RadicalizationIslamic radicalization takes place in prison, but the numbers are small: Experts
In the wake of the terrorist attacks in Paris nearly three weeks ago, terrorism experts say that in addition to monitoring mosques known for extremist views, there is a need to investigate the role of prisons in the recruitment and radicalization process.”Prisons have been called universities of crime for a long time,” says one expert, so the “idea is simply being applied to terrorism so prisons might become universities of radicalization, and in some cases that has proven to be true.” The same expert notes, however, that while the connection between prison and Islamic radicalization is undeniable, “millions of prisoners have gone through Western penal systems and only about fifty went on to commit terror crimes.” He adds: “We shouldn’t think that prisons are manufacturing terrorists like automobile parts — if so, they’re doing a lousy job.”
Prisoner radicalization not as common as expected // Source: commons.wikimedia.org
Counterterrorism officials in France have been cracking down on jihadist networks since the Charlie Hebdo and kosher supermarket massacres occurred nearly three weeks ago. In addition to monitoring some mosques known for extremist views, analysts are urging officials to investigate the role of prisons in the recruitment and radicalization process.
“Prisons have been called universities of crime for a long time,” said Mark Hamm, professor of criminology at Indiana State University and author of The Spectacular Few: Prisoner Radicalization and the Evolving Terrorist Threat. “That idea is simply being applied to terrorism so prisons might become universities of radicalization, and in some cases that has proven to be true.”
According to NBC News, would-be American Airlines “shoe bomber” Richard Reid converted to Islam while in Britain’s Felthham young offenders’ institution. Muktar Ibrahim, who attempted a second London transit attack in 2005, became radicalized in the same facility. Spanish drug dealer Jose Emilio Suarez Trashorras and Moroccan petty criminal Jamal Ahmidan were among those recruited by an al Qaeda-linked cell while serving sentences in Spain’s Topas prison, later becoming co-conspirators in the 2004 Madrid train bombing.
Two of the perpetrators of the Paris attacks, Cherif Kouachi and Amedy Coulibaly, were influenced by Djamel Beghal, a 49-year old Algerian, while inside the Fleury-Merogis prison near Paris. Coulibaly had been convicted for his role in a bank raid, and Kouachi, jailed for “very low profile” terror offenses. Experts note that this pattern is typical of the radicalization process.
“Usually a tightly-knit, clandestine network of inmates with a charismatic leader begins to proselytize … getting young, more impressionable, more vulnerable inmates into more extremist ideology,” Hamm said. “But that network needs to be in place. In the case of the Madrid train bombing you can trace the influence back to one prison and one cell block and the social network between inmates.”
Beghal, who was convicted of bomb plots including a planned attack on the American embassy in Paris, once regularly attended the mosque led by Abu Hamza, who was sentenced to life in prison in the United States earlier this month. Beghal was a high-profile prisoner and was placed in isolation, said Khalil Merroun, the prison’s former imam. Yet, he was still able to influence Coulibaly and Kouachi, inside and outside of prison.
“As I understand it, Coulibaly was in a cell above Beghal and able to communicate through so-called ‘yo-yos’ dropped from the window or through a folded messages in the prison yard,” said Hamm. “The ratio of guards to inmates makes it impossible to provide anything resembling total surveillance, even in the U.S. where that ratio is higher.” Beghal has denied through his attorney any involvement in the Paris attacks.
The connection between Islamic radicalization and Western prison institutions should ring alarm bells in the United States, which has the world’s largest prison population and the second largest per capita. “We are the world’s jailors,” Hamm said.
The FBI launched a joint Correctional Intelligence Initiative in 2003 to improve intelligence collection and deter radicalization at Federal Bureau of Prisonsfacilities. Yet the mix of federal, state, and county jails have made it difficult to operate a nationwide initiative.
In the United Kingdom, the Healthy Identities Intervention project and imam-based Al Furqan program, challenge the views of radical Islam through religious teachings. In California’s Folsom state prison, prisoner-led initiatives exist to counter violent extremist beliefs in Islam. It is unclear whether Coulibaly and Kouachi were offered an option to partake in a similar program in the French prison system.
“One problem might have been the secular approach to social and political life in France which might be at odds with funding Christian pastors or Muslim imams,” said Professor Andrew Silke, director of terrorism studies at the University of East London. “If you buy into a deradicalization program you have to buy into the idea that it’s right for the state to be involved with religious views.”
Despite the connection between prison and radicalization, Hamm notes that “millions of prisoners have gone through Western penal systems and only about fifty went on to commit terror crimes.”
“We shouldn’t think that prisons are manufacturing terrorists like automobile parts — if so, they’re doing a lousy job.”
