Posted on 06/05/2006 2:47:29 PM PDT by xzins
Many branches of government need to understand Islam, but probably none deal with Muslims and their religious practices in so practical and detailed a way as do the wardens of prisons. It is therefore particularly dismaying to see that the highest prison authority in the United States, the Bureau of Prisons (which oversees all federal correctional facilities), has bought the Islamist line.
My evidence for this comes from the Annual Refresher Training (ART) that all BOP staff must participate in. The 2005 course includes a lesson plan, "Islam in the Correctional Environment," designed by the Training and Staff Development Branch at BOP's Central Office in Washington, DC. This 18-page document has a general Islamist caste; and it contains two points of special interest.
Comment: Not only has some of the highest ranking staff in the BOP Central Office acquiesced to CAIR, but it proffers a la-la-land description of jihad that is unhistorical, inaccurate, and (given the prison environment) downright dangerous. (February 10, 2005)
Aug. 25, 2005 update: Perhaps the BOP should take a look at the materials circulating in American prisons to find out what jihad means to its inmates. In "Radical Indoctrination in the U.S. Prisons," Daveed Gartenstein-Ross documents some of the literature that has been circulating in the jails that deal specifically with jihad.
The Noble Qur'an, translated by Muhammad Taqi-ud-Din Al-Hilali and Muhammad Muhsin Khan, and distributed to 8-10,000 prisoners, Gartenstein-Ross writes, "uniquely advances a radical interpretation of the Muslim holy book through the use of footnotes and bracketed material that does not appear in the Arabic text." One footnote stresses the importance of jihad:
Al-Jihad (holy fighting) in Allah's Cause (with full force of numbers and weaponry) is given the utmost importance in Islam and is one of its pillars (on which it stands). By Jihad Islam is established, Allah's Word is made superior, . . . and His Religion (Islam) is propagated. By abandoning Jihad (may Allah protect us from that) Islam is destroyed and the Muslims fall into an inferior position; their honour is lost, their lands are stolen, their rule and authority vanish. Jihad is an obligatory duty in Islam on every Muslim, and he who tries to escape from this duty, or does not in his innermost heart wish to fulfil this duty, dies with one of the qualities of a hypocrite.
As Gartenstein-Ross notes, this rules out non-military interpretations of jihad.
In addition, jail editions of The Noble Qur'an often contain an appendix written by Saudi Arabia's former chief justice, Sheikh Abdullah bin Muhammad bin Humaid. Titled "The Call to Jihad (Holy Fighting in Allah's Cause) in the Qur'an," Gartenstein-Ross characterizes it as "an exhortation to violence."
Allah revealed . . . the order to discard (all) the obligations (covenants, etc.) and commanded the Muslims to fight against all the Mushrikun as well as against the people of the Scriptures (Jews and Christians) if they do not embrace Islam, till they pay the Jizyah (a tax levied on the non-Muslims who do not embrace Islam and are under the protection of an Islamic government) with willing submission and feel themselves subdued.
Bin Humaid appeals to Muslims to volunteer for jihad:
Jihad is a great deed indeed and there is no deed whose reward or blessing is as that of it, and for this reason, it is the best thing that one can volunteer for. . . . [I]t (Jihad) shows one's patience, one's devotion to Islam, one's remembrance to Allah and there are other kinds of good deeds which are present in Jihad and are not present in any other act of worship.
Comment: We are only at the start of finding out the extent of Islamic extremism found in prisons throughout the West. When will the Bureau of Prisons and other agencies open their eyes to this problem?
It is voluntary, but still government funded.
You could make the same case for government funded abortions. Hey abortions are voluntary.
I don't think anyone wants to make that arugment at all, though.
Like I said, I love the program and its methods. I certainly love the results. I just have problems with the state funding issues b/c I do not think relgion and the state should have anything to do with each other. (I think associating with government can corrupt and twist religion)
Jeepers ... thanks for the ping!
Libertarians like you are just liberals with good economic minds.
Jonathan
Thank you so much for those insights, dear brother in Christ!
I certainly hope they do not have to return money which was legally used when they received it! Thank you so much for your insights!
I wholeheartedly agree with this decision. These programs are nothing more than state sanctioned proselytising of Catholics in prison in favor of Evangelical Protestantism. To that I say, AMEN!!!!! and three Hail Mary's.
2. Not mentioned in the article is the fact that "faith-based" programs are not illegal.
Below is a link to the Department of Justice final rule for including faith-based programs in DOJ (to include Bureau of Prisons) expenditure of federal funds.
About as voluntary as joining the Hitler Youth, read below:
ACLU sues over faith-based rehab: Catholic man forced into Pentecostal program
By Norman Sinclair / The Detroit News
DETROIT - In a lawsuit filed on his behalf by the civil rights group, a 23-year-old Catholic man from Genesee County is asking a federal judge to set aside a drug conviction, saying he was punished for not completing a Pentecostal rehabilitation program.
Joseph Hanas was 19 when he pleaded guilty to a marijuana possession charge in February 2001 in Genesee Circuit Court and was placed in a diversion program for young, non-violent offenders.
Upon the recommendation of a probation officer, Judge Robert Ransom sentenced Hanas to the state-sponsored rehabilitation program - the Inner City Christian Outreach Residential Program, run by a Pentecostal church.
Hanas said the program did not offer drug treatment or counseling, nor did it have any organized program other than reading the Bible and attending Pentecostal services.
He said his rosary and prayer book was taken from him and his religion was denounced as witchcraft. Hanas said he was told his only chance of avoiding prison and a felony record was to convert to the Pentecostal faith.
After seven weeks, his mother and lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union in Flint succeeded in getting Hanas back to court.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Detroit, claims Ransom acknowledged the failings of the center but ruled that Hanas did not satisfactorily complete the program and sentenced him to three months in jail, three months in a boot camp, and placed him on a tether for three months. Ransom also placed Hanas on four years probation, which he continues to serve.
This man was punished for insisting on the right to practice Catholicism and refusing conversion to the Pentecostal faith, said Kary Moss, director of the Michigan ACLU.
The pastor who operates the center, Rev. Richard Rottiers could not be reached for comment.
Ransom has retired. Before leaving the bench he said he would not send any more prisoners to the Inner City center, citing a lack of accountability.
Let's see if I got this right.
Hanas was convicted of a drug charge and could have been sent to jail. Instead the judge puts him in some kind of faith-based rehab program rather than send him to jail.
The man refuses to attend based on doctrinal disagreements. He wants to do it his way.
Therefore, he gets to do his jail sentence.
It was a gift. Let him do his jail time.
I'm not going to take a convict's characterization of a program over that of the Judge. I suspect it was a duly created and legal alternative program for offenders and that it had had decent results.
Read the faith-based link I posted.
bookmark
It was not legally created, no matter what the judge may think. We have a guarantee in this country, that the government will not be in the proselytising business, no matter how many drugs you do. Accept it. This is a correct decision.
That depends on the accuracy of the faith-based program legal support. If Ashcroft was right, then this will be won on appeal.
Find Freedom in Christ, even while in prison, with the Earley Release Program ;^D.
I think I'd rather he be governor, but I am quite glad his talents are being well used. :^D
It's not. The program was run by a church.
You moderates make me puke. Don't have the balls to stand for anything.
Are you aware that the very first act of the United States Congress, the same Congress which proposed for ratification the first amendment was to allocate moneys to the Christian Brotherhood "for the propagation of the gospel among the Heathen"?
The US Government should rule Islam to be a cult and not grant it religious status. That would solve a LOT of the problems we have.
You statists make me sick. You believe the government has to do everything.
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