 OgopogoJoined: 11 Dec 2004 Total posts: 11616 Gender: Unknown
|
 Posted: 04/ 08/ 08 9:00 pm Post subject: Muslim sex offenders could opt out of treatment programme |
 |
|
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=558091&in_page_id=1770
Muslim sex offenders could opt out of treatment programme 'because it's against their faith'
By JAMES SLACK - More by this author » Last updated at 22:03pm on 8th April 2008
Comments Comments
It is against the rules of Islam for Muslims to discuss their crimes (file photo)
Muslim sex offenders are asking to be let off a prison treatment programme on religious grounds.
Rapists, paedophiles and other dangerous attackers are expected to discuss their crimes with other inmates as a condition of release.
But Muslim prisoners complain that criminals should not have to talk about their offences - a "legitimate Islamic position", according to Ahtsham Ali, the Prison Service's Muslim adviser.
One thousand inmates were put on the Sex Offender Treatment Programme last year with places usually reserved for the most dangerous attackers.
Failure to complete the course can weigh against an offender at parole hearings.
The possibility of an exemption for Muslims came to light in a letter from an unnamed inmate to Inside Time, a newspaper for prisoners.
The convict said: "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."
Experts said ministers, who have launched a review of the issue, could face a legal challenge from Muslims kept longer in prison because they had not undergone the treatment programme.
Harry Fletcher, of the probation union Napo, said: "If they do not take part, Muslim sex offenders are likely to serve longer sentences, possibly the whole of their term, before they are released."
Nick Herbert, Tory justice spokesman, said: "There can be no religious discrimination when it comes to deciding the appropriate and safe time to release a prisoner.
"In any case, all prisoners, regardless of religion, should have their release made conditional on their behaviour and progress in custody, not be given automatic release at the half-way mark."
A Prison Service spokesman said officials were seeking to ensure the treatment programme was sensitive to "the diversity of religions within the prison context".
"Membership of a particular religion is not a bar to participation in accredited programmes," she insisted, adding that offenders were carefully vetted to ensure they were suitable candidates for the course. |
|
OfficialPro
Joined: 24 Oct 2005 Total posts: 3044 Location: Live At The Necropolis Age: 36 Gender: Unknown
|
| Posted: 04/ 08/ 08 11:55 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Oh great, Muslims can't talk about their problems. No wonder they can't solve anything.
_________________
"It's Ancient History, just like the Democratic Party"-Lt. Frank Drebin, The Naked Gun 2&1/2
"I can't see anybody going to see Morrisey. His fans have all killed themselves" -Tom Leykis
"The purpose of Margaret Atwood is to lower provincial test scores" - someusw3stnoob |
|
