Charles Colson, Watergate felon and founder of Prison Fellowship Ministries, wrote a column in June 2002 for the Wall Street Journal in which he claimed that through his work in prisons, he had observed that there was a "growing Muslim presence" and that those "alienated, disenfranchised people are prime targets for radical Islamists who preach a religion of violence, of overcoming oppression by jihad."

Colson maintained that al-Qaeda training manuals "specifically identify America's prisoners as candidates for conversion because they may be 'disenchanted with their country's policies'." He pointed out that "terrorism experts fear these angry young recruits will become the next wave of terrorists. As U.S. citizens, they will combine a desire for 'payback' with an ability to blend easily into American culture."

Colson offered up a solution: "deny radical imams access to inmates."

Roy Innis, who during the Civil Rights struggles of the 1960s distinguished himself as an activist for justice with CORE (the Congress of Racial Equality), also warned that African American prisoners -- as well as African American college students -- were empty vessels awaiting terrorist recruitment.

One of the differences between King, and Colson and Innis, is that the congressman has the power of Congress behind him, while the other two spent a lot of time talking to conservative audiences and getting interviewed by right-wing newspapers.

As chair of the House Homeland Security Committee King had held an all-day hearing in March into the "radicalization" of the American Muslim community; a hearing whose critics maintained King was trudging down a dangerous McCarthyist anti-Muslim path.

On Wednesday, June 15, King held a second set of Muslim-focused hearings, this one centering on whether U.S. prisons are becoming spawning grounds for Muslim terrorists.

By way of a pre-emptive strike against his critics, King insisted that he had stated "repeatedly" that "the overwhelming majority of Muslim Americans are outstanding Americans. Yet," King went on, "the first radicalization hearing which this committee held in March of this year was met with much mindless hysteria - led by radical groups such as the Council of Islamic Relations and their allies in the liberal media, personified by The New York Times. Countering Islamic radicalization should not be a partisan issue."

In his opening statement at the hearing, which was entitled, "The Threat of Muslim-American Radicalization in U.S. Prisons," King said: "A number of cases since 9/11 have involved terrorists who converted to Islam or were radicalized to Islamism in American prisons, then subsequently attempted to launch terror strikes here in the U.S. upon their release from custody."

One of the key witnesses at King's hearings was Patrick Dunleavy, A retired official in the New York State Correctional Services. "As the former Deputy Inspector General of the Criminal Intelligence Division in the New York State Department of Corrections, I am aware that individuals and groups that subscribe to radical, and sometimes violent, ideology have made sustained efforts over several decades to target inmates for indoctrination," Dunleavy said.

Dunleavy said contrary to what people think, "prison walls are porous." "Outside influences access those on the inside, and inmates reach from the inside out."

He added that "although the initial exposure/conversion/indoctrination to extremist jihadi Islam may begin in prison, it often matures and deepens after release through the contacts on the outside that the inmate made while they were serving their sentences in prison."

(For a thorough critique of Dunleavy's testimony, see Imam Al-Hajj Talib 'Abdur-Rashid's "Rebuttal of Patrick Dunleavy's Testimony Before the House Committee," @ http://palashbiswaslive.blogspot.com/2011/06/fwd-bangla-vision-re p-peter-kings.html.)

ColorLines' Shani O. Hilton reported that "Much of the testimony focused on black males who convert to Islam in prison-or, as one witness put it, 'Prislam,' a new bit of lingo that committee members began repeating. The idea is as awkward as the word: These converts, insisted another witness, 'are primed to become terrorists.'"

Hilton pointed out that despite anti-Islam caterwauling, "There's little more evidence tying Islamic conversion in prisons to domestic terrorism today than there was tying civil rights activists and black Muslims to Communists plots generations ago."

According to Hilton, "Michigan Democrat Rep. Hansen Clarke seemed to think that the hearing was missing the point, as he gave an impassioned speech calling for prison reform. Clarke, who is of Bangladeshi descent and was raised in Detroit by his black mother, talked about childhood friends who went to prison and said that young black boys who go to jail end up 'hardened criminals, by virtue of their time in prison.'"

Clarke said that he thought many of those converting to Islam in prison were doing it more out of self-preservation than anything else: "I asked someone who spent time in prison why they converted to Islam and why other people do." He was told that they do it for three reasons: "For protection from other inmates, for protection from guards ... and to break away from their criminal pasts. To become a new man."

