Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
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September 2008
Published by
CENTER FOR ISLAMIC PLURALISM (CIP)
1718 M Street NW #260
Washington, DC 20036 USA
BM 2394, London, WC1N 3XX
www.islamicpluralism.org
Black America, Prisons and Radical Islam
Published in the United States in 2008
by the Center for Islamic Pluralism
1718 M Street NW #260
Washington, DC 20036 USA
www.islamicpluralism.org
www.islamicpluralism.eu
ISBN 978-0-9558779-1-9
Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data.
A catalogue record for this book is pending with the Library of Congress
1. Introduction Page 1
7. Notes Page 32
8. Index Page 34
PREFATORY NOTES
Black America, Prisons and Radical Islam is a scholarly work of great merit by the Center
for Islamic Pluralism (CIP), highlighting a national security need which deserves urgent
attention.
repeated offenders in the U.S. correctional system provides a captive audience for the
Wahhabi ideology of radical Islam, with its alleged universal appeal and sense of
brotherhood. While this problem may be recognized by the concerned authorities, finding
The problem of Islam in prisons requires a complex and honest discussion of the
subject. It is bound to be controversial because of the real and perceived social inequities
and injustices experienced by the large African American population subjected to slavery
in the U.S. However, as highlighted in this CIP report, it is imperative for the federal and
The report makes several valid points in identifying the challenges of radical Islam
in prisons. First is the need for understanding Islamic concepts and terminology. Second
and more important is a more thorough screening during recruitment of religious service
providers for Muslim inmates, to prevent prisoners falling prey to radical Islamic
indoctrination. Because of the complexity of the issue, coupled with the scant resources
within the correctional system, it is only prudent that this process should engage the
The suggestion to scrutinize the foreign funding and travel of potential volunteers
as religious service providers also has merit but would invariably require assistance from
Muslim personnel with expertise overseas, who can recognize the geographical centers of
radicalism. Many places offering jihadist teachings (medresas) are located in countries
i
While the role of the Joint Intelligence Coordinating Council ( JICC) has been
Homeland Security to monitor for substantial periods applicants for Muslim chaplaincies
and other Muslim religious service providers as part of their initial screening.
Jalal Zuberi, MD
Atlanta, Georgia
This Report was prepared by Center for Islamic Pluralism Fellow Imaad Malik in cooperation
with CIP staff. Brother Malik was born in 1965 in Michigan and resided in Canada from
1982 to 1998. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Social Science from the University of
Western Ontario in 1998. He then returned to the U.S. where he now lives.
ii
ENDORSEMENT
Brooklyn, New York
11 Ramadan 1429
THE AHLUL BAYT MOSQUE, INC., (formerly the “Brooklyn Mosque”), an American Muslim
Hispanic American believers (located in downtown Brooklyn), has long supported —and been
supported by — the Center for Islamic Pluralism (CIP) in its struggle against the monopoly
over prison Islamic chaplaincies held by the Wahhabi movement in the U.S.
We fully endorse the documentation and analysis included in the new CIP report, Black
America, Prisons, and Radical Islam, as reflecting the unfortunate reality faced by incarcerated
Muslims in confronting the Wahhabi domination over Islamic religious life behind bars in the
U.S.
Shia inmates continue suffering undue harassment in their struggle to practice Islam
according to the teachings of the Ahlul Bayt. Prison chapel libraries include few works of Shia
devotion or theology.
Your distribution of and support for the present report will greatly facilitate the struggle
Thank you very much for your support and may Allah (SWT) reward you for your
efforts.
Email: ahlulbaytmosque@aol.com
iii
A Garveyite family, Harlem, 1920s
1. INTRODUCTION CIP
black American life today, including Warith 1.1 The Ravages of Moral Decay and
Deen Umar, former chief Muslim chaplain in Endemic Pathologies in African American
the New York Department of Correctional Society
Services (NYDOCS), Imam Siraj Wahhaj, The African American community presently
Mahdi Bray, and Imam Jamil Al-Amin. The suffers the ravages of moral and social decay.
report recounts the emergence of protest Many of the maladies devastating the black
against the role of the Wahhabi chaplains, community can be attributed to the collapse
originating among Shia Muslims, and the of the nuclear family and its substitution by
recent status of a legal case against the dependence on government programs.
Wahhabi prison clerics. In this controversy, Driven by the disintegration of
Warith Deen Umar played a prominent role, families, pathologies eroding life in the black
and the report further examines the activities community include a steep adolescent birth
of W. D. Umar and others he recruited to rate, high infant mortality, gang violence,
work in prisons, as extremist figures. black-on-black crime, and the degeneration
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) of educational values.
has carried out a limited series of actions A vacuum appeared during the last half
regarding the problem of Wahhabism in of the 20th century, quickly filled by moral
prisons, including a general study of relativism, hedonism and materialism. This
religious conversions behind bars. A crisis has left black America in a malaise of
summary of that paper concludes section 2. despair, anxiety, frustration, envy and, above
DOJ’s most significant response to the all, increasing poverty.
problem of radical Islam in prisons came in The productive life-style necessary for
2004 when the department’s Office of the the success of the black community has been
Inspector General (OIGDOJ) released A definitively eroded. Pathologies are
Review of the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ becoming established as mores. Government
Selection of Muslim Religious Services entitlements and subsidy programs have
Providers, including a series of ameliorative created new forms of poverty.
recommendations. In section 3, the report The African American community,
analyzes the Review and responses to it by during most of the 20th century, has been
the DOJ Bureau of Prisons (DOJ-BOP), along victimized by social engineering; government
with reply comments by the OIGDOJ. We assistance is a new form of slavery.
consider the OIGDOJ Review the sole By all economic, social, and cultural
meaningful action by the U.S. government in measurements, as urban crime increases, the
this area, and it is therefore the central focus African American community is in serious
of our report. trouble. Chicago, Detroit, Baltimore,
In 2008, the only publicly-disclosed Washington, DC, and other metropolitan areas
fulfillment of the OIGDOJ Review’s with large black American communities have
recommendations came about when the become enclaves of extreme violence. For
DOJ-BOP released an inventory of prison some thirty years, Detroit and Washington
chapel holdings in Islamic religious competed for the ignoble title of “homicide
literature. Section 4 of our report embodies capital” of the United States. More recently,
our preliminary analysis of the inventory. Baltimore has claimed this “honor.”
Section 5 introduces recent observations The erosion of marriage, the family,
about radical Islam in British prisons. CIP and the support networks associated with
offers its conclusion and recommendations in them has fatally undermined black American
section 6. society.
