Sargon of Akkad - Carl Benjamin - Muslim Prison Gangs

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May 25, 2018 - Sargon of Akkad - Carl Benjamin

20:41

Muslim Prison Gangs

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	Tommy Robinson has been arrested.
	There are many people who wish me to comment on this situation.
	Unfortunately, I don't believe I can.
	I don't want to run the risk.
	I have a family to worry about.
	I'm sat here twiddling my thumbs, feeling rather useless.
	And I don't like feeling useless.
	So I thought that one thing I could do is tell you about the state of British prisons when it comes to Muslim gangs.
	This is a paper from 2009 from the Combating Terrorism Centre at West Point, where they discuss the danger of prison radicalisation in the West.
	They start by observing that in Muslim-majority countries a number of prominent jihadists were radicalised at least in part in prison, including Zawahiri and Zakawi, the men responsible for the Islamic State.
	And this is, of course, happening in prisons in the West as well, particularly the United Kingdom, which has seen more homegrown terrorist plots and consequently more terrorist convictions than any other Western country.
	Extremists whose path towards terrorism began in European and US prisons include numerous high-profile terrorists.
	In the United Kingdom, they include Richard Reid, the 2001 shoe bomber, Mukhtar Ibrahim, the 21st of July 2005 London bomb plot.
	Rather than listing them all, of course, all of the sources will be in the description.
	So how are these people being recruited?
	Well, proactively.
	New convicts, Muslim and non-Muslim alike, typically arrive in prison feeling insecure, uncertain and afraid.
	In the United Kingdom, some imprisoned Islamists have adopted a proactive strategy to capitalise on this uncertainty by offering food, friendship, and spiritual support to new arrivals in prison.
	For example, one former prisoner in London's Belmarsh prison, the United Kingdom's main prison for convicted and suspected terrorists, has written that on the day he arrived, he was approached by some terrorist detainees.
	Some brothers approached me and said that they'd been expecting me.
	At first I was a bit apprehensive as to whether I should trust them or not, but afterwards I felt comfortable.
	One of the brothers, Ma Shallah, he packed some fruit and chocolate in a bag and handed it to me before I went back to my cell.
	In the same prison, Omar Kayyam, convicted of planning terrorist attacks in the UK, described how Rachid Ramdar, a French Muslim who's in prison while fighting extradition to France, proactively approached and befriended other inmates.
	The first thing that struck me about Rachid is the way he greeted me and the new Muslim arrivals.
	Three hugs and a huge smile.
	He made me feel as if I'd known him for years.
	Such a warm personality and character, making everyone feel wanted and important, as if you were his best friend.
	This is the most likely way that prison radicalisation begins, through personal friendships rather than ranting wild-eyed extremist brainwashing to an unwilling audience.
	As stated by one Muslim inmate in California's Folsom prison, the potential for radicalisation must be understood on a one-to-one basis.
	In many cases, prisons are highly reluctant to separate extremists from ordinary prisoners, even though all the evidence from the Middle East suggests that this is an essential first step towards containing radicalization.
	And if there's anyone that we should be listening to on this subject, it is probably people from the Middle East.
	Where Islamists fail to become the leaders of other Muslim prisoners, either through defending their rights or through setting a moral example, there is another option.
	Violence.
	Perhaps the most notable use of violence by extremist prisoners happened in Jordan where in the 1990s McDC worked with Zakawi to run a campaign of intimidation and violence within the Suwaya prison.
	Their control of inmates and guards at the prison progressively enabled them to recruit petty criminals and transform them into jihadists.
	Similar violence also occurs in prisons in the West, though at a lower level, and most often directed at white non-Muslim gangs and individuals.
	In the United Kingdom, a number of convicted terrorists held in the Franklin Prison during 2007-2008 led other Muslim convicts in a tit-for-tat battle against white gangs and individuals, leading to a number of serious attacks involving boiling oil being thrown over rival prisoners, stabbing, and a riot during which Muslim inmates sought to damage and destroy prison facilities.
	In other instances, more generic Muslim gangs, based on a loose sense of ethno-religious solidarity rather than specifically Islamist ones led by convicted terrorists, have been involved in serious violence, often in response to perceived mistreatment by prison staff.
	Prison radicalization does not mean that terrorist plots are being routinely hatched in prison, although this has occasionally happened.
	More often, however, it leads to inmates adopting Islamist ideologies that may ultimately lead to terrorism after their release.
	And another major concern here is that these create networks of radicalized Muslims, who then, when on the outside, keep in contact.
