http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=519&ncid=716&e=7&u=/ap/20040505/ap_on_re_us/prisons_muslim_chaplainsCould just as easily say "Screening Nonexistent on Christian Chaplains" such as the ones who run an entire prison in Fla.
WASHINGTON - Federal prison officials are failing to adequately screen Muslim chaplains and others who provide Islamic religious services to inmates to determine whether they hold extremist views, Justice Department (news - web sites) investigators say.
A report by Justice Department inspector general Glenn A. Fine also found Muslim contractors and volunteers have ample opportunity "to deliver inappropriate and extremist messages," which could lead to terrorist recruitment, inside federal prisons because they lack proper supervision.
Muslim inmates themselves sometimes lead Islamic services in prisons, another potential source of terror recruitment and dissemination of extremist doctrine, according to the report obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press. Formal release was set for Wednesday.
"Religious providers are in a unique position to influence the beliefs and conduct of inmates," the report said. "The presence of extremist chaplains, contractors or volunteers ... can pose a threat to institutional security and could implicate national security if inmates are encouraged to commit terrorist acts."Um, don't inmates have to be released first before they can commit any terrorist acts? And wouldn't they come under the same scrutiny as any other members of terrorist groups? Oh, right, we don't have any.
Is there any conceivable justification for singling out Islam, as opposed to saying "Chaplains of all denominations have access to prisoners to deliver messages, etc.", or is this just plain, unadulterated Islamophobia? Note: attorneys have the same kind of access to inmates, a subject which usually only seems to come up when the inmate is Muslim.
Note also that absolutely no distinction is made between the brand of Islam that underpins al-Qaida, and our own homegrown Nation of Islam, which has about as much to do with al-Qaida as did Saddam. I would wager that a substantial number of the 9,000 Muslims in the federal prison system are menbers of the NOI.