1.2 The Destruction of the Black Family Unwanted adolescent pregnancy has
Black and other poor Americans are caught in also become a pathological norm. No longer
a trap of dependency on a governmental is shame or guilt associated with adolescent
system that perpetuates inequities. Welfare childbearing. It is now viewed as ordinary,
has obliterated the black work ethic, while waiting for marriage is treated as an
subverting education and increasing the antiquated tradition. Sexual promiscuity
poverty gap among blacks. Millions have among teenage boys and girls is not only
spent their entire lives as recipients of celebrated but promoted in the popular
government payments. Few are now culture.
prepared for daily-life struggles. Health The revolution in morality during the
insurance and quality health care are late 1960s introduced novel standards
unaffordable or inaccessible to large sections regarding sexuality and reproduction.
of the black community. Local clinics and Religion and the family were abandoned and
hospital emergency rooms are overcrowded promiscuity flourished. Sex with multiple
and underfunded. partners and co-habitation prior to marriage
Black leaders argue that a systemic were fully accepted.
problem must be resolved through further These attitudes about sex were,
expansion of entitlements. Initiative and indeed, radically new. The ready availability
enterprise from below are absent. of birth control was accompanied by a leap in
Community organizers administer grants and the incidence of sexually transmitted
other handouts rather than creating strong diseases.
community-based institutions. Internal Today it is estimated that 70 percent
drives and ambition have diminished, and, black female adolescents become pregnant
with them, achievement in test scores as well before marriage. Meanwhile, so-called
as academic performance. community leaders place the blame on lack of
The decline of the family is an financing for contraception.
unarguable feature of contemporary African Americans are
American society. Divorce, once an object of disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS.
stigma, has become the norm, enabled by Although African Americans made up 13
welfare entitlements. Marriage, once viewed percent of the U.S. population they accounted
as a life-long, sacred commitment, has been for 50 percent of new HIV infections and 40
reduced to an inconvenience in the daily percent of new AIDS cases reported in 2001.
pursuit of material possessions. American [1]
children today rarely live in a stable, two- With promiscuity glorified in black
parent home. Whatever the outcome for the society, 53 percent, or more than half of
broader society, the negative effects of this African American families are headed by a
phenomenon in the black community are single parent, and 45 percent of such families
overwhelming. are headed by women. [2]
Fatherless homes have become typical
among African Americans. The role of father
is essential to the health and well being of 1.3 Corruption of Education and Culture
any society, but fathers are unseen and Corruption of education and culture
unheard in African American communities. accompanies the destruction of the nuclear
Black fathers are presumed either family.
incarcerated or dead due to the violence that Traditionally, education was viewed as
has overwhelmed the community. a means to lift one’s self up and improve the
with distinction in the armed forces, and presented a vision of return to Africa through
excel in many other fields of endeavor. Yet establishment of independent economic
while blacks have gained an acceptance in enterprises, including a shipping company,
America symbolized by the Democratic the Black Star Line, and, in general, expressed
presidential candidacy of Barack Obama, hostility to Western society and idealization of
upward mobility has reinforced, rather than Africa, or pan-Africanism. After establishing
diminishing social pathologies. As blacks rise his organization in the Caribbean, Garvey
in society, pride turns to heedlessness, and immigrated to the United States and focused
criminality becomes a symbol of achievement. his agitation in Harlem.
Black America seems to have lost its moral Garveyism, as it is known, was also
compass, and to be headed for annihilation. more generally called the “Back to Africa
Movement.” It allegedly recruited millions of
members, and influenced numerous African
2. BLACK SEPARATISM, PSEUDO-ISLAM AND American radicals. Black American
ISLAM, AND AFRICAN AMERICANS IN PRISON Communists debated whether to support
2.1 Marcus Garvey Garveyite radicalism or to oppose the Garvey
Beginning in the 20th century, the dilemmas movement as rivals for black support. In his
facing black Americans found expression in a native Jamaica, Garveyism became an
separatist impulse, eventually leading to the element in the emergence of nationalist
ascent of Wahhabism in black American syncretism in the Rastafari movement, which
Islam, and the dominance of Wahhabi prison constructed a spiritual system that exalted
chaplains in prisons, i.e. among a significant the then-ruler of Ethiopia, emperor Haile
share of blacks. Selassie, an Orthodox Christian.
The separatist trend began with Garveyism declined in the U.S. after
Marcus Garvey (1887-1940), a Jamaican by the founder’s conviction for mail fraud in the
birth. Garvey was the first black leader in the promotion of the Black Star shipping line. (It
Western Hemisphere to proclaim an ideal of should be noted that U.S. mail regulations
separatism. were frequently employed in the first half of
He created the Universal Negro the 20th century as a means of suppressing
Improvement Association (UNIA), which non-conforming opinion.) More
significantly, however, Garveyism had little to
do with the realities of black daily life, and
could not respond to the challenges of
integrationism or socialist radicalism. Garvey
Marcus Garvey Marcus Garvey (center) in a plumed hat, and officers review a UNIA
parade, Harlem, 1920s
with links to gangs (e.g. the former support for the hijackers who attacked the
Blackstone Rangers in Chicago), made the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on
faith of Islam appear synonymous with a September 11, 2001. Umar stated, “those who
revolutionary, oppositional criticism of say they are against terrorism secretly admire
America. Islamists encouraged black and applaud them.” Umar also identified
Americans to abandon their historical African Americans as natural candidates for
association with Christianity and to embrace terrorist recruitment. According to Umar, the
Islamic culture as an “official” identity. Qur’an, Islam’s sacred text, does not forbid
Black Americans began alleging that terrorism even against the innocent. “This is
Islam had been the faith of their slave the sort of teaching they don’t want in
ancestors, a claim for which there is little prison,” he said. “But this is what I’m doing.”
serious evidence, since slaves were typically Umar was discharged from duties with the
captured in the animist regions of West Africa. federal BOP and banned from entering New
This is demonstrated by the durability of West York State prisons.
African polytheist traditions in Haiti, Cuba,
elsewhere in the Caribbean and the Gulf of
Mexico, and Brazil, and the absence of 2.3 Influence of Ahmadiyya
significant Islamic religious remnants Beginning in the 1920s some American blacks
anywhere among blacks in the Western joined the Ahmadiyya movement in Islam.
Hemisphere. Islam was brought to the Ahmadiyyat is controversial among Muslims
Caribbean and South America by Indian and because of its belief that Mirza Ghulam
Malay immigrants to British and Dutch Ahmed (1835-1908) appeared as a mahdi or
colonial possessions. Nevertheless, for several Islamic messiah in India. Official sanctions
generations, numerous blacks in America against Ahmadis in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia,
have been drawn to Muslim or pseudo- and elsewhere have led to gross abuses of
Islamic conceptions of social redemption. human rights. During the 1950s a number of
A personality who today, long after the distinguished and widely influential American
death of Malcolm X, notably embodies the jazz performers, including Ahmad Jamal,
transition of black separatism to Islamist Yusef Lateef, Art Blakey, and McCoy Tyner,
radicalism, including a key role in the were affiliated with Ahmadiyya. [4]
problem of Wahhabi prison chaplaincies, is Other conceptions are embodied today
Warith Deen Umar, born Wallace Gene Marks, in three major black nationalist organizations.
and, as noted, past chief Muslim chaplain in
In order of their historic emergence, these are
the New York State Department of
the Moorish Science Temple of America
Correctional Services (NYDOCS). Umar, who
(MSTA), the NOI, which became the most
was instrumental in recruiting radical prison
prominent, and the more eccentric Five
chaplains and
Percenters, which split from NOI.
imposing an
extremist outlook on
Muslims behind 2.4 Moorish Science Temple
bars, was appointed
These three groups embody pseudo-Islamic
a New York State
nationalism in the black community today:
prison chaplain in
The Moorish Science Temple of America
1975.