	And this report was written by James Brandon, a senior research fellow at the Quilliam Foundation.
	I read all of this out to you because I want to show you, using events that have happened, how this report is correct and how this is a problem that is growing out of control.
	Take the example of Belmarsh Prison, as reported in the Evening Standard, the Jihadi training camp right in the heart of London.
	This is a report by a man named Jamal, a 27-year-old who is a Muslim university graduate and served part of his sentence for bank fraud in Belmarsh Maximum Security Prison.
	He was released and turned whistleblower in 2016.
	He begins with: Soon after I arrived in Belmarsh in 2014, news came through that Mosul in Iraq had fallen to the Islamic State and the prison erupted.
	There were chants of Allahu Akbar, wild banging on the doors, and joyous shouting of, We are going to take over throughout the wing.
	It was like a big party that went on unchecked for several hours.
	I was devastated because I watched how prison officers seemingly took no action, leaving new inmates like myself with the impression that the real people in charge were not the warders, but a terrifying group of radical Islamists known as the Brothers or the Aki, which is Arabic for brother.
	This sounds remarkably similar to how Al-Zakawi, the man who founded ISIS, ended up taking over his Jordanian prison.
	We had around 200 people on our wing, about half of them Muslim, and there was a hardcore of 20 brothers in for terrorism or terror-related offences, who were very popular and had enormous influence.
	They were treated like celebrities by the other group of inmates, and included the guy who in 2007 tried to blow up Glasgow airport.
	They were intelligent, well-read, soft-spoken, and they welcomed me with open arms because as a fellow Muslim, they thought they could turn me into one of them.
	Their next step was to drum home their message about Islam and to tell us that we were inside because of an evil system.
	They would say the Kafar had been killing our women and children, and that our calling was to become a soldier of peace.
	They talked about going to fight in Syria and Iraq, joining the war for a Muslim caliphate.
	In my second week, on the way to Friday prayers, I said something about showing tolerance to other religions, and one of the Aki, who was in for terrorism, turned to me and said emphatically, No, there is zero tolerance.
	They are all kafar and we have to destroy them.
	After that, he let it be known that I was Kafar and that nobody should greet me or associate with me.
	I felt vulnerable because of what I saw happen to people branded Kafar.
	In the cell beside mine, there were two black Muslims and a Christian, and one day there was a lot of petty arguing over a kettle.
	The next day Muslims made up a story about the Christian disrespecting Islam and the next thing 25 prisoners stormed his cell and beat him up.
	He got moved after that.
	In my cell there were also two black guys who had converted to Islam and when I was made kaffar they let it be known that if anyone stormed our cell they would not protect me.
	I was scared so I asked to see the Imam but that was another mistake.
	There are about six Imams in Belmarsh and apart from one who was supportive, the other Imams either ignored me or appeared to be sympathetic to the extremists.
	It was shocking.
	After that I kept my head down and left my cell only if I had to.
	All around I witnessed people being radicalized.
	Instantly you could see the change.
	They would start to wear their trousers rolled below the knee, something Prophet Muhammad did.
	They would grow facial hair, they would call each other Aki, and they would become hyper-aggressive towards anyone not into radical Islam.
	Three quarters of those being radicalized had been involved in gangs and were in for violent crime or drugs.
	They understood that the biggest gang inside Belmarsh were the brothers and that they needed them for their protection.
	But it also gave them a sense of identity.
	People would boast that as soon as they got out, they were going out to Syria.
	They were young and impressionable.
	There were so many would-be jihadists in there that I felt like an intruder at a jihadi training camp.
	There were also plenty of moderate Muslim inmates like myself who suffered because we couldn't speak out.
	I couldn't believe how the flaws in the system effectively support the extremists.
	After five months, I got moved to High Point, the Category C men's prison in Suffolk.
	I was there for the Charlie Hebder attack in January 2015, and again there were prisoners openly praising the attackers and embracing one another, although not as many as in Belmarsh.
	I complained to a chief prison officer who said, We know what's going on, but we don't have the funding or staff to do anything about it.
	Again, the Imams were useless.
	When I told one Imam that we were being asked to take on jihad and sought guidance as to what our duties were, he said, it's not clear-cut.
	Do whatever you think is right.
	People took their passivity as a license to follow jihadism.
	So Jamal had decided to speak out, and I think it's worth pointing out that his name is not really Jamal, because he say he's doing this at some danger to himself, because he wants to expose the reality of what's going on.
