By J.M. Phelps (One News Now)
An expert on counter terrorism is calling for more extensive vetting of Muslim chaplains in prison systems because of the powerful influence they have in radicalizing inmates before they’re released back into society.
The radicalization of Muslims in prisons around the world is neither new nor unusual. The failure to vet prison imams properly is quite evident in a recent example reported by the Gatestone Institute in which German authorities discovered the greater majority of their Muslim prison chaplains were actually agents of the Turkish government.
One expert admits this is only one of many examples, revealing the global phenomena of Islamic radicalization in prison goes as far back as 1993 with the World Trade Center bombing. Patrick Dunleavy, author of The Fertile Soil of Jihad: Terrorism’s Prison Connection, offers the example of El Sayyid Nosair.
Nosair was considered one of the architects of that attack on the WTC – and as Dunleavy details, “[he] was an inmate in [New York’s] Attica State Prison who began devising the plan in 1992.” In a second example, this one from the UK, Dunleavy describes Richard Reid as “a low-level criminal in prison for petty crimes [who] converted to a radical form of Islam and became the ‘shoe bomber’ [in 2001].”
In the decades following these well-known incidents, terror attacks conducted by former radicalized inmates have occurred in Germany, France, Denmark, Brussels, Canada, and a number of other countries around the world.
Likewise, the problem has not eluded the United States. Dunleavy, a former deputy inspector general of New York, notes a recent case involving Casey Charles Spain. He describes Spain as “a sex-offender in a Virginian prison [who] converted to Islam and upon his release attempted to join ISIS.” Edward Archer, Alton Nolen, and Frederick Funes are among many other names in the thick of U.S. cases of prison conversion, Dunleavy notes.
“The role of a prison chaplain is critical to the safe operation of any prison system,” the author says, adding that both U.S. and European Union authorities “have known for years the powerful influence a chaplain can have on an incarcerated individual.”
While one chaplain can provide a “path to rehabilitation and restoration of family ties,” Dunleavy contends that another “can be like a wolf in sheep’s clothing, filling the inmate’s mind with a radical ideology that pushes him or her down the road to jihad.” He is adamant that “only a thorough vetting of religious clergy and volunteers can reduce that threat.”
But the prison system, he says, unfortunately has failed to develop standardized criteria for vetting chaplains.
As Dunleavy explains, potential employees are supposed to be screened through the National Joint Terrorism Task Force “for ties to any radical organizations or ideology.” In fact, according to a 2004 Inspector General’s report, “…a contractor or volunteer will be dismissed based on any credible evidence that the person has potential ties to any terrorist-affiliated organizations or individuals; advocates racism or violence; or has made anti-U.S. statements or supports such statements.”
“This has not happened,” the author and researcher tells OneNewsNow.
Dunleavy doesn’t believe prison radicalization will ever be “eradicated” in its entirety. “[Prison] is a unique environment that can produce [either] a Nelson Mandela or an Ayman al Zawahiri,” he adds.
The ongoing threat of radicalization in prison, he argues, can be reduced by focusing on three areas.
“One is controlling the influence that terrorists, already in prison, can have on the general prison population,” he asserts. “[This can be done] by isolation and monitoring them continually.”
Secondly, literature that makes it way to prison libraries must be closely examined, he says.
“Any literature that promotes a radical ideology such as Salafist, or Wahabbi views of Islam, or promotes the Muslim Brotherhood should be banned,” Dunleavy states.
Finally, according to the author, common sense would suggest chaplains and religious volunteers “need to go through thorough security checks before being allowed to enter any prison.”
In a concluding remark, Dunleavy offers this example of an ex-offender who failed to be closely monitored:
“Edwin Lemmons was a former NY inmate who was radicalized, travelled overseas for training, was arrested by the FBI when he returned – and then after his release the second time from federal prison, was hired by the Virginia Department of Corrections as a Muslim chaplain. [Lemmons] was Casey Spain’s imam.”
J.M. Phelps is a Christian activist and journalist based in the Southeastern U.S. He is also editor and publisher of the website Lantern of Liberty.
Originally published by One News Now on Tuesday, March 5, 2019.
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