(MSTA) was founded in 1913 by Timothy
U m a r
Drew, a former member of the black wing of
publicly declared his
Warith Deen Umar the Shriners, a Masonic order. Drew styled
himself Noble Drew Ali and a prophet. MSTA 2.5 Nation of Islam
argued that American blacks are descended Founded by Wallace Ford, who renamed
from “Moors,” a term for Moroccans that is no himself Wallace D. Fard, and was later
longer used in standard literature. The referred to as W. Fard Muhammad, NOI
essential premise of MSTA is to “Uplift fallen originated in a faction of the MSTA, after the
humanity by learning to love instead of hate;” death of Noble Drew Ali in 1929. Ford’s
and to free blacks from ignorance and background is obscure and is still debated.
oppression. Membership in MSTA is According to the U.S. Federal Bureau of
exclusively black and it does not admit Investigation, Ford was born in New Zealand
members not of African descent; it further and was incarcerated in California in the
anticipates the extinction of whites. 1920s, before moving to Detroit, where he set
Like the Shriners, the MSTA required up the predecessor of NOI in 1930. [5]
its members to adopt Arabic names and Ford began to attract the attention of
crescent-star symbolism, to wear a red fez and poor blacks. He disappeared in 1934 and his
to add the titles “El” or “Bey” to their names. lieutenant Elijah Poole, a native of
But a white member of the “Ancient Arabic Sandersville, Georgia, took over leadership of
Order, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine” and the organization. Elijah Poole renamed
wearing a fez has not become Muslim; nor did himself Elijah Muhammad; his biography is
Moorish Science or its successors ever much less contested than that of Wallace
participate in the worldwide community of Ford. [6] Poole transformed NOI and
Islamic believers. Indeed, the Masonic origin elevated it to national standing. He polished
of black pseudo-Islam in America contrasts the black separatist message, and appeared to
strongly with conspiratorialist hatred of incorporate more Islamic concepts into NOI
Freemasons found in many Muslim countries,
and most often traced to the role of Turkish
Elijah Muhammad and his son, the former Wallace D. Muhammad, in front of a portrait of
Masonic lodges in the fall of the Ottoman
caliphate. A prominent (white) American
Mason, when hearing that the NOI was not
Islamic, but derived from Masonry,
commented, “they may not be good Muslims,
but they aren’t good Masons, either.”
Organizations like the MSTA, NOI, and
the Five Percenters are radical black
nationalist entities inciting racial hatred and
anti-American attitudes while using Islam or
Islamic-appearing customs, tenets or texts as
Wallace Ford, founder of the Nation of Islam
Riders and Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., for as well as convicts has led many to view them
integration and American principles of as merely a gang.
equality and fairness.
Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, the
focal period of the NOI’s expansion, the 2.7 “Prison Islam”
established civil rights leaders neglected the Within American correctional systems,
situation of incarcerated blacks, and NOI another phenomenon has emerged, known as
filled the gap. Malcolm X himself became the “prison Islam.” “Prison Islam” is neither a
ideal of the prisoner recruited to black manifestation of the faith of Islam nor a black
nationalism through NOI. Many blacks have nationalist movement comparable to Moorish
gravitated to Sunni Islam after an experience Science, the NOI, or the Five Percenters.
with the NOI, including convicts. Warith “Prison Islam” is, rather, an amorphous
Deen Umar, the fired head chaplain in the presence in convict populations, through
New York correctional system, was known in which individuals may adopt Muslim names
the NOI as Wallace 10X. [9] or idioms while dealing drugs, exploiting
other prisoners sexually, and otherwise
engaging in the typical activities of prison
2.6 The Five Percenters/Nation of Gods and gangs. “Prison Islam” opportunistically draws
Earths on the broader black idiom of nationalism,
As NOI was a splinter from MSTA, the Five separatism, supremacy, and “black liberation
Percenters began as a faction that split from theology.”
NOI. Founded in 1964 by NOI member
Clarence J. Smith, known as Clarence 13X, a
2.8 Wahhabi Prison Chaplaincies
follower of Malcolm X, Clarence 13X rejected
the idea that Wallace Ford was an incarnation While black nationalist movements may be
of God, but designated himself and his disruptive of public order and the
followers as Gods. Clarence 13X was administration of correctional systems, a
murdered in 1969, in a case still unsolved. greater threat to American national security is
[10] represented by the domination over African
While distant from mainstream Islam, American Muslim inmates, who adhere to
such beliefs are reminiscent of theosophical mainstream Sunni, Shia, and Sufi Islam, by
teachings in certain Shia Muslim sects, such Wahhabi chaplains employed by the official
as Ismailiyya, the Syrian Alawites, and related correctional authorities.
communities. The Five Percenters have Malcolm X was the first major figure in
further developed a system of esoteric black American life to embrace Sunni Islam,
numbers and letters known as “supreme and to renounce the racist separatism of the
mathematics” and the “supreme alphabet.” NOI. Malcolm X was murdered in 1965. In the
The term “Five Percenters” derives from their aftermath of this event, NOI underwent a
belief that five percent of the black long crisis. A son of Elijah Muhammad, the
population are enlightened beings, 10 late Wallace D. Muhammad, inherited the
percent are knowledgeable and insightful but leadership of NOI after the death of Elijah
unjust exploiters, and 85 percent make up the Muhammad in 1975. But with internal
unschooled mass. discontent undermining the appeal of NOI,
The Five Percent message is popular Wallace D. Muhammad was inspired by the
among rap musicians as well as in the convict experience of Malcolm X and led other
population. Their association with rap music disillusioned ex-NOI adherents to form a new
These are whether the Shia plaintiffs could be Umar assembled a major cadre of
denied a separate congregational Friday extremist clerics for “service” in the New York
prayer (Jumaa) service, as they argued was DOCS. They included Imam Salahuddin M.
caused by the Wahhabi monopoly on Muhammad, chaplain at Fishkill Correctional
chaplaincies, and whether the New York State Facility in Beacon, N.Y.
DOCS could accommodate a separate Shia In the complaints brought by Shia
service without jeopardizing legitimate prison convicts in New York, Salahuddin Muhammad
objectives. At the time of publication of this was alleged to have referred to Shia prisoners
report, the New York district court must as “infiltrators and snitches” during his Friday
decide these issues, on which CIP will khutbat or sermons. He is also one of many
continue to work in favor of the Shias and of prison chaplains who have circulated a
pluralism. [14] notorious anti-Shia pamphlet produced by
The 2003 amicus brief noted that prior Saudi-Wahhabis, titled “The Difference
court decisions supporting the position of the Between the Shiites and the Majority of
Wahhabi chaplains were based exclusively on Muslim Scholars,” signed by Saeed Ismaeel
testimony by Warith Deen Umar, who would and published by the World Assembly of
be barred from the NY State prisons in 2003. Muslim Youth (WAMY), an official Saudi-
The amicus brief described W. D. Umar, based Wahhabi agency. Through the distribution of
on his own statements, as “a Sunni Muslim such materials, the Shia prisoners allege that
cleric, certified by the Graduate School of Wahhabi chaplains have created an
Islamic and Social Sciences [known in 2008 as environment of intimidation, leading to such
Cordoba University, located in Ashburn, Va], incidents as a Shia inmate requesting
and confirmed by the Fiqh Council of North placement in solitary confinement to escape
America. These organizations are stated to physical threat, and the knifing of a Shia
look to the ultimate authority of the Fiqh convict.