	The government has sunk cash into their Prevent programme to tackle radicalisation in the community, but ignored the fact that the biggest jihadi training camp in the UK is right here in Belmarsh in the heart of London.
	It's beyond belief.
	We need the counter-terrorism budget to extend prisons, otherwise it's useless.
	And as I said, there are many examples that reinforce these narratives.
	For example, this one from Australia, Jailhouse Jihad, violent inmates forcing prison conversions to Islam.
	The forcible conversions created such tension in one New South Wales jail that inmates began fighting each other in the prison yard.
	The New South Wales Corrective Services documents obtained by ABC also reveal that inmates seen as extreme high-risk security threats are also being released into the community.
	It was revealed earlier this year that Islam became an obsession for the violent inmates who practice the religion inside Supermax.
	Australia's most secure prison, Supermax is so heavily populated with extremists, it is often referred to as Supermosque.
	In Britain, some of our most notorious serial killers are converting to Islam as a bid to protect themselves by joining the Muslim gangs, because they are targeted by other inmates.
	The same thing was reported on only in March this year with the serial killer Levi Belfield, who apparently joined the biggest Muslim jail gang to impress terrorists.
	And we have examples of Muslim gangs trying to groom specific prisoners who they consider to be high status prisoners, such as cop killer Dale Cregan.
	According to one criminologist and ethnographer, England's prisons are war zones.
	The violence that now pervades our prisons has not only been in the form of prisoner-on-prisoner assaults, there has also been a large rise in the number of assaults on staff and incidents of prisoner self-harm.
	The empirical data on these facts is supported by testimonies of prisoners.
	I've spoken to those who have described how makeshift weapons have become a fact of daily prison life, of how gang turf wars have become a regular feature of the penal landscape, and how drug dealing and usage are commonplace.
	Reduced staffing levels have been attributed to various factors, including failed drives to recruit new officers.
	However, underpinning this staffing shortage, which now reached crisis level according to many accounts, is reduced investment in prisons.
	As early as 2014, prison governors were ordered to cut annual costs by £149 million.
	And the powerful union, the Prison Officers Association, has said that these cost-cutting measures are the primary reason why vulnerable prisoners are now at greater risk.
	In March 2016, an ex-prison officer rang in LBC to speak to James O'Brien, who naturally thick-headedly decided to simply pretend that this man did not know what he was talking about.
	Progressively over the years, it got worse and worse, and there was a massive gang culture happening, and predominantly it became Muslim prisons, if you like, that were causing major problems.
	In what way?
	Talk me through it.
	Describe it.
	Okay, we used to have a special name for Friday.
	It was, I don't use a swear word, but it was something F Friday.
	Because no matter what happened in the prison service or the prison I worked at, Muslim prayers would go ahead.
	If there was a shortage of staff, they would close down everything else to ensure that went ahead because they knew what would happen if it didn't do it.
	It would kick off if it didn't.
	Big time.
	And if you're going to Muslim service, which some officers didn't want to do, you'd have 140 prisoners going to service and six or seven staff.
	Which is, I mean, it's practically kettling.
	I mean, it's a recipe for disaster.
	Basically, yeah, you're going into a chapel which is not built to hold that many people and the people would be sitting almost next to the toilets doing their prayers, which obviously is not good either.
	Then they decided.
	What is the difference between these gangs?
	And obviously some of the differences are obvious, but in terms of people getting in touch with me to say they were inside in the 70s and the idea of a prison not being run by a gang or indeed not being essentially dominated by rival gangs is absurd.
	It's always been like that.
	This feels to me to be different.
	In what way is it different?
	They don't seem to ever care about anything.
	They're quite young.
	They seem to be young and younger now when I was leaving.
	So prisoners that were coming in, they had no cares in the world.
	They didn't care.
	They wouldn't care about going and throwing hot water sugar in someone's face.
	They disrespected them on the street.
	But that's not confined to people from an Islamist background or a Muslim background.
	But the prison's becoming more and more, say there's probably 70% of the prisoners would be of Muslim or Islam origin or wouldn't be with them come in and be persuaded by gangs to become that way, as you say, for being protected.
	What's the answer then?
	I don't know.
	And what about the question of radicalization?
	They tried to disperse the prisons all over the country.
	They were sending them and then they knew they were being moved up north or wherever to try and disperse them.
	They didn't like it.
	And then they'd kick off again.
	They'd be kept there until they settle.
	And then they'd be trying to disperse them again, but it never seemed to work.
	I just, I don't doubt a single syllable of what you've told me.
