Number Of Muslims In Prison Doubles In Decade To 12,000

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/number-of-muslims-in-prison-doubles-in-decade-to-12000-9222237.html

It would seem that everyone and everything is to blame apart from the criminals themselves.

/// The shadow Justice Secretary, Sadiq Khan, said the Government’s “complacency [on the issue] is breath-taking”. ///

/// Muzammil Quraishi, a senior lecturer in criminology and criminal justice at Salford University, said: “Young Muslim men are under the official gaze from their school days onwards ///

/// Amal Imad, of the charity Muslim Aid, suggested that poor educational performance, problems finding fulfilling jobs and family breakdown were factors in the increasing numbers of Muslims behind bars. ///

/// Mizanur Rahman, a spokesman for the organisation Muslim Prisoners, blamed the spike on Islamophobia and racism among police officers. ///

[Zacs-Master]

//If it is not surprising, then why is such a prominent person (himself a Muslim) calling for an inquiry? //

C'mon AOG even you can't be that naive.

[Svejk]

bloody foreigners coming over here and taking all our cells of us.

[naomi24]

Gromit, what pot and kettle? I'm not suggesting anything - I'm giving you the facts.

[anotheoldgit]

I wonder if the prisons have had to be altered to fit their religious requirements?

[sandyRoe]

Before the start of 'The Troubles' in NI, the majority of prisoners were Catholics. Yet Catholics were only about 40% of the population. Was that evidence that they were more dishonest than their Protestant neighbours or that people at the bottom of the heap are more likely to turn to crime?
I'd say the number of Islamic prisoners is more to do with discrimination against their community than anything else.

[Zacs-Master]

I think my earlier post would counter any 'disadvantaged' arguments.

[grasscarp]

I am not sure about these statistics. My nephew spent a lot of time inside. He used to say he was muslim as they got better food and others there did the same.

[Zacs-Master]

Sorry meant 'discrimination'.

[Gromit]

AOG

There seems to be a bid of role reversal going on here.

I am arguing that the muslims are not being discriminated against, and you are agreeing with Khan who thinks they are.

[Svejk]

all the police and judicary were protestant, not to mention masons, sandy. so, yes, that was a conspiracy. who would conspire against muslims?

[Svejk]

i think grasscarp has the truth of it. todays equivalent of rice-christians.

[sandyRoe]

Svejk, I was thinking more of the circumstances that bring people to their first court appearance rather than their treatment once they get there.
In NI there were generations of people who had never had a job. Some would have resigned themselves to their fate and become 'economically inactive' while others might turn to crime.
I think I read somewhere that the unemployment figures for young Muslim people in the north of England are particularly high. You'd expect that some of them would turn off the straight and narrow.

[jim360]

I'm not sure that the stats about the proportion of Muslims in any single prison are all that relevant. The Prison population is 14% Muslim, so presumably if one prison had about 43% Muslims then another prison elsewhere would have rather closer to none at all. Perhaps there is some administrative decision to keep the Muslims together to make such matters as prison chaplaincy easier to organise?

The important figures are 14% total population of Muslim prisoners, or a little under 12,000, which is a little more than twice the population a decade ago. In the same time the overall Muslim population has increased by about 70%, I think, so there is some discrepancy between the two rates of increase. Why this is is a lot harder to assess, but given the presumed lag time between people arriving in this country and people committing crimes, it may be more appropriate to compare the population increase figures for a longer time period overall than for just prisoners.

[anotheoldgit]

Gromit

/// I am arguing that the muslims are not being discriminated against, and you are agreeing with Khan who thinks they are. ///

No you have got it wrong, where have I said that I agree with Khan?

I am just setting you the question that if you think that there is nothing in the figures that suggests that the Muslim prison population is not increasing, why do you think Khan is asking for an inquiry why it is?

[Gromit]

People seem to be reading this as Muslims have become twice as dishonest in 10 years.

That is of course wrong, but if that is what you believe, why would that happen?

[Svejk]

the devil makes work for idle hands(and minds)

[Gromit]

AOG

// why do you think Khan is asking for an inquiry why it is? //

Coz he is trying to say muslims are being discriminated against, so he will get more muslim votes.

[sandyRoe]

very true, you've only to read some of the posts here in AB to see the evidence of that

[Zacs-Master]

Jim, unless you know the statistics of long term UK Muslim residents to recently arrived ones who are in prison, you (and Gromit) cannot make the comparison between population rise and Muslim inmates.

I think grasscarps post is probably the truth behind the stats.

[anotheoldgit]

jim360

Better inform Sadiq Khan, Muzammil Quraishi, Amal Imad, and Mizanur Rahman, of your assumptions, because they seem to think that there is call for concern.