Alarming claims of forced conversions to Islam inside prisons across England and Wales are drawing renewed scrutiny in Britain, with reports alleging that Muslim gangs have pressured and threatened vulnerable inmates into converting.

The controversy intensified after Conservative Shadow Justice Secretary Nick Timothy called on the Labour government to urgently investigate the allegations. Timothy said data he obtained showed that one in five Muslim prisoners is a white Briton — roughly four times the equivalent proportion in the general population.

Timothy claimed Islamist gangs wield significant influence inside some prisons and alleged that inmates may view conversion as necessary to receive protection from powerful groups behind bars.

The concerns are backed by warnings contained in previous official reviews of Britain’s prison system.

A 2022 report by Jonathan Hall, the UK’s Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation, found evidence that Islamist terrorists were acting as “self-appointed emirs” inside prisons and exerting controlling and radicalizing influence over other Muslim inmates.

The report described extremists recruiting vulnerable or isolated prisoners through mentoring, food and gifts, and documented cases of conversion accompanied by implied or actual violence.

Another government-commissioned review, conducted by Colin Bloom and published in 2023, raised similar concerns. Bloom said investigators received evidence that Qurans had been placed on the beds of newly arrived non-Muslim inmates with an apparent warning that they should convert or face violence.

Bloom said aggressive Islamist gangs in certain prisons could effectively determine who received protection, leaving inmates who refused to join vulnerable to intimidation or attacks. He also stressed that many Muslim chaplains perform positive work inside British prisons and that the problem should not be generalized to all Muslim prisoners or institutions.

The British Ministry of Justice pushed back against claims that extremist gangs dominate the prison system, saying there is no evidence of gang-based extremism in most prisons.

Officials nevertheless said religious coercion, intimidation and gang activity will not be tolerated, and that prison authorities have strengthened intelligence gathering and training to identify and disrupt extremist organizations.

Muslims currently account for approximately 18% of prisoners in England and Wales, compared with around 6.5% of the general population. Critics say the disparity and reported conversion patterns warrant further investigation, although those figures alone do not establish that forced conversions are responsible.

Warnings over religious coercion in British prisons stretch back more than a decade, with previous government reviews documenting religious extremism and what one report described as aggressive efforts to encourage inmates to convert to Islam.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)