Council of Saudi Arabia, where… the Wahhabi Other peers of Umar include Umar
sect is the official Islamic sect, and all Shia and Abdul-Jalil, whose extraordinary case came to
other traditional Muslim forms of worship are light in March 2006. As the executive director
barred by law… DOCS official policy in effect of ministerial services and chief Islamic
adopts and endorses the Saudi-Wahhabi chaplain in the New York City Department of
doctrine prohibiting Shia and traditional Corrections, Umar Abdul-Jalil was reported to
Muslim practices, and unconstitutionally have said in a speech that the “greatest
denies Shia prisoners freedom of religion terrorists in the world occupy the White
while simultaneously establishing the House,” Jews control the media, and Muslims
Wahhabi sect as the official Islamic are being tortured in Manhattan jails. Abdul-
interpretation in the State of New York’s Jalil ministered to Muslim inmates at one of
correctional system.” New York’s most problematical facilities,
Warith Deen Umar, the epitome of Rikers Island. New York City’s then-mayor
Wahhabi prison outreach, is himself a career Michael Bloomberg, on free speech grounds,
criminal who represents a wide range of refused to dismiss Abdul-Jalil, although the
pathologies among African Americans. At the chaplain received a two week unpaid
beginning of 2006, police seized a 12-gauge suspension.
shotgun and a .22-caliber rifle from his home The El-Hindi case represented another
in the Greater New York area, and in link to the Islamic prison milieu. Marwan
September of that year Umar was sentenced to Othman El-Hindi, a Jordanian-born American
a year of home detention. citizen, was one of the three individuals
common with the claim of Wahhabis, restoration of Islamic pluralism in the Saudi
including prison chaplains in the U.S., that kingdom and elsewhere.
there is only one Islam and that the The OIGDOJ document referred to
disagreements between Sunnis and Shias Wahhabism as “the predominant religion in
mean nothing.) But the idea that Sufism is Saudi Arabia,” [19] when the Wahhabi sect
only a Sunni phenomenon would provoke remains, at present, the official religion in
laughter from most Sufis and protest from Saudi Arabia. Its current position is only a
Iranians of all persuasions, including function of state support. In defining the
enemies of the present clerical regime. phenomenon, the Review stated,
The Review further stated “Wahhabism has many connotations and
“Wahhabism… is practiced all over the means different things to different people.”
world.” [18] This was an equally appalling [20] This represented an erroneous attempt
mistake. Wahhabism is not openly to make Wahhabism, which is totalitarian,
“practiced” at all in two of the most appear pluralistic. Wahhabism does not
important Muslim countries in the world: have many connotations. It has one main
Turkey, where Sunni Islam is subject to close connotation: it refers to the state cult erected
control by the state clerics and where in Saudi Arabia, based on a fundamentalist,
Wahhabism is rigorously excluded, and Iran, exclusionary, and violent interpretation of
which has an overwhelming Shia majority Islamic belief, in which Muslims who do not
and, therefore, few Sunnis at all, but where accept its commands are subject to takfir, or
Wahhabism is also nonexistent. Some excommunication, resulting in persecution,
Wahhabism exists in a clandestine form in death, expropriation of property, and sexual
Turkey but in Iran it is despised to such a abuse of women. A “light” form of
point that no attempt at Wahhabi infiltration Wahhabism exists in the Gulf state of Qatar,
is conceivable except in Arab minority but as a footnote in Islamic history.
regions where terrorism linked to Al-Qaida Wahhabism only means different things to
has recently appeared. Wahhabism is also different people in that Wahhabis disagree
effectively nonexistent in Azerbaijan, which over the political decisions made by the Saudi
is overwhelmingly Shia. rulers. This is not a matter of theological
Wahhabism is banned in Uzbekistan; difference but of political expediency.
CIP, however, does not favor legal The Review continued, “[Wahhabism]
proscription as a solution to the problem of generally refers to a movement that seeks to
Wahhabism, particularly by a regime like purify the Islamic religion of any innovations
that of Uzbek dictator Islom Karimov, who or practices that deviate from the 7th century
uses the specter of Wahhabism — an teachings of the Prophet Muhammad.” [21]
interpretation with almost no support This means that the OIGDOJ accepts the
among the people of his country — as a Wahhabi definition of Wahhabism; if the
pretext for bloody repression. The problem phrase “allegedly” had been inserted before
of Wahhabism may be dealt with juridically the word “deviate” this would be acceptable,
by removing the legal structures, whether in but since it was not, it is not. Islam resists
the kingdom of Saudi Arabia or the U.S. innovation in religion, but also recognizes
correctional system, that grant it a special good innovations and bad innovations. Thus,
and dominant status. But opposition to for example, the Qur’an was not collected
Wahhabism, although in some cases it must and written down in a single transcription
involve a military defeat of extremism, during the life of the Prophet, so that the
should better be grounded in debate and the Qur’an as it now exists is the product of
separate name in Arabic. He should be them as Salafis, as the term has been used
referred to by his actual name, Ibn Abd Al- since the 19th century, when Sufis were the
Wahhab, meaning, “son of the servant of the main opponents of the Salafis; and Sufis are
bestower.” This is not objectionable because the main enemies of Wahhabism today. Most
the rest of his family, including his father and important, as written in a recent volume by
brother, renounced their relationship to him CIP Executive Director Schwartz [23],
and opposed him for his extremism. His evil “Ottoman Muslim theologians, who had
should not reflect on them. rejected the pretensions of the Wahhabis,
Salafism has nothing to do with argued that it had never been acceptable for
“emphasiz[ing] the transcendent unity of Muslims to compare themselves in virtue to
God.” All Muslims believe in “the transcendent the Prophet and the aslaf. A more accurate
unity of God.” Salafism has to do with term than ‘Salafis’ would be ‘Islahis,’ meaning
“reforming” the practice of the religion. reformers.”
Wahhabis are distinguished by their view that The author of the OIGDOJ Review
special honors to the Prophet Muhammad, could not distinguish between “Salafis” and
such as celebration of his birthday or “muwahiddun,” a difference so elementary
inscription of his name in mosques, along that failure to grasp it betrays either complete
with prayers to the dead, erection of ignorance, or deliberate acceptance of
gravestones and tombs, prayers for Wahhabi obfuscation, or confusion, or haste
intercession through holy persons or saints, in the preparation of the Review. Khaled
preservation of historic buildings, and many Abou el-Fadl, considered a “stealth Islamist”
other practices prevalent in traditional Islam and whose works are controversial to say the
constitute shirk or polytheism. This is based least, was quoted in the Review as follows:
first on the Wahhabi belief that these practices “all puritanical groups in the Muslim world
supposedly imitate the Christian worship of are Salafi in orientation but not necessarily
Jesus as a divine being; second on the Wahhabi.” [24] This is a complete falsehood.
Wahhabi claim that erecting a gravestone or Pious Shias are extremely puritanical, very
preserving a building is the same as erecting often much more so than any Sunnis
and worshipping an idol. Wahhabis who including Wahhabis, and would never allow
assert that Salafism involves “emphasiz[ing] themselves to be described as “Salafi in
the transcendent unity of God” are engaging orientation.” Khomeinist Shias accepted the
in propaganda. It is deeply unfortunate that “revolutionary” doctrine of one “Salafi,” Sayyid
the OIGDOJ should have fallen for this Qutb, because it resembled their own
disinformation. tradition of protest against rulers they
The same paragraph went on to assert considered unjust. [25] This has nothing
that “Salafi” also can be used to describe all whatever to do with Salaf, Salafis, or Salafism
Muslims, not just Wahhabis. This is really an per se.
outrageous error. No Shia Muslim would ever The OIGDOJ Review stated that “FBI
describe him or herself as a “Salafi,” because counterterrorism officials told us that
Shias reject the caliphate of Abubakr, the first Wahhabism is not inherently violent or
caliph and a leading example of the aslaf; terroristic”. The OIGDOJ therefore privileges
because they reject the standard American state functionaries of limited
interpretation of hadith accepted by Sunnis; intellectual training against a vast corpus of
and for other reasons as well. Salafism does Islamic scholarship, which declares the exact
not exist among Shias. Many Sufis would opposite: i.e. that Wahhabism is indeed
indignantly reject any attempt to describe inherently violent and terroristic. Who knows
more about Islam, the FBI’s civil servants, or published in English as The Doctrine of Ahl
anti-Wahhabi Islamic scholars? al-Sunna Versus the ‘Salafi’ Movement. [26] It
The struggle of Ottoman-era religious is, in effect, a chronicle of Wahhabi massacres,
scholars against Wahhabism generated an devastation, and other incidents of
immense literature of fatwas and other bloodletting and vandalism that would seem
writings against them. These included many beyond belief were there not so many other
titles eloquently expressing the anger the accounts to corroborate it.
