Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of figures, infographics, images and tables
- List of abbreviations
- About the authors
- Acknowledgements
- Foreword
- Introduction: A tale of three prisoners
- 1 Where does Islam come from and who are Muslim prisoners?
- 2 What is Islam in prison?
- 3 Finding their faith: why do prisoners choose Islam?
- 4 What types of Islam do prisoners follow?
- 5 Mainstream Islam in prison
- 6 Islamism and Islamist Extremism in prison
- 7 The lives of Muslim prisoners: opportunities and risks
- 8 Caring for Muslim prisoners: Muslim prison chaplaincy
- 9 Managing Muslim prisoners: treading a middle path between naïvety and suspicion
- Conclusion: The Virtuous Cycle of Rehabilitation and Avoiding the Vicious Cycle of Extremism
- Appendix 1 Theoretical framework
- Appendix 2 Methodology
- Appendix 3 Ethics, recruitment, data analysis and data management
- Appendix 4 Descriptions of our research prisons
- Appendix 5 How UCIP ascertained the Worldviews of Muslim prisoners
- Glossary of key terms and important names
- References
- Index
7 - The lives of Muslim prisoners: opportunities and risks
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 June 2023
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of figures, infographics, images and tables
- List of abbreviations
- About the authors
- Acknowledgements
- Foreword
- Introduction: A tale of three prisoners
- 1 Where does Islam come from and who are Muslim prisoners?
- 2 What is Islam in prison?
- 3 Finding their faith: why do prisoners choose Islam?
- 4 What types of Islam do prisoners follow?
- 5 Mainstream Islam in prison
- 6 Islamism and Islamist Extremism in prison
- 7 The lives of Muslim prisoners: opportunities and risks
- 8 Caring for Muslim prisoners: Muslim prison chaplaincy
- 9 Managing Muslim prisoners: treading a middle path between naïvety and suspicion
- Conclusion: The Virtuous Cycle of Rehabilitation and Avoiding the Vicious Cycle of Extremism
- Appendix 1 Theoretical framework
- Appendix 2 Methodology
- Appendix 3 Ethics, recruitment, data analysis and data management
- Appendix 4 Descriptions of our research prisons
- Appendix 5 How UCIP ascertained the Worldviews of Muslim prisoners
- Glossary of key terms and important names
- References
- Index
Summary
In this chapter, using seven short case studies, we give voice to the often intense experiences of the different types of Muslim prisoner that we have outlined in the previous chapters: Converts, Intensifiers, Shifters, Remainers and Reducers, who hold different types of Islamic Worldview.
We tell the stories of these prisoners to illustrate the opportunities for rehabilitation and the risks involved in significant religious change in prison, as well as the complexity and diversity of Muslim prisoners’ lives.
The Converts
Converts we have defined as those prisoners who chose to follow Islam for the first time from another faith or from no faith in prison. Converts represented 21 per cent of our data sample.
As we discussed in Chapter 3, the largest proportion of Converts were in English prisons (27 per cent). In Switzerland and France, it was far less common to choose Islam for the first time in prison.
We have also seen how Converts are likely to exhibit strong Attitude to Rehabilitation, as well as being prone to some risk of Islamism and Islamist Extremism.
Case study 1: Chris, ‘Convert’, HMP Cherwell, Category C Prison
Chris is an example of a slow reflective process of religious conversion and rehabilitative change in prison. Chris had turned to Islam with a Mainstream Worldview to help him give up his dependence on drugs and to achieve emotional balance. This rehabilitative change was supported by engagement with Muslim prison chaplains and caring relationships with other Muslim prisoners.
Biography
Chris is a 47-year-old, White British Convert to Mainstream Islam in prison from Anglican Christianity (Church of England). Coming from a “strict” Anglican upbringing which involved going to Church and Sunday School every week and being “taught right from wrong” by his grandmother, conversion to Islam had been a slow and reflective process for Chris.
Chris’s journey towards Mainstream Islam was eased by the fact that he had close family members who were also Muslim. Chris’s parents had split up a few years before his arrest. His mother remarried a Moroccan and she herself converted to Islam after her marriage. Chris’s brother had also been sentenced to prison and he too had converted to Islam during his sentence.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Islam in PrisonFinding Faith, Freedom and Fraternity, pp. 152 - 178Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2022