07-May-2012
The
Czech Interior Ministry’s latest quarterly report on the state of
extremism and security situation in the country reveals that a
considerable number of prison nmates have converted to Islam. Chairwoman
for religious and spiritual affairs in the Czech Prison Service Renata
Balcarová says most of the converts to Islam do so for entirely material
reasons, such as a more varied menu, and typically don’t have any idea
about or genuine interest in the religion.
Balcarová
says she cannot give a precise figure for the number of converts to
Islam in Czech prisons, but estimates that there are “several dozen”
such cases. And for the most part the inspiration is gastronomic, not
spiritual. “They get the notion that the Muslim diet will be more
interesting and varied. It’s more or less the rule that the lower the
intellectual capacity of these people, the greater the likelihood of
this phenomenon emerging. They simply see that a Muslim has something
else on his plate and also want it,” Balcarová said in an interview with
the server tyden.cz.
Balcarová
explains that the bogus converts are exposed by prison chaplains who
hold long discussions with them and typically discover they know
practically nothing about the Koran, the life of the prophet Mohamed,
and the basic principles of the faith.
The
prison with the largest number of supposed Muslims in the Czech
Republic is the Ruýzně facility in Prague 6, where Balcarová says there
are currently 20 inmates who profess adherence to the faith. In the
early 1990’s there were a number of foreign Muslim inmates and the then
governor of the prison agreed to convert the chapel into a dual faith
prayer room. To this day Ruýzně is the only such facility in the Czech
Republic with such an arrangement.
In
addition to a Halal diet, Balcarová says that Muslim inmates in Ruýzně
are provided with prayer mats, headscarves, and are allowed into the
prayer room in accordance with Muslim times of prayer. In most other
prisons, however, Muslims — superficial or genuine — do not receive
special concessions, at least when it comes to meal times.
“When
someone proclaims he is Muslim in a prison where he is the only
adherent of that confession, the prison is not obliged to provide him
with a Muslim diet,” Balcarová explains, adding that in such cases the
converts usually write multiple letters of complaint. Each complaint is
treated individually, she says: in some cases convicts are moved to
other prisons with Muslim inmates, in other cases they are informed that
they’re unlucky and nothing can be done.
“About
14 days ago one employee of the Prison Service put such effort into a
reply to a disgruntled convict that he literally quoted the Koran. It’s
written in there that if a Muslim finds himself in a place where it’s
not possible to observe the [Halal] diet, Allah will forgive him and he
may consume forbidden food,” Balcarová says.
According
to Balcarová there appears to be no danger whatsoever of the converts
becoming dangerous Islamic fundamentalists and that not a single case of
propagating violent Jihad has been registered in Czech prisons.
“They’re mostly a peace-loving community,” Balcarová says of the Czech
Muslim jailbirds.
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