The UK’s Muslim community constitutes 4.8 percent of its population, but Muslim inmates are 16 percent of the prison population.
In a move characteristic of Islamic spokesmen, Zaid M. Belbagi blames this on the non-Muslims of Britain, for supposedly keeping the Muslims of the country in poverty, denying them educational opportunities, and racially profiling them (what race is Islam again?). Belbagi never considers the possibility that when a community is taught by many of its spokesmen that the laws of the land are manmade and hence of no value, and those who enforce them are contemptible, the result will be a high rate of criminality. No one dares try to initiate any public discussion of that possibility in shattered, staggering, dhimmi Britain. To do so would be “Islamophobic.”
“Large Muslim prison population a test for Johnson’s unity pledge,” by Zaid M. Belbagi, Arab News, August 1, 2019:
With news of a new prime minister in 10 Downing Street, a landmark UK House of Commons paper on the British prison population that was released last week was largely ignored. It contains information on the prison population size and change over time, the demographic profile of prisoners, safety in prisons, and costs per prisoner. A key conclusion of the report was that, despite the country’s Muslim community only constituting 4.8 percent of the general population, Muslim inmates count for a staggering 16 percent of the prison population. The unexplained increase in the number of Muslims in prison is indeed a worrying trend, with the potential to cause longer-term social strife between communities….
Commentator Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan wrote in 2017 that “if you keep a population poor, deny them opportunities to education… racially profile them, then there’s your answer.” Though there is valid reasoning in this observation, the Muslim community itself can do a lot more to ensure that education of young people is central to their lives. The government can, to a certain degree, review racial disparities — but, without community activism and engagement, the perpetual cycle of Muslim youths offending and reoffending will not be broken. New Prime Minister Boris Johnson has made uniting the country central to his term in office; he would do well to address this issue so as to best harness the talents of Britain’s largest minority faith group.