer time.

The ACLU of Indiana argues that isn't what Judge Jane Magnus-Stinson's Jan. 11 ruling required. Magnus-Stinson said Lindh, 32, sincerely believes Islam mandates Muslims pray together five times a day and federal law requires the prison to accommodate his beliefs. The motion also said prayer times set by the prison during some times of year make only two daily prayers possible or make prayers impossible to perform during the proper times.

A message seeking comment on the motion was left Wednesday for the Bureau of Prisons.

Those housed in Lindh's unit are considered extreme security risks and their interactions are closely monitored. Until last month, inmates housed in the unit were only allowed to pray together once per week or during Ramadan or on other significant religious holidays. At other times, inmates had to pray alone in their cells and hope to hear each other through the walls.

Magnus-Stinson found the policy violated a 1993 law banning the government from curtailing religious speech without showing a compelling interest, and the government chose not to appeal her ruling.

Prison officials said during the trial on Lindh's lawsuit that allowing group prayers every day would pose a security risk and that inmates had used religion as cover for gang-like activity, but the judge dismissed those arguments as insubstantial....

Prison officials have opposed this group prayer for security reasons, but what does security matter when Muslims must be accommodated? "Lindh lawyer to push for 5 daily group prayers," by Charles Wilson for the Associated Press, March 20 (thanks to Creeping Sharia):

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A lawyer who helped American Taliban fighter John Walker Lindh and other Muslim inmates win the right to hold daily group prayers in a high-security unit said he'll ask a judge to order that they be allowed to pray together five times a day, as Islam requires.

Chris Burke, a Bureau of Federal Prisons spokesman, said that since March 12, inmates of all religions housed in the Terre Haute federal prison's Communications Management Unit have been allowed to pray together three times per day.

American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana legal director Ken Falk, who represented Lindh in his lawsuit against the prison bureau, said U.S. District Judge Jane Magnus-Stinson's Jan. 11 ruling requires that the prison allow five daily group prayers.

"Basically, it's our contention that they're not complying with the court order," Falk said Tuesday. "The judge's order is pretty clear."

A prison bulletin dated March 12 says only 10 inmates at a time can use the unit's multi-purpose room for group prayer during the hours the room is open. It wasn't clear how prison officials arrived at the limit of three prayers a day.

Those housed in Lindh's unit are considered extreme security risks and their interactions are closely monitored. Until this month, inmates housed in the unit were only allowed to pray together once per week or during Ramadan or on other significant religious holidays. At other times, inmates had to pray alone in their cells and hope to hear each other through the walls.

Magnus-Stinson found the policy violated a 1993 law banning the government from curtailing religious speech without showing a compelling interest, and the government chose not to appeal her ruling.

Magnus-Stinson said in court documents that it was clear that 32-year-old Lindh sincerely believed that Islam mandates that Muslims pray together five times a day and federal law requires the prison to accommodate his beliefs — which praying simultaneously inside their cells did not do. She also noted that Muslim inmates in other federal prisons were allowed to hold daily group prayers.

"A central tenet of the Islamic faith is the obligation for adult Muslims to engage in five daily prayers, or Salat," she wrote. "By prohibiting Mr. Lindh and the other Muslim prisoners who hold similar beliefs in the CMU from praying in each other's presence, the Warden has denied Mr. Lindh and these other prisoners the religious exercise of daily group prayer," she said elsewhere.

Prison officials said during the trial on Lindh's lawsuit that allowing group prayers every day would pose a security risk and that inmates had used religion as cover for gang-like activity, but the judge dismissed those arguments as insubstantial.

The lawsuit was originally filed in 2009 by two Muslim inmates in the unit. Lindh joined the lawsuit in 2010, and the case has drawn far more attention because of his involvement. The other plaintiffs have dropped out as they were released from prison or transferred to other units.

In 2001, Lindh was captured in Afghanistan by U.S. troops and accused of fighting for the Taliban. Raised Catholic, the California native was 12 when he saw the movie "Malcolm X" and became interested in Islam. He converted to Islam at age 16. Walker told Newsweek after his capture that he had entered Afghanistan to help the Taliban build a "pure Islamic state."...

He wanted to be sent back to Saudi Arabia, where keeping a slave and sexually assaulting her is not a crime, as it is in accord with Islamic law. Colorado prison officials refused. And their chief turns up dead. What a coincidence. "Sources: Clements murder investigation will look at Saudi prisoner connection," by Julie Hayden for Fox31 Denver, March 20 (thanks to Pamela Geller):

DENVER — Investigators looking into the shooting death of the director of the Colorado Department of Corrections will look at the possibility that Tom Clements’ murder may be tied to the recent decision not to grant a transfer of a Saudi man in a Colorado prison.

Homaidan Al-Turki was convicted in 2006 of unlawful sexual contact by use of force and other charges. Prosecutors said he sexually assaulted a housekeeper and kept her as a virtual slave for four years.

