Islamist radicals in prison: How many?

The radicalization and recruitment of terrorists in US prisons present a threat of "unknown magnitude," according to national security experts.

That's prompted leading analysts to call on Congress to set up a national commission to study the spread of radical ideologies in America's correctional systems.

Prisons have long been fertile breeding grounds for radical thought. Right-wing extremists, neo-Nazis, and Christian Identity groups have traditionally recruited and set up ideologically based gangs in these facilities. Radical Islamists have been more active in European prisons, but there have been a handful of documented cases of Islamist radicalization in US prisons.

The situation presents an opportunity for launching preventive strategies in the war on terror, experts say. The goal of the commission would be to ensure that the civil rights of inmates, as well as the redemptive aspects of all religions, are protected – while at the same time, systems can be put in place to prevent extremists from spreading distorted theologies that promote violence.

"Our concern is that isolated cases could end up dictating what could ultimately end up being bad policy. And the last thing we want is to victimize people who honestly want to practice their religion," says Gregory Saathoff, executive director of the Critical Incident Analysis Group at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. "Paradoxically, that could create a backlash that could play into the hands of those interested in subverting the system."

The United States has the world's largest prison population, with more than 2 million inmates. It also has the world's highest incarceration rate – 701 of every 100,000 people are in prison or jail. Islam is the fastest-growing religion behind bars, which makes the system a desirable target for terrorist organizations to recruit new members, experts say. But people familiar with the prison system say the vast majority of Muslim inmates are African-Americans and Hispanics who turned to Islam for spiritual development or protection and camaraderie.

Indeed, there's little interaction between the Muslim community on the inside with the one on the outside. For instance, in New York State there are an estimated 200 Muslim prison volunteers, compared with more than 4,000 Christian volunteers. "The stage hasn't been set for the type of collaborations that folks are trying to suggest, and given the fact that most [Muslim inmates] are Americans, terrorism is the last thing they'd want to be involved in," says Mika'il DeVeaux of the Muslim Re-entry Initiative, a nonprofit group in New York dedicated to helping released inmates reintegrate.

Page: 1 | 2