Wahhabis provoked among traditional The lazy pseudo-research embodied in
scholars. Ata’ Allah al-Makki turned his pen the OIGDOJ Review was demonstrated in the
to The Indian Scimitar on the Najdi’s Neck, final passage on page 4 [.pdf version], where
referring to the origin of the Wahhabi it was stated that “extreme Shiite Islam could
movement in Najd, a barren region of inner be just as radical and as much of a terrorism
Arabia. Al-Sayyid Ahmad ibn Zayni Dahlan, threat as extreme Wahhabism/Salafism.” So it
Mufti of Mecca and Shaykh al-Islam (the turned out that the OIGDOJ had to admit that
highest Ottoman religious authority) for the not all puritanical Muslims, much less all
Hejaz region of western Arabia, died in 1886, Muslims, may be described as Salafis. The
after writing many works against them, Review also misidentified the Moorish Science
including one with the mild heading Pure Temple.
Pearls in Answering the Wahhabis. His The Review reported that “An FBI
contemporary, Dawud ibn Sulayman al- counterterrorism analyst stated that the
Baghdadi al-Hanafi returned to the more immense wealth associated with extreme
combative mode, with a work generally Wahabism/Salafism makes the religion
known as The Most Strenuous Jihad or appealing to inmates who are seeking
Ashadd al-Jihad, calling for sustained financial support and assistance when they
resistance to Wahhabi blandishments. Al- leave prison.” [27] It should be noted that the
Sayyid al-`Alawi ibn Ahmad ibn Hasan ibn al- main forms of such support and assistance has
Qutb al-Haddad also favored the cutting edge consisted of free hajj trips and opportunities
in polemics: he composed The Sharp Sword for training as imams and chaplains in Saudi
for the Neck of the Assailant of Great Scholars Arabia.
as well as The Lamp of Mankind and the
Illumination of Darkness Concerning the
Refutation of the Errors of the Innovator From 3.2 Determining the Role of Wahhabi Prison
Najd by Which He Had Misled the Common Chaplains
People. These volumes represent but a few of Given the unpromising beginning of the
some 80 anti-Wahhabi classics, every one of Review, in its approach to so basic and simple
which stresses the violence and terrorism of an issue as the typology of Wahhabism, it was
the movement. Ibn Abd Al-Wahhab’s own no wonder that the OIGDOJ’s Review never
brother Suleyman wrote a book in opposition addressed the essential matter: how to
to him, with the piquant title Divine determine who really is a Wahhabi among the
Thunderbolts. Perhaps the most famous anti- prison chaplains, and what to do about it.
Wahhabi work is Jamal Effendi al-’Iraqi al- The Review seemed to partake of an
Sidqi al-Zahawi’s True Dawn in Refuting extraordinary naivete when it stated, “[U.S.
Those Who Deny the Seeking of Intercession Justice Department Bureau of Prisons (BOP)
and the Miracles of Saints. Al-Zahawi was chaplains] said that strict Wahhabism would
one of the great Iraqi poets of the 19th not survive in prisons because it is too
century. His book has been translated and exclusionary to appeal to the inmates.” [28]
Indonesia (training in Bahasa Indonesia with in chaplains, it ignored the one means the
reading in Arabic). All these countries have BOP has to track Wahhabi influence in
facilities to prepare Islamic clerics that can in prisons: the use and distribution of copies of
no way be considered inferior, Islamically, to Qur’an, the Islamic holy book, printed in
those in Saudi Arabia. Training for clerics is English in Saudi Arabia. The terms Koran
also available in such Western languages as and/or Qur’an seemed never to appear, even
French and Russian. once, in the Review. Until the assumption of
Nor is the issue of diplomatic relations the throne by Saudi King Abdullah ibn Abd
with the U.S. a reliable standard. The U.S. has Al-Aziz, a reformer, the Saudi/Wahhabi edition
diplomatic relations with Syria, and many of Qur’an [30] was widely distributed, usually
clerics working in the U.S., as well as academic for free, and differs significantly from the
experts, have studied in Damascus, yet Syrian traditional translation of Qur’an, in a way that
Islam is intertwined with support for should be of great concern to corrections
organizations like Hamas and legitimation of officers. That is, the Saudi/Wahhabi Qur’an —
suicide terrorism. Many Islamic schools in and let it not be forgotten that in Islam Qur’an
Yemen, the Emirates, Sudan, Somalia, or is taught as a direct divine message —includes
Pakistan should be considered inappropriate interlinear interpolations that give the text an
for the credentialing of chaplains in American inherently hateful and extremist meaning.
prisons, even though these countries have For example,
diplomatic relations with the U.S. By contrast, the first Surah or
certain schools in Iran, which have adopted a chapter of Qur’an,
posture of partial opposition to the present known as Fatiha or
clerical regime there, have trained and The Opening, is
certified prominent Shia imams in the U.S., recited as a prayer by
some of them quite public in their support of all observant Muslims, several times daily and
U.S. policies in, e.g., Iraq, even though Iran in every service. (Traditional, non-Wahhabi
does not have official diplomatic relations with Muslims also recite Fatiha as a prayer for the
the U.S. dead.) There are three commonly used,
The OIGDOJ Review had high praise normative English translations of Qur’an
for the role of the Islamic Society of North (Yusuf Ali and M.M. Pickthall for Sunnis, H.H.
America (ISNA) as a certifying and legitimating Shakir for Shias) and their translation of
body, but ignored the origins of ISNA, which Fatiha is shown below:
was set up in 1981 by the Muslim Students’ YUSUF ALI: In the name of Allah, Most
Association of the U.S. and Canada (MSA). Gracious, Most Merciful.
MSA, in turn, had been established in 1963 by PICKTHALL: In the name of Allah, the
the Muslim World League, an international Beneficent, the Merciful.
Wahhabi body, headquartered in Saudi Arabia SHAKIR: In the name of Allah, the
and created only a year before that. The chain Beneficent, the Merciful.
of Wahhabi control from the previously- YUSUF ALI: Praise be to Allah, the
mentioned World Assembly of Muslim Youth Cherisher and Sustainer of the worlds;
(WAMY), which preaches hatred against Shia PICKTHALL: Praise be to Allah, Lord of
Muslims as well as against non-Wahhabi the Worlds,
Sunnis and non-Muslims in general, to ISNA, is SHAKIR: All praise is due to Allah, the
undeniably clear. Lord of the Worlds.