His conviction angered Saudi officials. The U.S. State Department sent Colorado Attorney General John Suthers to Saudi Arabia to meet with King Abdullah, Crown Prince Sultan and Al-Turki’s family.

Last week, Colorado prison officials denied a request from the Saudi Arabian government to release Al-Turki to his home country to serve his life sentence.

Prosecutors opposed Al-Turki’s transfer fearing he would be released upon return to Saudi Arabia.

Celments [sic] was the one who decided to deny the transfer. He wrote in a letter to Al-Turki that because Al-Turki refused to undergo sex offender treatment in prison, “I have decided not to support your request for transfer to Saudi Arabia at this time,” reported the Associated Press.

Sources have told FOX31 Denver, Al-Turki has come from an influential Saudi family that has long pressured Colorado to release him.

A source familiar with the investigation who refused to be identified by name because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the case, said the Al-Turki connection right now is the main working theory behind Clements death.

The source also said other people involved in the Al-Turki case have been contacted by law enforcement and are now getting extra protection....

"After opening statements by prosecutors, Sherifi read religious verses in Arabic and lectured jurors on their meaning in English." Gee, what kind of "religious verses," AP? Khalil Gibran? Not quite: "'We fight for Allah. We have authority. Do you have authority to make laws for mankind?' Sherifi told jurors. 'We do not make laws. We follow the laws that have been revealed by Allah.'" And those laws call for beheading inconvenient unbelievers (cf. Qur'an 47:4).

More on this story. "NC man found guilty in plot to behead witnesses," from the Associated Press, November 8 (thanks to all who sent this in):

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A North Carolina man serving a 45-year sentence for a terror plot to attack a U.S. Marine base and overseas targets was found guilty Thursday in a murder-for-hire plot to behead witnesses who testified against him.

Hysen Sherifi, 28, of Raleigh was found guilty Thursday of nine counts related to the murder-for-hire plot, U.S. Attorney Thomas Walker said. Sherifi will be sentenced in February, when he faces a maximum sentence of life behind bars....

Sherifi represented himself at the trial, which began Monday in U.S. District Court in Raleigh. After opening statements by prosecutors, Sherifi read religious verses in Arabic and lectured jurors on their meaning in English.

"We fight for Allah. We have authority. Do you have authority to make laws for mankind?" Sherifi told jurors. "We do not make laws. We follow the laws that have been revealed by Allah."

He continued the same theme in closing arguments Wednesday, when Judge Earl Britt stopped Sherifi from saying "that all judgment belongs only to Allah" and told him to argue his guilt or innocence. Britt eventually had U.S. marshals handcuff Sherifi and take him from the courtroom to a jail cell.

Sherifi was one of six Raleigh-area Muslims convicted last year of plotting to attack the Marine base in Quantico, Va., and overseas targets. That case hinged largely on surveillance tapes made by confidential informants paid by the FBI, with no direct evidence any of the men had actually agreed to kill anyone.

A prosecutor said in opening arguments Sherifi tried to hire a hit man to behead government witnesses who testified against him in his terror trial. His brother Shkumbin Sherifi, 22, and former special education teacher Nevine Aly Elshiekh, 47, of Raleigh pleaded guilty to lesser charges last week and testified against Hysen Sherifi.

Hysen Sherifi was in custody in the terror case when he asked another inmate to help him hire a hit man, said prosecutor Matthew Blue of the U.S. Justice Department's counterterrorism section. That inmate contacted the FBI, and federal agents set up a sting operation....

Clearly Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad is still a jihadi. And it is not unlikely that he has a Qur'an and attends Muslim prayers in prison, even though the Qur'an and Islam inspired him to murder a U.S. soldier in Little Rock, Pvt. William Long. Would Nazi prisoners be given a copy of Mein Kampf and be allowed to get together and watch Hitler speeches in prison?

Note also that this article observes all the politically correct, Sharia-compliant self-censorship that is currently in fashion, never giving the remotest hint as to why Muhammad shot the two soldiers.

"Arkansas soldier shooter found with metal in prison," by Jeannie Nuss for the Associated Press, October 19 (thanks to Kenneth):

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - A prisons official says a man who pleaded guilty to shooting two soldiers outside a military recruiting station in Arkansas was caught with a piece of metal in his cell.

Arkansas Department of Correction spokeswoman Shea Wilson told The Associated Press Friday that corrections officers found a piece of metal in Abdulhakim Muhammad's mattress during a routine search in April.

No one was hurt in the incident.

Wilson says 27-year-old Muhammad also failed to obey orders and used threatening language....

"The Muslim lads kicked up a stink last year over the food they received for Ramadan. And guess what? The authorities gave in and gave the green light. It's a f**king liberty. If the non-Muslims asked for this, they'd be told where to go."

Indeed.

"Fellow inmates express anger over Muslims getting microwaves during 'Ramadan fast' in UK jail," from ANI, July 21 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

London, July 22 (ANI): Muslim prisoners being provided with microwaves in the jail to warm up food during their Ramadan fast has sparked off fury among other inmates in a jail in Leicestershire.

