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A recent census showing that the number of Muslims in British prisons has doubled over the past decade has prompted calls for ministers to investigate whether police and courts are treating Muslims more harshly.
A recent census showing that the number of Muslims in British prisons has doubled over the past decade has prompted calls for ministers to investigate whether police and courts are treating Muslims more harshly.
“It is astonishing and a huge concern that one in seven prisoners is Muslim. This is compared to just one in 20 of the population,” the shadow Justice Secretary, Sadiq Khan, who obtained the statistics, told The Independent.
He said the Government’s “complacency [on the issue] is breath-taking”.
Khan’s comments followed the release of the most recent census about the number of Muslims in UK prisons.
Though Muslims represent only 4.7 per cent of the population in England and Wales, statistics showed that one in seven prisoners (14 per cent) in England and Wales is a Muslim.
The shocking number even increased in some jails to represent one-third of inmates and in Whitemoor, a Category A prison in Cambridgeshire, it is as high as 43 per cent.
The Muslim prison population has increased from 5,502 (7.7 per cent) in 2002 to 11,729 in 2013 (14 per cent) and is set to continue rising rapidly because of the large numbers of Muslim teenagers in youth jails.
Other jails with a startlingly high proportion include Isis (34 per cent) and Feltham (33 per cent), both in London.
Some research suggests around one-third of Muslim inmates are from Caribbean or African backgrounds.
Other penal experts point out there are large numbers of teenagers and young men of Pakistani and Bangladeshi heritage in the peak age group for criminal offending of 15 to 25.
Islamophobia?
For some Muslims, the dramatic rise in the number of Muslim inmates was a direct result of the rise of Islamophobia.
“Young Muslim men are under the official gaze from their school days onwards – they have the lens of the state turned on them,” Muzammil Quraishi, a senior lecturer in criminology and criminal justice at Salford University.
“Certain populations can become suspect populations in the eyes of the law enforcement agencies.”
Mizanur Rahman, a spokesman for the organization Muslim Prisoners, blamed the spike on Islamophobia and racism among police officers.
On the other hand, Amal Imad, of the charity Muslim Aid, blamed poor educational performance and problems finding fulfilling jobs and family breakdown as the man factors in the increasing numbers of Muslims behind bars.
“It may be that they can’t integrate into society, they don’t think they have a positive chance to integrate into society,” she said.
Britain is home to a sizable Muslim minority of nearly 2.7 million who have taken full brunt of anti-terror laws since the 7/7 attacks.
http://www.onislam.net/english/news/europe/470701-number-of-muslim-prisoners-doubles-in-uk.html
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