Recruiting Muslims in America's Prisons

A report and comment on religious trends and events being covered by the media.  This week’s item is from a column by Cal Thomas from Townhall.com, June 20, 2002 with a headline: “Radical recruiting in America’s Prisons.”The mail brings a letter from a self identified African-American prison inmate.Several of the same types have arrived since September 11^th.He predicts that Islam will take over the world and America’s days are numbered.This man is one of many converts to radical Islam under a program indirectly funded by Saudi Arabian money through the National Islamic Prison Foundation which underwrites a prison outreach program.This program is likely to be discussed at the 5^th Annual Islam in American Prisons Conference scheduled for July 5^th – 7^th at the Holiday Inn O’Hare International in Rosemont, Illinois.One of the co-sponsorers of the gathering is the Islamic Society of North America which has ties to other Muslim groups in the U. S., some of which are up to no good.Let us hope that under the new Justice Department guidelines, the FBI will be attending and taking notes.Prison Fellowship chairman Charles Colson, who heads a Christian ministry to prisoners, believes that radical Islamic clerics trained in Saudi Arabia are converting large numbers of African-American inmates not only to their religion, but to their political objectives including virulent anti-Americanism.Colson thinks such inmates could serve the radicals as terrorists once they are released, murdering their own countrymen in a kind of payback for perceived injustices done to them by white America.Last October 20^th, the New York Times quoted Faheem Shuaibe at a large predominately black mosque in Oakland, California as saying that more than 200 African-American imams have been trained so far in Saudi Arabia, Shuaibe told the newspaper.There was a very deliberate recruitment process by the Saudis trying to find black Muslims who had a real potential for Islamic learning and also for submission to their agenda.They taught Islam with the intent to expand their influence.A principal target was to stop the indigenous Muslim leadership in America from tinkering with their religion.According to the Times story the brand of Islam being taught and exported was the most extreme sect known as Wahhabism.These are bad guys says Colson, who contrasts his Christian ministry which uses volunteers to visit inmates with the extreme agenda of the Wahhabi Muslims who do not utilize volunteers but rely on imams.Colson says he has been in 600 prisons counting the one in which he served time for Watergate crimes.He calls some of the anger of black inmates legitimate because of sentence disparity and anger they feel at themselves.“These angry men are being shaped by radical clerics in a way that will threaten America’s interest when they get out.There are 2 million people in American prisons.Most are men and only 30% are white.If only 5% of the African-American population is disaffected,” says Colson, “that is an enormous pool from which the radicals can draw.”Inmates of whatever faith, or no faith are entitled to visits by lay or professional ministers. But Supreme Court rulings grant the prison system the right to determine who might undermine order and who best preserves it.Wardens in state prisons and officials in the Federal Bureau of Prisons should issue new guidelines and bar radical Islamists.While the government is at it, a serious investigation should be conducted into the proliferation of Islamic front groups in this country.Influential American political activists are rumored to be taking money from Islamic states and seeking to shape U. S., foreign and domestic policies that may not be in the best interest of their own country.They should also be the focus of journalistic concern.This is war after all.German spies were hunted down during the Second World War as were spies and other threats to American freedoms during the Cold War.We should be doing the same during this greater contemporary threat.

Tom:

Dave, this is from Cal Thomas.People recognize him as being an evangelical and this is a column that he writes.It’s in many of the papers throughout the country and I have to admire him for presenting information that the general public is not aware of and these are important things.Now we may take issue with some of his statements in here, but overall, I think he’s doing a service here.

Dave:

Yes, I’m very thankful that he did.On the other hand, there is a bit of misinformation, because he calls this radical Islam.In fact, this is true Islam.Muhammad was a terrorist.Muhammad killed people.Muhammad said whoever renounces his faith, kill him and today in Saudi Arabia it’s the death penalty.We’ve been over that before on this program.They kill you if you renounce your faith; if a Muslim can’t change from his religion to another religion.They are killing Christians in Sudan by the thousands, in Indonesia, Nigeria burning down Christian churches, and so forth and so on.So we shouldn’t just keep calling this radical Islam, let’s admit this is true Islam.

Tom:

Dave, the imam that’s quoted in here says they don’t want indigenous Muslim leadership in America, tinkering with their religion.In other words, they have a fundamental very basic religion and they don’t want it Americanized or homogenized, or whatever.

Dave:

Look, we call this “Search the Scriptures Daily.”

Tom:

This program.

Dave:

Yes, this program.We challenge people to check what we say against the Bible.Okay?You have to do the same with Islam.Check it out against the Qur’an; against the Hadith.Check it out against what Muhammad said and what he practiced.Muhammad killed every Jew on the Arabian Peninsula except those who escaped.Today, no Jew is allowed to set foot in Saudi Arabia.You must be a Muslim to be a citizen of Saudi Arabia.You cannot build a non-Muslim place of worship in Saudi Arabia.I could go on and on.A woman can’t drive a car in Saudi Arabia.We are going to call this radical Islam?No, this program is being funded by Saudi Arabian money and they do intend to take over the world.This is what Muhammad said.He said Allah has commanded me to fight against all people until all people confess there is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his prophet.So I am thankful for what Cal Thomas has written, but all I’m saying is hey guys, let’s face up to it.This is Islam!President Bush, please face up to it!Don’t say Islam is peace.It never was and it never will be and let’s admit this is what it really is.

Tom:

And again, we are supposed to be at war with terrorism, so that’s why, again we appreciate what Cal is saying here, there are some things that are just being swept away or not being looked at, or not addressed and they need to be for safety’s sake as much as truth.

Dave:

See, I’m not saying that there aren’t many Muslims in America who are not in favor of terrorism, who want to live in peace, but that’s not Islam.That’s all I am saying.You can’t invent your own Islam and you can’t invent your own Christianity.Check the Bible about Christ and Christianity.Check Muhammad and the Hadith and the Qur’an about Islam.