While the OIGDOJ Review danced YUSUF ALI: Most Gracious, Most
around the issue of how to detect Wahhabism Merciful;
radical Islam), and promote a supremacist OIGDOJ: The BOP should require
view of Islam. The system of screening panel interviews for all religious
should be made simple but sophisticated, contractors and Level 2 volunteers.
which would be much less difficult than it Because of the extensive contact
might seem. Knowledgeable outside experts, contractors and volunteers have with
including individuals recommended by CIP inmates, we recommend the BOP
and other moderate Muslim groups, should require contractor and Level 2 volunteer
be assembled in a special federally- applicants to be interviewed thoroughly
empowered body to develop an adequate by a panel consisting of a chaplain, a
questionnaire, supplemented by face-to-face security officer, and a human resources
interviews. official from the BOP institution where
the applicants will work. The BOP likely
OIGDOJ: The BOP should require all will be able to screen contractors and
chaplain, religious contractor, and volunteers more adequately if they are
religious Level 2 volunteer applicants to given more thorough interviews such as
be interviewed by at least one individual the panel interviews given to chaplain
knowledgeable of the applicant’s candidates.
religion. This individual could be a BOP
chaplain, BOP official, or member of an CIP Comment: CIP supports thorough
interfaith chaplain advisory board interviewing but does not accept that
created by the BOP for the purpose of interviewers should be drawn from within the
interviewing chaplain candidates. existing ranks of BOP personnel. A proposed
However, if the BOP creates an special body of outside experts as previously
interfaith chaplain advisory board, described should have main responsibility for
members of the board must be this task.
screened sufficiently to ensure they do
not hold views contrary to BOP policy, OIGDOJ: The BOP should implement
including advocating violence, further security screening requirements
supporting terrorism, or discriminating for religious services providers. The
against people of certain races or BOP should ask chaplains and religious
religions. contractors whether they have ever
received funds from foreign
CIP Comment: In line with CIP’s previous governments. The BOP should ask
comments, interviews with individuals contractors and Level 2 volunteers to
“knowledgeable of the applicant’s religion” report the professional, civic, and
are necessary, but insufficient. DOJ should religious organizations in which they
have specified that interviewers possess hold membership. In addition, the BOP
knowledge beyond the elements of the should verify chaplains’ foreign travel to
applicant’s religion, i.e., specialized determine whether they have spent a
understanding of the ideology of radical significant amount of time in a country
Islam, and especially Wahhabism, that does not have diplomatic relations
emphasizing its promotion of aggressive or treaties with the United States.
Islamization, introduction of shariah (Islamic
law), disobedience to American and other CIP Comment: This represents the focal point
Western laws, and Islamic supremacism. for any effective review of Islamic prison
chaplaincies in the U.S. “Receiving funds
from foreign governments” points directly to serve on the interview panel for Muslim
the problem of Saudi sponsorship for Wahhabi chaplain candidates.
prison chaplaincies in the U.S. While Muslim
chaplains should not be prevented from CIP Comment: CIP must emphasize its concern
making hajj pilgrimages to Saudi Arabia, the that given the present Wahhabi monopoly in
financing of such trips should be monitored, Islamic prison chaplaincies, inclusion of
and acceptance of free hajj tickets to the Saudi currently-employed chaplains would
kingdom considered a conflict of interest for contribute to a circular process in which
Muslim chaplains in U.S. correctional alleged radicals would be tested by those in
institutions. agreement with their ideology, and could be
protected in their position by such
OIGDOJ: The BOP should encourage sympathizers.
chaplains to seek information about CIP also notes the following OIGDOJ
contractor and volunteer applicants statement:
from their local communities. We
recommend that the BOP encourage OIGDOJ: BOP is experiencing a hiring
chaplains at institutions hiring freeze on Muslim chaplains because it
contractors and volunteers to seek will notaccept endorsements from any
information from their local communities Islamic organizations until it receives
about individuals applying to be information on those organizations from
religious services contractors or the FBI. In addition, no other national
volunteers. organization besides the ISNA is
authorized to endorse Muslim
CIP Comment: CIP cannot express confidence in chaplains. Moreover, the BOP will not
vetting of chaplains, contractors, or volunteers hire chaplains who have endorsements
through reports from local Muslim from national organizations about which
communities in the U.S., which are often, if not the FBI has derogatory information.
typically, dominated by Wahhabi clerics.
Interviews by an outside expert body will, we CIP Comment: CIP emphasizes its view that this
believe, prove more effective in preventing the statement and other admissions in the Review
infiltration of radical Islamists into prison regarding investigation of ISNA, provide a
chaplaincies. recognition of the extremist ideological
character of ISNA, regardless of previously
Reliance on Staff Muslim Chaplains indicated ambivalence on this matter.
OIGDOJ: The BOP should more CIP notes that the OIGDOJ Review also
effectively use the expertise of its calls for “evaluat[ion] of the feasibility of
current Muslim chaplains to screen, having correctional officers provide
recruit, and supervise Muslim religious intermittent supervision to all chapels to
services providers. The BOP should supplement the supervisiom provided by
utilize its Muslim chaplains more chaplaincy staff…. [and] the cost, legality, and
effectively by having them review the feasibility of audio and video monitoring to
applications, references, and include all worship areas and chapel
endorsements of potential Muslim classrooms.” These seem to be obviously
chaplains, contractors, and volunteers. prudent measures in a correctional
We also recommend the BOP consider environment.
having at least one Muslim chaplain The OIGDOJ Review includes a
statement with which CIP takes strong supporting discrimination based on race,
exception: “Inmates are radicalized primarily religion, or national origin.
by other inmates.” While this claim may be The Director further stipulated that
accurate in discussing black nationalism, the candidates for chaplaincies should be
NOI, and related phenomena, we do not interviewed by institution chaplains, and that
believe it to be the case regarding the Wahhabi “interview” responses that elicit questionable
form of radical Islam. Rather, we believe information will be forwarded to [a] religion-
Wahhabism is introduced into prisons by specific SME [‘subject matter expert’] drawn
Wahhabi chaplains, and that cessation of the from the ranks of currently-employed
employment of such chaplains and abatement chaplains], and the local JTTF.
of their activities will significantly lower the The Director rejected an OIGDOJ
level of Islamist radicalism in prisons. OIGDOJ recommendation that Level 2 volunteers and
has additionally included some elementary contractors be interviewed, on the ground that
recommendations with which CIP agrees: “The such prospective interviewees totaled 10,000
BOP should provide its staff with training on in 2004, or some 100 for each federal
Islam,” and “The BOP should include in correctional institution.
contractors’ SOWs [scope of work] the themes BOP further expanded an OIGDOJ
and topics on which they should focus.” Again, recommendation to provide that endorsements
CIP and other moderate Muslim organizations of chaplains by local Islamic organizations be
can provide background material, briefings, screened through local JTTF offices
and even full instruction for such staff. The BOP’s Director agreed with all
Finally, OIGDOJ called for enhanced other OIGDOJ recommendations.
cooperation between BOP and the Federal
Bureau of Investigation, the Joint Intelligence
Coordinating Council (JICC), and the Joint 3.5 Center for Islamic Pluralism Comment on
Terrorism Task Forces (JTTF). Such improved U.S. Justice Department Bureau of Prisons
relationships appear implicit in effective law Response to Inspector General’s 2004 Review
enforcement practice. CIP rejects the BOP Director’s
recommendation that interviews of candidates
3.4 U.S. Justice Department Bureau of Prisons for chaplaincies be conducted first by
Response to Inspector General’s 2004 Review institution chaplains, with referral to “subject
On July 12, 2004, the Office of the Director of matter experts” (SMEs) required only when
the Federal Bureau of Prisons (ODBOP), questionable information has been elicited.
