Report: Muslim Intimidation Pervasive in British Prisons

^{Originally published under the title “Islam in British Prisons.”}

British Muslims are three times more likely than the population at large to be in prison, though many have converted to Islam behind bars.

Muslim Abuse of Non-Muslim Prisoners

Recent media reports of government investigations indicate that throughout the United Kingdom’s category A prisons – those holding the most serious offenders – of Belmarsh, Long Lartin, Woodhill and Whitemoor, gangs of Islamist extremists intimidate non-Muslim prisoners. Muslim inmates pressure non-Muslims to convert and extort money from prisoners who do not. It is unclear how long the problem has been going on. Media previously reported about pressure to convert three and a half years ago.

According to the UK’s Independent Monitoring Board, Muslims are overrepresented in Whitemoor prison, a maximum security facility holding about 450 inmates. Muslims make up about half of the total population of that facility. The board also noted, Muslim gangs make up the “biggest power bloc,” and “some prisoners and staff found the Muslim presence overwhelming.”

Demographics

As of December 2014, 12,225 of the UK’s 84,691 prisoners were Muslim. That is to say, Muslims made up 14.4% of the UK’s prison population.

According to the UK’s most recent census – in 2011 – roughly 2,706,066 or 4.8% out of a population of 56,075,912 identified as Muslim (although, given that the UK’s total population is elsewhere identified as 63.2 million, the actual Muslim percentage may be closer to 4.28%).

Based on the 4.8% figure, Muslims appear to be overrepresented in the British prison population by 3.01 times their percentage of the population.

According to the UK’s Independent Monitoring Board, Muslim gangs make up the “biggest power bloc” at Whitemoor prison and “some prisoners and staff found the Muslim presence overwhelming.”

Back in 2002, 5,502 of the UK’s 70,778 prisoners, or 7.8%, were Muslim. According to the 2001 census, Muslims constituted 3.0% of the total UK population. In other words, Muslims were overrepresented in the UK prison population by 2.59 times their percentage of the population. So the current numbers may represent an increase in degree of overrepresentation (only “may,” because population data for 2014 is unavailable, given that the last census was three years earlier), but not a huge one.

More noteworthy is the fact that, compared to Muslim incarceration rates in France and the United States, the UK rate is actually low. Muslims are overrepresented in the French prison population by 7.5 times their percentage of the population; they make up 60% of the French prison population but only 8% of the general population. In the United States, although their overall percentage is smaller, Muslims are overrepresented in the prison population by 11.25 times their percentage of the population; they make up 9% of the US prison population but only .8% of the general population).

Questions Remaining

Will the UK government act to protect non-Muslim prisoners from intimidation by Muslim prisoners? Will it sanction the Muslim gangs and their accomplices? Or will it simply accept second-class status for non-Muslims, as the UK’s justice system seems in danger of doing?

Will it explore the factors leading to overrepresentation of Muslims in the prison population? One must wonder whether the overrepresentation is at least partly the result of intimidation against other prisoners to convert.

Given that Muslims are able to exert so much pressure in prisons for serious offenders, and make up about half of the prison population at one of them (Whitemoor), are Muslims particularly overrepresented in more serious offenses? If so, why?

Finally, given these reports, and the even greater overrepresentation of Muslims in French and US prisons, will authorities in France and the US investigate whether Islamist extremists in their prisons are likewise pressuring and or extorting non-Muslim prisoners, and whether Muslims are especially overrepresented among more serious criminals?