IF THE latest attempt to exceptionalise Muslims in the UK did not send a collective shudder through the civilised world, it damn well should have.
We are talking here about Muslim sex offenders wanting to opt out of prison treatment programmes because it runs against the grain of their religion.
The story has been widely covered today by the British media, and is centred on the Prison Service’s Muslim Advisor’s insistence that there is a “legitimate Islamic position” that criminals should not discuss their crimes with others.
Under the Sex Offender Treatment Programme (SOTP), which each year treats more than 600 prisoners – including rapists and sexual killers -Â offenders must discuss their crime, sometimes in groups.
Ahtsham Ali said he would now urgently raise the issue with prison policy makers, raising the prospect of an exemption or special rules for Muslim prisoners.
The prospect of a dispensation for Muslim prisoners emerged after an unnamed prisoner wrote to a prison magazine, saying:
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.
Mr Ali said:
I will be taking it forward as a matter of some urgency with colleagues, including those with policy responsibility for the SOTP programme.
According to The Telegraph:
The Prison Service last night said it was seeking to ensure the programme was “sensitive to the diversity of religions within the prison context”.
Un-bloody-believable!
Commenting on the report in The Times, Chris W. of Nottingham, wrote:
Is Islam supposed to be a code of beliefs or a code of excuses? There should be absolutely no religiously based reasons for sex offenders to avoid treatment – this would make a mockery of the justice system.
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
April 9th, 2008 at 10:45 am
If nominally Muslim offenders are hiding behind their faith that’s a disgrace, but in the UK there’s something else going on that might be relevant.
The prison and probation services are quietly handing over some rehabilitation services to ‘faith led service providers’ to save costs. The last generation of prison management threw out evangelical freaks (e.g. InnerChange Ministries at Dartmoor)because all the surveys show their reoffending figures can’t even equal those of prisoners who had no rehabilitation (i.e godbothering ex-convicts reoffend more!). The present generation are rehiring them – e.g. for AA style drug & alcohol ‘rehabilitation’ where the court demands participation as a condition of release even though they’re run by clergy, not psychologists.
I’ve even found cases like Muslim and other non-Christian remand prisoners who can’t get places in bail hostels run by religious organisations for government because an unspoken condition of residence and good court reports is attending the daily prayer meeting.