Harley G. Lappin, released a response to the CIP also rejects the recommendation
foregoing OIGDOJ Review, including BOP that SMEs be drawn from the ranks of
comments on the recommendations made in currently-employed chaplains, and proposes
the latter document. [31] The BOP Director instead that SMEs be recruited from a wide
concurred with many of the recommendations range of Muslim community leaders
made in the Review. representing mainstream Sunnis (Ahl as-
The Director stated that the BOP’s Sunnah Wa’al Jama’ah), Shias (Ahl ul-Beyt),
Office of General Counsel (OGC) would and long-established Sufi groups, and that
examine screening procedures to determine such SMEs be employed in a permanent
the constitutional permissibility of review body of outside experts, such as
investigation of doctrinal beliefs, as well as previously described.
attitudes toward violence, terrorism, CIP additionally rejects the Director’s
subversion of the U.S. government, and beliefs objection to interviews of all Level 2
volunteers and contractors because of large chaplain will forward the candidates’
numbers. Numbers of interviewees and other responses to the SME for further review. For
bureaucratic considerations must not interfere example, a candidate who advocates violence
with protection against extremism. for religious reasons likely will not answer
CIP additionally rejects the Director’s affirmatively the direct question, ‘Do you
objection to Recommendation 3, calling for advocate violence for religious reasons?’
interviews of all Level 2 volunteers and Therefore, we believe the BOP will have to
contractors on grounds of large numbers. discern candidates’ true beliefs from nuances
in their responses. We believe these nuances
can best be identified and assessed by an SME
3.6 OIGDOJ Analysis of BOP Response to or other individual knowledgeable of the
Review applicant’s religion.”
The Office of the Inspector General of the The OIGDOJ “closed” the difference
Justice Department issued an immediate with BOP’s objection to a recommendation for
analytical response to that produced by the wide-scale interviews, based on the large
BOP. [32] OIGDOJ indicated an “unresolved” number of prospective interviewees. OIGDOJ
difference with BOP regarding the interview stated OIGDOJ stated, “Although the BOP has
process for chaplaincy candidates, in that BOP concluded that its current resources do not
suggested a first interview by an institution permit it to conduct panel interviews for all
chaplain, followed by review by an SME. religious contractors and Level 2 volunteers,
The OIGDOJ stated, “While we agree we agree that the steps it has taken in
with the BOP’s plan to designate SMEs for response to other recommendations will help
religious services providers’ religions, we to address the concerns underlying this
believe that the SMEs, or other individuals recommendation.”
knowledgeable of the applicants’ religions, The OIGDOJ discussed the important
should be involved from the outset in the criterion of “funds from foreign governments”
interview and screening process of candidates in examining the security status of chaplaincy
for religious services positions. Otherwise, it is candidates as follows:
less likely that an institution chaplain will be
able to assess from candidates’ responses “While the BOP’s response addresses
whether they hold views contrary to BOP our recommendation regarding further
policy, and thus unlikely that the institution security screening of contractors and
volunteers, it does not address whether
chaplains will be required to report
whether they ever have received funds
from foreign governments or whether
the BOP will verify their foreign travel…
To close this part of the
recommendation, we request the BOP
inform us… how it plans to determine
whether chaplain candidates ever have
received funds from foreign
governments, and how it plans to verify
chaplain candidates’ foreign travel.”
Cairo, August 1964. Malcolm X attends the Organization of African
Unity conference and meets with Sheik Abdel Rahman Tag, future
rector of Al Azhar, the first Muslim university in the world The OIGDOJ also expressed its concern about
the limitation of SME duties to a single inventory of chapel books and videos and
currently-employed chaplain, as follows: rescreen them to confirm that they are
permissible under BOP security policies. The
“in our review we found that one Muslim BOP should consider maintaining a central
chaplain knew BOP contractor Warith registry of acceptable material to prevent
Deen Umar in a professional setting duplication of effort when reviewing these
several years before Umar joined the materials.” The Center for Islamic Pluralism
BOP, and the chaplain could have requested, under the U.S. Freedom of
informed the BOP that Umar did not Information Act (FOIA) that the Bureau of
hold mainstream Islam values had he Prisons inventory of Islamic religious literature
known at the time of Umar’s application held in federal prison chapels be turned over
that the BOP was considering hiring him to CIP for analysis. The BOP completed and
as a contractor. We believe that the BOP released its inventory to CIP on May 30, 2008.
can benefit significantly from the [34]
collective knowledge and experience of The BOP inventory of Islamic religious
its current Muslim chaplains. We also holdings in federal prison chapels comprises
believe that the BOP’s procedures for 23,386 individual print, video and audio items,
the recruitment, screening, and in a form totaling 399 pages. CIP expresses
supervision of Muslim religious services its appreciation for the cooperation
personnel should draw on the expertise demonstrated by BOP in this matter.
of more than one of its chaplains.” Preliminary analysis of the inventory is
disturbing. Prison Muslim chapel library
OIGDOJ finally agreed with all other BOP holdings show a marked preponderance of
responses to the recommendations in the Wahhabi and other fundamentalist Sunni
original Review. literature and NOI materials. Shia and Sufi
works are generally absent, as are works on
broader aspects of Islamic history and culture.
3.7 Center for Islamic Pluralism Comment on Among the authors available to
OIGDOJ Analysis of BOP Response to Review incarcerated Muslim readers, contemporary
CIP judged as positive OIGDOJ’s analysis of fundamentalist popularizers, including jihadist
BOP’s response but maintains our opposition radicals, are startlingly well-represented.
to the limitation of SME standing to currently Taking into account erroneous spellings in the
employed chaplains. CIP also notes that no inventory, it includes only a half dozen copies
followup studies or other documents have of the Wahhabi edition of the Qur’an.
been issued by the U.S. Justice Department. But it shows at least 280 works by
[33] Abdullah Hakim Quick, a Wahhabi-lining
fundamentalist in South Africa. Quick’s listing
4. U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT BUREAU OF includes videos preaching hateful attacks on
Baha’is, as well as Ahmadis, a heterodox
PRISONS INVENTORY OF PRISON CHAPEL
Muslim group, plus titles like Muslims Under
HOLDINGS IN ISLAMIC RELIGIOUS LITERATURE
Siege and The Importance of Da’wa in Times
of Crisis, and pseudo-historical claims for an
4.1 DOJ-BOP Inventory of Islamic Religious early Muslim presence in the Americas The
Literature in Federal Prison Chapels inventory further encompassed 250 items by
The 2004 U.S. Justice Department’s Review another South African extremist, the late
recommended “The BOP should conduct an Ahmed Deedat, who became notorious as an
anti-Christian preacher, with such piquant But other classic Sufi authors are lacking. Shia
titles as Da’wa or Destruction, as well as writers are only sporadically represented, with
ferocious attacks on Salman Rushdie. no more than a dozen copies of Shia classics
U.S. federal prison libraries also offer like The Peak of Eloquence, comprising the
some 200 volumes by the Indian jihadist Abu’l commentaries of the caliph Ali, son-in-law of
Ala Mawdudi (1903-79). The inventory the Prophet Muhammad and inspirer of the
features approximately 200 products by the Shia sect. Chapel collections include some 50
eccentric Turkish Islamist Harun Yahya, who is English and Spanish editions of the Qur’an
known for donating books printed in issued by the Shia publisher Tahrike Tarsile
numerous languages around the world, many Qur’an. But these Qur’ans do not substitute
of them based on anti-Western conspiracy for works explaining Shia doctrine.