Rep. Laura Richardson (D-Calif.) turned to King during the hearing and said it was "racist and discriminatory."  She said blaming "one particular group on the basis of race or religion is flawed, and should not be done in the House of Representatives,"  according to The Los Angeles Times.

In September 2006, a Special Report by The George Washington University Homeland Security Policy Institute and The University of Virginia Critical Incident Analysis Group, titled "Out of the Shadows: Getting Ahead of Prison Radicalization," found that:

*    Radicalization is neither unique to Islam nor a recent phenomenon, and remains the exception among prisoners rather than the rule. Right-wing extremist groups are also present in prisons and have an extensive history of terrorist attacks.
*    "Jailhouse Islam", based upon cut-and-paste versions of the Qur'an, incorporates violent prison culture into religious practice.
*    The inadequate number of Muslim religious services providers increases the risk of radicalization. Further, upon release from prison, the inability to track inmates coupled with lack of social support to reintegrate them into the community gives rise to a vulnerable moment in which they may be recruited by radical groups, posing as social support organizations that are more interested in their own extremist agendas than in the welfare of released prisoners.
*    Information collection and sharing between and among federal, state and local prison systems is integral to tracking radical behavior of prisoners and religious services providers. Significant strides have been made at the federal level, but change at the state and local level, where the overwhelming majority of inmates are incarcerated, is much more difficult to assess.
*    Resource limitations - both in terms of manpower and financing - hinder efforts to combat prisoner radicalization. Officials in California report that every investigation into radical groups in their prisons uncovers new leads, but that they simply do not have enough investigators to follow every case of radicalization.
*    Radicalization in prisons is a global problem and bears upon the national security of the U.S. In Europe, Latin America and elsewhere the threat has progressed farther than it has in the U.S., giving officials the opportunity to learn from foreign prison radicalization cases so as to confront the problem here in its early stages. Information sharing between and among the U.S. and other countries is crucial.
*    At present there is insufficient information about prisoner radicalization to qualify the threat. There is a significant lack of social science research on this issue. No comprehensive records currently exist, for example, on the religious affiliations of inmates when they enter prison. This can be improved by policies that promote good research while continuing to secure the rights of inmates who are involved in these studies.
*    Prison officials are understandably stretched thin by the need to maintain order in overcrowded and under-funded facilities. Nevertheless, because information is an essential precursor to action, investigation of radicalization in prisons must become a homeland security and counterterrorism priority.
*    Religious radicalization within prisons is a complex problem. No one profession alone is equipped to analyze and recommend change. A multi-disciplinary approach that includes perspectives of religion, criminal justice, intelligence, law, and behavioral sciences is necessary for proactive analysis of the phenomenon.
*    Knowledge must be translated into action. Awareness, education and training programs must be developed for personnel working in prison, probation and parole settings.
*    The Intelligence Reform Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 calls for the establishment of the Information Sharing Environment (ISE) to support our nation's counter-terrorism efforts. It is critical that information regarding the radicalization of prisoners in state, local, and federal correctional facilities be included as part of the body of information shared through the ISE.

During last Monday night's Republican Party presidential debate both Newt Gingrich and Herman Cain unabashedly questioned the patriotism of Muslims. According to the Christian Post, "Gingrich defended proposed loyalty tests for Muslims by comparing them with past loyalty tests aimed at ferreting out communists and Nazis, [while] ... Cain ... said he would not be comfortable working with a Muslim in his Cabinet."

In a statement, the National Jewish Democratic Council charged that Republicans were "obsessed"  with Muslims. Terming the King hearing as "utterly unnecessary," the Council said, "Once again, King has singled out the adherents of the Muslim faith, calling into question the loyalty of an entire community."

The Huffington Post's column, titled "Radical Islam in Prison: Made in the US," pointed out that "Research downplays the idea of foreign infiltration, positing the threat as more likely from small pockets of prisoners falling under the spell of a charismatic fellow inmate.... [therefore] lack of Muslim chaplains forces inmates to take matters into their own hands, leading to cut-and-paste versions of Islam -- quite the opposite of what a fundamentalist would advocate.

"... . If prevention of inmate radicalization is the goal, there must be accounting for conditions inside prison, perhaps the most forceful radicalizing factor of all. Likewise, conditions outside of prison must be considered."