Lags at the Gartree lifer's jail are furious over the Muslims getting special treatment.

According to the Daily Express, Muslim inmates had moaned over the quality of last year's grub, which was served cold in flasks at the end of the fasting period, following which they threatened to strike.

"The Muslim lads kicked up a stink last year over the food they received for Ramadan. And guess what? The authorities gave in and gave the green light. It's a f**king liberty. If the non-Muslims asked for this, they'd be told where to go," the paper quoted an inmate, as saying....

Aiding her hook-handed jihad terrorist father-in-law to communicate with his fellow jihadists outside prison. "Abu Hamza's daughter-in-law caught smuggling SIM card into prison beneath burkha," from the Telegraph, May 23 (thanks to David):

The daughter-in-law of radical cleric Abu Hamza tried to smuggle a mobile phone SIM card into his high security prison while pregnant and clad in full muslim dress, it was disclosed today.

When Chaymae Smak visited her father-in-law at Belmarsh Prison in December 2010, she had the SIM card stashed in the coin pocket of her jeans beneath her flowing robes where security guards discovered it, London's Appeal Court heard.

She had previously visited her hook-handed father-in-law behind bars, said Mr Justice Openshaw, and was "well aware" that SIM cards were banned in prison.

Smak, 28, of Gap Road, Wandsworth, was jailed for 12 months at Blackfriars Crown Court on May 4 after she was convicted of conveying a prohibited article into prison.

She appealed her sentence in the Appeal Court today - where the facts of her case emerged for the first time - claiming she should be released for the sake of her 10-month old son, with whom she was pregnant at the time of the prison visit.

The SIM card was destined for Abu Hamza, said Mr Justice Openshaw, who was held as a high risk "Category A" inmate following his conviction for inciting murder and pending extradition on terror charges to the United States.

Smak at first claimed she had put the SIM card in her pocket several days earlier and "forgotten about it", said the judge, who added: "The jury clearly didn't accept that claim".

Mr Justice Openshaw, sitting with the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge, and Mr Justice Irwin, said Smak, a single mother, had given birth to a baby boy in July last year, and that the boy's grandmother is now struggling to raise him.

But, although the courts had to consider the "impact of custody on the child", a deterrent sentence was justified, ruled the judge.

Smak's lawyers claimed too much account was taken of the fact that the SIM card was destined for Abu Hamza.

But Mr Justice Openshaw held: "It seems highly relevant to the seriousness of the offence that the prisoner she was visiting was Abu Hamza, who was detained as a Category A prisoner following his conviction for inciting murder".

He added: "The particular danger of conveying a telephone SIM card to someone such as Abu Hamza is immediately obvious.

"He could use it to convey messages of support to his followers outside, or use it to encourage or incite the commission of further offences.

"The risk that this may come to pass is a seriously aggravating factor in the commission of this particular offence."...

He's a rapist, sure, but he's a modest rapist. More strong-arming of the system to demand accommodation of Islam: "2 Muslim men sue over Pa. inmate strip searches," from The Associated Press, May 2 (thanks to Twostellas):

Two Muslim men have sued the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections saying their beliefs were violated when they were strip searched at a western Pennsylvania prison in the presence of female staff and other inmates.

The Philadelphia-area men, 58-year-old Pearlie Dubose Jr. and 57-year-old Elwood Small say in their federal lawsuit filed in Johnstown that Islamic law "prohibits a man from exposing his genitals to anyone but his spouse."...

Dubose has since been paroled after serving time for rape and other charges. Small is serving a life sentence for murder at the State Correctional Institution-Graterford.

Prisons in both the U.S. and the U.K. are hotbeds of jihadist recruitment, but this is taking it to a new level. Why are these convicted jihadists given any Internet access at all? Absurd Britannia Alert: "Jihad from jail: Islamic terrorists using network website MuslimPrisoner.com to preach hatred from behind bars," by Chris Greenwood for the Daily Mail, February 20:

Britain's most dangerous Islamic terrorists are exploiting a security loophole to spread their message of hate from behind bars.

Not only have they been able to radicalise fellow inmates, they have also appealed to a new generation of supporters around the world.

Dozens of unrepentant extremists have been exposed as glorying in their fanaticism and encouraging others to consider further atrocities.

Among them are key figures in almost every major terrorist conspiracy of the past decade, including the July 2005 attacks in London. They include hate cleric Abu Hamza, lone-wolf attacker Roshonara Choudhry and failed BA bomber Rajib Karim.

The inmates have been able to voice their hate-filled opinions via a website apparently run by former members of a banned extremist organisation. Some boasted they were studying extremist material.

News of the security breach sparked outrage and one MP called on the prison authorities to tighten up their systems. It comes at a sensitive time for the Government in the aftermath of the decision to release hate preacher Abu Qatada.

Steve McCabe, a Labour MP who sits on the Home Affairs Committee, said some of the material ‘sounds dangerously close to incitement’....

No kidding, really?

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.

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....