Prison Libraries and Radicalization

The Federal Bureau of Prisons has tallied all the Islamic books and videos available to inmates and chaplains in federal penitentiaries and the list is worrisome.

Stephen Schwartz, a convert to Islam who directs the Center for Islamic Pluralism, requested a copy of the government's 399-page inventory through the Freedom of Information Act. He found far more examples of radical texts and videos from extremists, including Wahhabi and Muslim Brotherhood scholars, than those advocating pluralism or moderation.

You can find 280 copies of work from American-born South African imam Abdullah Hakim Quick, including what Schwartz calls "hateful attacks on Baha'is, as well as Ahmadis, a heterodox Muslim group, and titles like Muslims Under Siege and The Importance of Da'wa in Times of Crisis." The list includes 33 entries by Muslim Brotherhood spiritual guide Yusuf al-Qaradawi, another 30 entries covering writings by Brotherhood luminary Sayyid Qutb and 200 volumes by the Pakistani jihadist Abul Ala Mawdudi.

This matters for two reasons, Schwartz writes:

"Muslim extremists' openly stated intent to spread their ideology in prisons, and the Bureau of Prisons' own past reliance on Muslim chaplains trained in Wahhabi Islam. While no major acts of terror have been traced to recruitment in U.S. prisons, the tools necessary for extremist indoctrination remain, unaccountably, in place."

Schwartz notes that the inventory grew out of concerns generated by past discoveries about the way Muslim prison chaplains were trained.

Source: IPT Blog

Despite Saudi Promises, Textbooks Filled With Hate

WASHINGTON - Two years after protracted American-Saudi negotiations persuaded the State Department that the Saudis would remove religious intolerance from their national textbooks, a new study finds the books still portray non-Sunni Muslims as the enemies of true believers.

The report from the Center for Religious Freedom at the Hudson Institute finds that the Saudi textbooks are filled with the austere supremacism of the Wahhabi sect of Islam, despite promises from the Kingdom in 2006 to alter them. For example, a textbook for 10th graders on Islamic jurisprudence not only says it is permissible in Islam to murder a homosexual, but recommends the methods for doing so: burning alive, stoning, or throwing oneoff a high building. Read more ...

Source: New York Sun

80% of Islamic literature in Russian offers wahabi ideas - expert

Chelyabinsk, July 22, Interfax - Eighty percent of Muslim literature published in Russia reflects ideas and principles of wahhabism, islamologist Roman Silantyev said.

"It contains appeals not to observe laws of non-Muslim states (and Russia is a non-Muslim state), to liquidate peoples with other religious convictions," Silantyev told journalists at the Chelyabinsk Interfax press center.

According to him, the same can be referred to informational sources as "many of them are financed by wahabis and promote ideas of radical Islam.'

Silantyev believes the key problem is that certain Islamic leaders are identified with all Russian Muslims.

"We often see that a Muslim leader speaks out with radical statements or threats and serve them up as an opinion of the significant part of Muslims. While the reputation of the leader is often questioned," the islamologist said.

He reminded, "according to the information of Russian general prosecutor's office, people's court twice condemned co-chairman of Russia's Mufti Council Nafigullah Ashirov for robbery and disorderly conduct."

Source: Interfax