King hearing today on Islamic radicalization in prisons

      U.S. Rep. Peter King is conducting his second hearing on Islamic radicalization, this one focused on a very serious problem, radicalization in our prison system.
      On June 13^th our friends at the Center for Security Policy issued the press release below, drawing attention to the recent study showing how prevalent jihadist materials are in a representative sample of American mosques.
      This raises a very important question: How frequently are these same kinds of materials being used in our prison system? Which begs the next question: Why should materials calling for jihad be allowed in our prison system at all?

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Violence-Positive Texts Incubate Jihad in
Mosques; Congress Needs to Ensure They Do Not
Do the Same in Federal Prisons

Washington, DC, June 13, 2011 – Chairman Peter King has just announced the witnesses who will appear on June 15th before the House Homeland Security Committee as part of a series of hearings on radicalization of the Muslim-American community. The Center for Security Policy respectfully suggests that one of the lines of questioning for the past and present law enforcement officials* called to testify about “The Threat of Muslim-American Radicalization in U.S. Prisons” must be an inquiry into permitted print and video materials that may contribute to jihadist recruitment and indoctrination inside federal penal institutions.

Such materials were used in a new peer-reviewed study published last week in the highly respected journal Middle East Quarterly (MEQ) as indicators of jihadist sentiment and proselytization in a random sample of 100 American mosques. This study, which is entitled Shari’a and Violence in American Mosques, involved the collection of empirical data through repeated on-site investigations over several years. It established that 81% of U.S. mosques had the cited materials on the premises. The study also found that in over 84% of the mosques surveyed, the imam recommended texts advocating violent jihad.

The seven texts featured in the MEQ analysis are illustrative of the body of hate-mongering, supremacist literature and films used by shariah-adherent Muslims to inculcate in targeted populations their call to violent jihad:

1. Al-Nawawi's Riyad-us Saliheen (Gardens of the Righteous)

2. Maududi's Jihad in Islam

3. al-Misri's Umdat al-Salik (The Reliance of the Traveller)

4. Maududi's Tafhim al-Qur’an (The Meaning of the Qur’an)

5. Saabiq's Fiqh-us-Sunnah (The Book on Acts of Worship)

6. Tafsir Ibn Kathir

7. Qutb's Ma’alim fi’l-Tariq (Milestones)

[Click the links above to read more about each book, including PDFs of the full text, notes on each texts' availability, and more.]

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr., President of the Center for Security Policy, said today:

The materials advocating violent jihad found in the vast majority of American mosques surveyed in the Middle East Quarterly study have reportedly also been made available in American prisons nationwide. If so, there is every reason to believe they will contribute significantly to the radicalization of inmates.

The House Homeland Security Committee’s hearing on Wednesday is an opportunity to amplify and inform the public debate over the national security implications of jihadist texts that are found in both America’s mosques and prisons – and to set the stage for addressing the seditious actions they are designed to foment.

Illustrative quotes from these materials include:

From Maududi’s Jihad in Islam: “Islam wishes to destroy all States and Governments anywhere on the face of the earth which are opposed to the ideology and programme of Islam regardless of the country or the Nation which rules it. The purpose of Islam is to set up a State on the basis of its own ideology and programme, regardless of which Nation assumes the role of the standard bearer of Islam or the rule of which nation is undermined in the process of the establishment of an ideological Islamic State.”

From Qutb’s Milestones: “If someone does this [prevents others from accepting Islam], then it is the duty of Islam to fight him until either he is killed or until he declares his submission.” (Chapter 4).

From Qutb’s Milestones: “But any place where the Islamic Shari’ah is not enforced and where Islam is not dominant becomes the home of Hostility (Dar-ul-Harb) for both the Muslim and the Dhimmi. A Muslim will remain prepared to fight against it, whether it be his birthplace or a place where his relatives reside or where his property or any other material interests are located.” (Chapter 9)

The full text of the Middle East Quarterly article can be found at http://www.meforum.org/2931/american-mosques.
Additional resources may be found at www.mappingsharia.com.

* Witnesses at the second of the Homeland Security Committee’s Radicalization hearings will be: Patrick Dunleavy, Retired Deputy Inspector, Criminal Intelligence Unit, New York Department of Correctional Services; Kevin Smith, a former Assistant United States Attorney for the Central District of California; and Los Angeles Police Department Deputy Chief Michael Downing, Commanding Officer, Counter-Terrorism and Special Operations Bureau.