UK Muslim community is 4.8 percent, but Muslim inmates are 16 percent of the prison population

Wednesday 07 August - 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 a 'worrying trend', says the report, with the potential to cause longer-term social strife between communities.

But apparently it's all the fault of non-Muslims.

'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.' However, 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.'

Author's comment: Muslims never consider 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. To do so would be 'Islamophobic.'