Posted on 04/08/2008 7:06:51 AM PDT by Alouette
Muslim sex offenders may be allowed to opt out of a treatment programme because it is against their religion, it was revealed today.
The Prison Service's Muslim advisor, Ahtsham Ali, has said there is a "legitimate Islamic position" that criminals should not discuss their crimes with others.
It could mean that Muslims convicted of sex attacks will attempt to avoid the Sex Offender Treatment Programme, which involves group discussions of their crimes.
Although Mr Ali has not yet proposed changes to the rules, he told prisoners' newspaper Inside Time: "I will be taking it forward as a matter of some urgency with colleagues, including those with policy responsibility for the Sex Offender Treatment programme, who I know are very willing to consider and discuss these issues."
The possibility of an exemption for Muslims came to light after an unnamed prisoner wrote to the newspaper asking to clarify the position of Muslims on the programme.
"I have always insisted that it was against Islamic teachings to discuss your offence to anyone, let alone act it out within a peer group," the prisoner wrote.
Mr Ali responded that the issue had been raised twice before but there had not yet been a review of the rules relating to the treatment programme.
A Prison Service spokeswoman said: "We are currently seeking to ensure that the policy for the Sex Offender Treatment Programme is sensitive to the diversity of religions within the prison context.
"The programme is suitable for any prisoner with a current or previous conviction for a sexual offence, or another offence which has an identifiable sexual element.
"Membership of a particular religion is not a bar to participation in accredited programmes."
Editor of the Prisons Handbook, Mark Leech, said: "Muslims who don't want to take part in the course may have to spend more time in prison, because their risk of reoffending will not be assessed as part of the treatment programme.
"This would be quite right, because we have to think about the victim.
"I think it is feasible there may be a judicial review so that Muslim sex offenders get a dispensation from the rules.
"There are precedents for allowing dispensations on cultural grounds - for example, wearing a crash helmet is the law but if you are a Sikh man you can have a dispensation from that rule."
The Prison Service spokeswoman added: "As well as being suitable for the programme based on an analysis of their risk and need, offenders must be ready and willing to fully engage in the programme because the programme requires analysis of the offence.
"To assess an offender's readiness, and to ensure that the programme is responsive to their particular needs, a range of factors are considered.
"These include intellectual ability, language, literacy, dyslexia, mental and physical health, disability, drug use and psychopathic traits, as well as religious or cultural issues."
One expert said Muslim offenders who were forced to stay in prison longer because they refused to take part in the treatment could bring legal action against the Prison Service.
Assistant general secretary of probation union Napo, Harry Fletcher, said the situation presented an "intractable problem".
"The logic is that Muslims cannot take part in offender programmes and therefore their offending behaviour cannot be assessed and they are unlikely to be granted parole.
"They may then seek legal redress through judicial review on the grounds that they are being discriminated against on the grounds of religion," he said.
"If they do not take part, Muslim sex offenders are likely to serve longer sentences, possibly the whole of their term, before they are released."
Just castrate them, that should fix the problem and would be in keeping with Muslim justice.
Well, isn’t that ‘special’....
“If they do not take part, Muslim sex offenders are likely to serve longer sentences, possibly the whole of their term, before they are released.”
Plan two!
Strap bombs to them, blow them up, they believe in that.
And remove their penis.
Can’t let medical patches undo a good castration...
If they don’t want to participate in whatever this program is, then they serve their entire sentence. Period. It’s not discrimination on the basis of religion; they were given a choice (successfully complete the program and get time knocked off, or don’t and do your full term) and they picked an option. Of course, some fuzzy-headed judge will probably view that as discrimination and give Muslims the ability to reduce their sentences WITHOUT going through the program...but then that’s discriminating against everybody else’s religion. So everybody will have to get reduced sentences! And more sex offenders walk the streets.
}:-)4
Wait...okay, since we can't try to rehab your butts...you get to stay in jail for the rest of your lives--however short a time that turns out to be inside jail!
Where is the ‘seperation of church and state’ argument they always used against Christian faiths?
More-than-equal-rights bump
On the other hand, if the Mooselimbs refuse the treatment, double their sentences. See how they like that.
Castrate them!
I’m in favor of keeping them all in jail forever or just killing them, anyway. You’re absolutely correct that “counseling” seems to have no effect on serious sex offenders, except possibly to make them a little cannier about getting away with it.
One thing not mentioned, however, is that there virtually are no sexual offenses in Islam. Male homosexuality is okay for the dominant partner; male children have always been fair game for adult men, including their family members; girls are “marriageable” while they are still children; bestiality is okay; women can be acquired and dumped at any time; the hatred and killing of women for imagined offenses is just fine; and 15-minute “marriages of convenience” permit Muslim men to “marry” and “divorce” prostitutes just long enough to do the necessary. Thus, counseling them is clearly going to be useless, because their entire culture is one giant sexual pathology.
However, if non-Muslims are going to have to go through with the counseling farce, then Muslims should have to do something equivalent. Doubling their sentences might be a start. (Of course, in Britain that would probably mean that they got six months instead of three, but I guess it’s all relative.)
And their religion is not against committing sex crimes, just against talking about them. Does that mean they cannot talk to their lawyer, or plea bargain by admitting guilt?
Wouldn’t it be more efficient for the Brits to just turn their government over to muslims in a formal ceremony at the earliest possible date?
Of course, committing sex crimes is a tenet of their faith as the example that has been set by their pedophile prophet....
Wait till they get their own sharia laws in England. There’s no such thing as a sex offender in Islam. Rape, wife-beating, and murder are normal practices. After all, Muhammed did these things, didn’t he, and he is the perfect model of behavior.
But if you let yourself get raped, ah, that’s bad! We’ll have to stone you to satisfy our honor. That goes for boys as well as women, of course. And goats.
“The Prison Service’s Muslim advisor, Ahtsham Ali, has said there is a “legitimate Islamic position” that criminals should not discuss their crimes with others.”
That doesn’t seem like normal Muslim procedure.
If the crime was some sort of religious offense within the confines of Islam it would make sense. But if it is a crime because some secular (especially Western)government says its a crime, then the secular government is driving what can or can not be done under Islam, and that doesn’t sound like them.
Some of those sex offenses may not be offenses under Islam, so are they still crimes they can’t talk about? What if it’s a crime in one country but not another? Can they talk about it after they move from the first country to the second? Based on the differing postions of secular governments?
This just doesn’t track straight.
Britain needs to wake up and smell the coffee - sex offenders cannot be “cured” with treatment. I think the Catholic church found that one out..... besides - if it’s against the Islamic faith to undergo such treatment, isn’t it also against their faith to commit crimes to begin with? Geez - such expedient “cherry-picking” of what’s ok with their faith and what’s not ok!
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