One in five Muslim prisoners is white as ‘gangs drive conversions’
ONE in five Muslim prisoners is white, official figures show, amid fears that Islamic gangs are driving conversions.
Ministry of Justice (MOJ) data have revealed there were 15,594 Muslim prisoners in jails in England and Wales in September 2023, accounting for 18 per cent of all inmates despite comprising only 6.5 per cent of the population.
Of these, 3,096 or 19.9 per cent were white – nearly three times the rate in the general Muslim population, where 7.8 per cent are recorded as white.
Only 5,489 (35 per cent) were of “Asian or Asian British” ethnicity while one in four (4,212) were black or black British. The rest were of mixed, other or unrecorded ethnicity.
The figures – combining for the first time ethnicity and religious belief – follow a series of reports highlighting concerns that gangs in some jails are ordering prisoners to become Muslims or face violence. Ian Acheson, who conducted a review of Islamist extremism in prisons for the MOJ, said: “There’s strong evidence that people ‘convert’ as a pragmatic response to who controls power and space in our prisons.
“This seems to be the case in high-security prisons, in particular, where safety is at a premium and there are also large numbers of violent young men entering custody searching for meaning and belonging. So Islam in this case has gang characteristics.”
However, he said it was important not to rule out authentic conversions as a way of becoming a better person. “Conversion to Islam, which the figures indicate is happening at a higher rate than other religions in prison is a relatively simple process and good Imams should be able to spot those doing so out of convenience,” he said.
“But the fact remains that front-line prison staff lack the religious competence, leadership backup and authority to spot and challenge malign control and intimidation by such gangs, often because of fears of being accused of racism.” A previous report by Jonathan Hall, KC, the independent reviewer of terror legislation, revealed how Muslim terrorists had been able to seize control of prison wings and set up sharia courts behind bars as prison staff were so concerned about being accused of racism.
He highlighted how two jailed terrorists – Usman Khan, who killed two students in an attack on London Bridge, and Sudesh Amman, the Streatham knife attacker shot dead by police – both threatened other inmates to try to convert them to Islam or radicalise them.
A third review by Colin Bloom, a government adviser, found: “Failure to identify as a Muslim meant that at best the new prisoner would be denied ‘protection’ from the dominant Muslim gang on that wing, or at worst the new prisoner would be subjected to violence and intimidation from that same gang.”
The MOJ analysis, uncovered by the Inside Time newspaper, does not record how many were born into the Islamic faith, and how many converted into it, either in prison or before arriving.