Sunday, June 19, 2005

70 percent of French prisoners are Muslims

French prisons are teeming with Muslims, a phenomenon chaplains and sociologists blame on marginalization and towering poverty and unemployment rates among the Muslim minority. “It really harms the image of Islam and Muslims in France that prisons are teeming with Muslims,” Mamdo Sango, a Muslim chaplain, told IslamOnline.net. Iranian-French researcher Farhad Khosrokhavar said in his recently published book Islam in Prisons that Muslims make up some 70 percent of a total of 60,775 prisoners in France. As ethnicity-based censuses are banned in France, he said complexion, names and religious traditions like prohibition of pork indicate that Muslims constitute an overwhelming majority in prisons. French analysts further warned that prisons might be a breeding ground for extremists. Prison authorities have even become phobic about rising fanaticism in prisons to the extent that they sometimes deny Muslim prisoners the right to have prayer rugs.

5 Comments:

At June 20, 2005 1:26 AM, Blogger Don Miguel said...

I'd like to know what percentage of them are immigrants as opposed to French by birth. And what percentage of the immigrants already had criminal records. The article also had a telling sentence:

"Although none of the French Muslim organizations approached by IOL had a clear answer to the mind-boggling phenomenon, some heaped blame on failed integration policies."

This is typical -- Muslim organizations are good at laying blame but never have solutions. And for some reason they can't seem to grasp the fact that integration is a two-way street. After all, they are in France -- not the Middle East.

 
At June 20, 2005 1:36 AM, Blogger Meme chose said...

It's the 'European Social Model' in action. You know, the one EU countries like the Netherlands and the UK would be emulating if they were good 'community-minded' EU members.

The French see themselves as born to lead, but have absolutely no clue where they are going.

Their ideology begins with vanity and ends right there.

 
At June 20, 2005 9:15 AM, Blogger Jude the Obscure said...

An interesting book, perhaps more telling than Mahfouz's book 'Beyond Belief' is 'The Closed Circle' by David Pryce-Jones (Paladin 1990) which gives insight into the Muslim psychology.

 
At June 20, 2005 9:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Slight correction: "Beyond Belief" was authored by V. S. Naipaul, not Mahfouz.

 
At June 20, 2005 9:25 PM, Blogger Jude the Obscure said...

You are right Irene. I have these elderly moments, can't trust my memory any more. In future, I get up and do a check.

 

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