	I just want to pin things down a little more with your help.
	In terms of, you know, you told me what you were fearful of happening, what might happen if you did X. Tell me about stuff that did happen.
	Staff being taken hostage.
	Now I've left.
	I've still got friends who work there who are being assaulted daily.
	And it's got a lot worse.
	And again, you yeah, staff shortages just are massive.
	Well, just to go quickly, when I first started, there was say 12, 13 staff per house block for the same amount of prisoners, 180 prisoners.
	When I left, I was down to seven staff, so you're cutting it by 50%.
	You can't run it shortly.
	You see what I'm trying to do, though?
	What my problem is, is I'm trying to identify a problem that is specifically Islamist.
	So staff shortages is going to increase the likelihood of disobedience.
	James you moron, it's the identity of Muslim.
	It's got so bad that non-Muslim prisoners are setting up non-Muslim gangs to protect themselves from Muslim inmates.
	With the example gang being reported on by the Daily Mail being called death before dishonour, and there are fears that the gang could lead to existing tensions between Muslims and non-Muslims escalating beyond all control.
	You can find papers like this online.
	Muslim Prisoners, Radicalization and Rehabilitation in British Prisons.
	The paper examines the risk of radicalization in UK prisons and concludes that prison staff must work on building trust with Muslim prisoners and de-radicalization programs must focus on using religion as a means of tackling the problem of radicalization among prisoners.
	That might be helpful if the Imams doing the jobs were actually anti-radical.
	But as we have seen from previous reports, many of them are not.
	And what's even worse, according to some American prison officials, the Muslim group prayers led to gangs, because the group prayers formed a kind of bonding ritual that brought them all together.
	A US prison warden says his compliance with a court order mandating high-risk Muslim inmates to hold daily group prayers led to the formation of Muslim gangs and bullying of other inmates.
	Oliver testified that allowing Muslim prisoners to pray in a group led the prisoners to setting up an inmate-led Muslim gang.
	The gang shunned other prisoners, forbidding them from joining the group prayer as well as controlling access to food, and laying stake to the meditation room, being used by leaving their prayer rugs and other religious items to the point of intimidating other faith groups from using the room.
	Oliver testified that a group of Catholic prisoners gave up trying to use the room.
	They said it was the Muslim room.
	And back in 2013 in Britain, the Muslim prison population was skyrocketing.
	It could probably go on, but I think you get the point.
	And I think it's worth addressing the question of Kevin Crehan, the Bacon Mosque attacker who died in Bristol prison.
	Apparently he died a drug overdose, not because of Muslim vengeance.
	Although I personally have to object to the phrase bacon mosque attacker, because they are literally characterizing him putting bacon on the doorhandle of a mosque as an attack.
	It's fucking pathetic.
	But then him putting the bacon on the door of the mosque was what landed him in jail in the first place.
	I don't have any particular information on this case beyond the reporting from the Bristol Post, but I have to say, given that this investigation has gone on for over a year and a half now, and for most of that time we had absolutely no information, and it's still not finished, I find it rather suspect that a post-mortem examination found that he had died of a suspected overdose of methadone.
	Why would it be so difficult to establish this?
	And so let's come back to the question of Tommy Robinson.
	Tommy has been in jail before for fraud.
	I don't know the details of the case, but I do know that the court was told his life was in danger and he would have to spend his prison time in solitary confinement.
	And he did.
	I have met Tommy on several occasions and after speaking to him he did confirm to me that he did spend it in solitary confinement for his own safety.
	Needless to say, Tommy being sent back to jail for 13 months puts him in a precarious position.
	I am very doubtful that we can petition the UK government to keep him out of jail on any account.
	And so I think that the most sensible plan of action to ensure Tommy's personal safety is to petition them to put him in solitary confinement again.
	The courts do know what the danger to Tommy is inside of their prisons, and the UK government would be morally culpable if they did not put him in solitary confinement and something happened to him.
	Again, I am sorry that I feel that I can't talk about this subject more than I have.
	I honestly don't know what position I'm in because Britain is not a free country.
	We jail people for putting bacon on mosque handles and for recording outside of the courts.
	And I say this because you don't know what's going to get you landed in jail.
	I bet that Crehan didn't expect that he was going to go to jail for putting bacon on a mosque.
	I bet Tommy didn't think that he was going to go to jail for recording outside of a courthouse.
	And so I've got to be very careful in what I say because I don't know what will send me to jail.
	But I tell you what, best of luck to Tommy Robinson because this is a pretty shit situation.

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