Recruiting in prisons

The British report that Al Qaeda has been seeking to recruit among the 8,000 inmates of eight of their high-security prisons over the past two years. The recruitment drive is being led by about 150 terrorist prisoners; the most likely recruits, aggrieved, young petty criminals in for 2-3 years.

The UK Ministry of Justice efforts to combat Al Qaeda include, according to this report (thanks to Jihad Watch), restricting communal prayers and the reading of the Koran during work breaks, and trying to protect criminals from violent extremists. I'm no expert on prisons, but would note that the U.S. military has dealt with this problem in Iraq by simply separating the two categories of prisoner.

There's also the question of what inmates read in prison. The U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons has just completed an inventory of books and videos in Muslim chapel libraries in 105 U.S. prisons. The survey found a preponderance of Wahhabi and other fundamentalist materials. See details in this article by Stephen Schwartz.

It's been known for years that prisons are one of the key Islamist recruiting grounds. What's truly amazing is how little is being done to change that.