French prisons teeming with Muslims

Hadi Yahmid:

Iranian-French researcher Farhad Khosrokhavar said in his recently published book Islam in Prisons that Muslims make up some 70 percent of a total of 60,775 prisoners in France.

As ethnicity-based censuses are banned in France, he said complexion, names and religious traditions like prohibition of pork indicate that Muslims constitute an overwhelming majority in prisons.

Khosrokhavar also noted that Islam has become a sought-after religion in prisons with a Christian prisoner asking prison authorities to provide him with halal meat almost on a weekly basis.

Afro-French Sango, for his part, complained about a severe shortage in the number of Muslim chaplains in French prisons.

“I have to move from a prison to another on Fridays to meet the religious needs of Muslims prisoners,” he said.

There are only 69 Muslim chaplains in a total of 185 prisons, a figure which is dwarfed by 500 Catholic chaplains.

France is home to some six to seven Muslims, the largest Muslim minority in Europe.

Islam in Jail: Europe's Neglect Breeds Angry Radicals

70 percent of French prisoners are Muslims

France:lslam in Jail

"Islam is becoming in Europe, especially France, the religion of the repressed, what Marxism was in Europe at one time"

Why the French lock up immigrants

Growing Muslim prison population poses huge risks

In Europe, 'Secular' Doesn't Quite Translate