Pastor faces ban over ‘jihadi jail’ row
A CHRISTIAN prison chaplain who revealed how his Bible meetings were hijacked by Islamic extremists has been warned he may be barred from working at the jail. Pastor Paul Song last week detailed his fears to The Mail on Sunday over the influence of Muslim extremist gangs at Brixton prison. He has been suspended while an investigation is held but claims the governor of Brixton told him the outcome could mean permanent exclusion. Mr Song has worked there for 19 years.
He was only recently reinstated to the South London jail after a yearlong investigation cleared him of calling a prisoner a ‘terrorist’ and acting aggressively towards the imam head chaplain.
Brixton governor David Bamford said the new investigation would examine the pastor’s claims that Muslim prisoners behaved ‘inappropriately’, including disrupting chapel meetings by praising the killers of Fusilier Lee Rigby.
It will also decide if Mr Song compromised the privacy or safety of staff or prisoners by speaking to this newspaper without permission.
Mr Song said: ‘I can’t believe this is happening after David Bamford himself invited me for a meeting to tell me that my name had been cleared, that I would now be reinstated.’ Andrea Williams, of the Christian Legal Centre, which has been supporting Mr Song, said: ‘It was very brave of Pastor Song to tell the public the appalling truth about what was happening in Brixton.
‘Astonishingly, we now find that instead of sorting out the Islamists’ domination of the prison, the authorities have chosen to shoot the messenger.’
The Ministry of Justice confirmed a member of the jail staff had been suspended, adding: ‘There is absolutely no evidence to support claims of extremist behaviour.’