Muslim sex offenders may be allowed to opt out of a prison treatment programme because it is against their religion, it has emerged.
The Prison Service's Muslim advisor has said there is a "legitimate Islamic position" that criminals should not discuss their crimes with others.
You know, depending on which mainstream Islamic holy texts you read, there is a "legitimate Islamic position" that calls for people to commit crimes, too. And don't think that's not where this is headed.
Under the Sex Offender Treatment Programme (SOTP), which treats more than 600 prisoners including rapists and sexual killers each year, offenders must discuss their crime, sometimes in groups.
Ahtsham Ali said he would now urgently raise the issue with prison policy makers, raising the prospect of an exemption or special rules for Muslim prisoners.
However, union leaders warned that as treatment is used to assess whether prisoners are suitable for early release, Muslims who have to serve longer terms because they did not take part could sue the Prison Service.
The prospect of a dispensation for Muslim prisoners emerged after an unnamed prisoner wrote to a prison magazine asking for clarification of the position of Muslims on the programme.
He wrote: "I have always insisted that it was against Islamic teachings to discuss your offence to anyone, let alone act it out within a peer group."
He should have written: "Islamic teachings call for me to do this deed. Why am I being punished for it?"
Mr Ali said the issue had been raised before and told Inside Times: "I will be taking it forward as a matter of some urgency with colleagues, including those with policy responsibility for the SOTP programme."
The Prison Service last night said it was seeking to ensure the programme was "sensitive to the diversity of religions within the prison context".
Did you catch that? Society must be "sensitive to the diversity of religions".
The idea that practitioners of these religions (and others) should be sensitive to the norms of the society in which they live is out the window -- and this idea is at the very foundation of law and of society!
Mark Leech, the editor of the Prisons Handbook, said: "Muslims who don't want to take part in the course may have to spend more time in prison, because their risk of re-offending will not be assessed as part of the treatment programme.
"This would be quite right, because we have to think about the victim.
"I think it is feasible there may be a judicial review so that Muslim sex offenders get a dispensation from the rules."
That's just what they need: to give Muslims a pass regarding criminal laws that are inconvenient. Is that not submission as a dhimmi?
Harry Fletcher, the assistant general secretary of probation union Napo, described the situation as an "intractable problem".
The reason the problem is intractable is because the only people with any balls here are the sex offenders.
He said: "The logic is that Muslims cannot take part in offender programmes and therefore their offending behaviour cannot be assessed and they are unlikely to be granted parole.
"They may then seek legal redress through judicial review on the grounds that they are being discriminated against on the grounds of religion."
Heaven forbid that a Muslim woman who gets sexually assaulted by her husband in complete accordance with Islamic law should be considered "discriminated against on the grounds of religion."
A spokeswoman for the Prison Service said the programme was suitable for all sex offenders.
She said: "Membership of a particular religion is not a bar to participation in accredited programmes."
There's another "programme" that is available to sex offenders in the UK: chemical castration.
While we're at it, there was a time in the US when rape was a capital offense. And, capital punishment has the advantage of being allowed under Islamic law.
Maybe the UK should be more open-minded, and offer chemical castration and capital punishment to its Muslim sex offenders.
(What in the world do I call a post like this...? I know!)
2 comments:
yup I read this as well and could just sit there with my mouth open!..we shall reap what we sow my friend!
If it is "against Islamic teachings to discuss your offence to anyone", how do Muslims charged with crimes manage to brief their defence lawyers or discuss grounds for appeal [even under sharia law]? Presumably they just stay schtumm from the moment they are arrested - which doesn't seem very likely to me!
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