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Trend: Muslims Becoming Radicalized in France's Prisons

Thu, May 9, 2013

Screenshot from The Clarion Project's film, 'The Third Jihad,' which features the problem of radicalization of Muslims in America's prisons.

Screenshot from The Clarion Project's film, 'The Third Jihad,' which features the problem of radicalization of Muslims in America's prisons.

French authorities are finding that the road from petty criminal to radical jihadist is a short, slippery path often taken by young men in France's overcrowded and violent jails.

In a revealing article, Reuters reports that in France, whose prison population is over half Muslim -- up to 70 percent in any given prison -- jihadist recruiters are ready and waiting. Vulnerable, young men sent to jail, often times with minor offenses, can emerge as hardened radicals ready for jihad in a relatively short amount of time.

Prison guards and directors, ex-inmates, chaplains and crime experts interviewed by Reuters all confirmed that as hard as the government is trying to tackle the problem, conditions behind bars are still turning young men into easy prey for jihadist recruiters.

"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 northern suburb of Paris.

International studies show that prison radicalization is a problem in many countries including Britain and the United States. The following clip from The Clarion Project’s film, “The Third Jihad,” feature the problem of radicalization in America’s prisons: 

Yet, of all the countries facing this problem, France stands out since the majority of its prison population is Muslim.

One of the most horrific examples of radicalization in France's prison was Mohamed Merah, 23, who killed four Jews and three soldiers last year in the city of Toulouse. Merah became radicalized while spending time in jail for violent theft.

Another suspected French Islamist was radicalized behind bars before being shot by police in October. In March, an Islamist who spent five months in jail for drug offenses was arrested on accusations of plotting an imminent bomb attack on French soil.

"We're faced with an external enemy in Mali, but also an enemy from within who is the product of radicalization," said Interior Minister Manuel Valls, who acknowledged that Merah's killing spree had revealed a serious lapse in intelligence. "They start as minor delinquents, move into selling drugs, sometimes do prison time and convert to radical Islam and hate towards the West," he told local media.

Villepinte is one of the jails in France where Islamic radicalization takes place. It is the most crowded jail in the Paris region and is known as the "jungle" by guards. A prison watchdog group in France described its inmates as "young, undisciplined and totally uncontrollable" after a 2009 visit.

Islamic radicalization is a real curse in most of our prisons," Blaise Gangbazo, a Villepinte guard told Reuters. "But in tough jails like ours it comes about even more easily. It's a good school."

No official data exist but sociologist Farhad Khosrokhavar says about half the 67,674 prison population is Muslim, rising to 70 percent in some urban areas. This disproportionate ratio of young, disadvantaged Muslims is added to a toxic mix of overcrowding, overtaxed guards and a lack of mainstream Muslim chaplains to discourage radicalization.

The process is similar to how Karim Miktari almost succumbed to being a jihadist. At 18, he was sent to jail for six years for shooting a man during an attempted robbery. Arriving alone and vulnerable in jail, he was approached by a comforting older man who invited him to pray and delve into the Koran.

"When you arrive in prison you feel completely abandoned. You get there and you need to find some strength," said Mokhtari. "You're seeking hope and when someone holds out a hand, you take it," he said.

But as the friendship progressed, his new friend encouraged him to "kill the infidels wherever you find them. The idea was to go get myself trained and become a violent jihadist," Mokhtari added.

Moktari was unusual in that he resisted. Today, almost 20 years later, he works with youth, trying to catch them before they end up in prison. He had co-written a book called Redemption that tells of his prison experience.

Security experts agree that one way to stop radical Islam in prisons is through prison chaplains who are able to counter such messages with moderate teachings. However, even though France’s prison population is half or more Muslim, France employs only 160 chaplains for them in comparison to 700 chaplains for Christians.

In fact, Muslim chaplains are in such short supply that it has been estimated more than 80 percent of Muslims in prison may never receive a visit from a chaplain, leaving ample room for recruitment by radicals. Moreover, chaplains that are working in the prisons may preaching radical messages themselves.

Asked how authorities were tackling the problem, Justice Minister Christiane Taubira cited the idea of transferring inmates found to be proselytizing to other jails, thereby aiming to disrupt any recruitment efforts to radicalism.