theories. It also lists some 185 works by a The inventory shows 33 works by Yusuf
prominent North American fundamentalist, the al-Qaradawi, whose manual of sharia, The
Egyptian-born Jamal Badawi, 175 titles by Lawful and the Prohibited in Islam, is widely
Imam Siraj Wahhaj, the preacher best known read by Sunnis. This means that approximately
for spreading Wahhabism among black one in three prison Muslim chapel libraries
Americans, and 125 by Jamal Zarabozo, an includes this volume, which is habitually used
American Sunni radical of white origin. Each to introduce new Muslims to fundamentalism.
of these selections exceeds the number of 105 In addition, one finds 30 copies of
federal correctional institutions. Zarabozo is writings by Sayyid Qutb (1906-66), a leading
the compiler of an outrageously retrograde earlier light of the Muslim Brotherhood.
1996 collection of Islamic fatwas on the status Prison libraries house 27 entries for the
of women, which is, of course, available to English edition of Ibn Abd Al-Wahhab’s Kitab
reinforce anti-female attitudes among Muslim al-Tawhid (The Book of Monotheism), the
convicts in American prisons. “classic” work of Wahhabi doctrine, which is
The selection of books on Islam incomprehensible to anybody other than a
available in American prisons lacks any serious Islamic scholar or a person guided
semblance of pluralistic thought, and even through an indoctrination process, and related
slights the most famous classics of Islamic texts on Ibn Abd al-Wahhab. The incidence of
thought. Prison libraries should serve to this specialized text, which is generally
educate and broaden the intellect of the unknown to Muslim believers, mainstream
incarcerated, not to reinforce extremist views. clerics, and academics, is illustrative. Kitab al-
The inventory shows only a dozen volumes by Tawhid is found in the libraries of roughly 25
the 12th century Muslim philosopher Ibn percent of federal prisons.
Rushd (Averroes), renowned throughout the The 2004 Justice Department Inspector
world as a commentator on Aristotle. It lists General’s Review called for screening out
less than a half dozen copies, altogether, of unacceptable materials from Islamic chapel
texts by the philosopher Alfarabi, the great libraries. While many more of the books and
Sufi Ibn Arabi, and the historian Ibn Khaldun, videos included in the BOP’s inventory,
and not a single book by the Islamic polymath including the propaganda of Farrakhan’s
Ibn Sina (Avicenna). Nation of Islam, are objectionable, and others
The prison library register does are, at least, ambiguous enough to require
encompass 50 volumes by the greatest Islamic further analysis, the sample of extremist
theological figure after Muhammad and the propaganda described herein comprises
defender of Sufism, al-Ghazali, and more than materials that should be removed forthwith
25 copies of selections of the Sufi poet Rumi. and banned from further entry into prisons.
6. CENTER FOR ISLAMIC PLURALISM 6. “An Histoical (sic) Look at the Honorable Elijah
Muhammad,” at NOI official website,
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS http://www.noi.org/elijah_muhammad_history.htm
The Center for Islamic Pluralism (CIP) firstly 7. See material on pro-Japanese agitation in Harlem in John
addresses itself to Muslims incarcerated in the Roy Carlson [Derounian, Avedis], Under Cover, New York, E.P.
U.S. correctional systems, who resent and Dutton, 1943, a standard work on pro-Axis subversion.
8. See biography of Malcolm X at
resist aggression by Wahhabi chaplains. CIP
www.cmgww.com/historic/malcolm/.
invites any such Muslims to contact CIP at its 9. See Schwartz, Stephen, “Prison Poison,” New York Post,
Washington, DC address, describing their January 10, 2006.
experiences and giving expression to their 10. See http://foia.fbi.gov/foiaindex/smith.htm.
complaints. Any such communications will be 11. The official website www.themosquecares.com has expired.
kept strictly confidential. CIP notes that other 12. See “The False Mahdi Brays Loudly,” CIP WahhabiWatch #3, at
www.islamicpluralism.org/wahhabiwatch/2005w/ww2005.htm
moderate Muslim groups have received such
13. Text available from the Center for Islamic Pluralism.
complaints but failed to act on them. 14. U.S. Court of Appeals 2nd Circuit, Summary Order,
CIP secondly proposes to develop a September 28, 2007, in CIP archive.
standard packet of Islamic books for donation 15. Hamm, Mark S., “Terrorist Recruitment in American
to chapels and libraries U.S. correctional Correctional Systems,” at
institutions. www.scribd.com/doc/1228886/Criminal-Justice-Reference-
220957
CIP, thirdly, calls on the U.S. Justice
16. Accessible at www.usdoj.gov/oig/special/0404/index.htm 17.
Department to review its recommendations Page 3, para. 5 in the original .pdf form.
from 2004 and to issue a supplemental review 18. Page 3, para. 6, ibid.
accounting for the proposed reform of the 19. Page 3, para. 6, in ibid.
process. 20. Page 3, para. 6, in ibid.
Finally, CIP concludes this report with a 21. Page 3, para. 6, in ibid.
22. Page 3, para. 7, in ibid.
question. Given that the OIGDOJ Review and
23. Schwartz, Stephen, The Other Islam: Sufism and the Road to
subsequent official documentation repeatedly Global Harmony, New York, Doubleday, 2008.
admitted the existence among prison Muslim 24. Page 4, para. 3, as cited to .pdf form.
religious service providers of dangerous 25. See discussion of Iranian radical Shia ideology in the CIP
attitudes toward violence, terrorism, Report, Scientific Training and Radical Islam, issued in 2008.
subversion, and discrimination, why has the 26. Chicago, Kazi Publications, 1996.
27. Page 7, para. 1, in .pdf form of Review.
Department of Justice failed to adequately
28. Page 9, para. 3, ibid.
discuss dismissal of such personnel now 29. Page 23, para. 5, ibid.
employed, rather than simply screening future 30. The Noble Qur’an in the English Language, Riyadh, Saudi
hires? Wahhabi clerics should be removed Arabia, Darussalam Publishers and Distributors, 1996.
from employment at all U.S. and UK 31. Office of the Director, Federal Bureau of Prisons, U.S.
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32. Office of the Inspector General, U.S. Department of Justice,
NOTES: Analysis of the Response by the Federal Bureau of Prisons to
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Westport, CT, Praeger, 2004. Selection of Muslim Religious Services Providers, July 2004,
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Westport, CT, Praeger, 2004.] 33. See www.usdoj.gov/oig/reports/BOP/index.htm.
3. Swanson, Christopher B, PhD, Cities in Crisis, Bethesda, MD, 34. Chapel Library Catalog, Bureau of Prisons, May 8, 2008, in
Editorial Projects in Education, 2008.] CIP archive.
4. Turner, Richard Brent, Islam in the African American 35. See the European website maintained by the Centre for
Experience, Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 2003. Islamic Pluralism,
5. Fard, Wallace D., FBI online archive, at www.islamicpluralism.eu/video.html?bcpid=824493259&bcli
http://foia.fbi.gov/famous.htm. d=716057491&bctid=1616703857