The Ministry of Justice says all extremist books have been removed from prisons, after jihadi texts were found in chaplaincies seven months after the government was warned about the potential dangers.
The presence of the books – including antisemitic texts and literature that is thought to have inspired terrorism – was reported in November in a review of extremism in jails by the former prison governor Ian Acheson.
The BBC reported that the texts were still being discovered in prisons last month. At least one of the five extremist books identified by Acheson was found in nine prison chaplaincies during a follow-up review, the corporation said.
The books include The Way of Jihad by Hassan Al-Banna and Milestones by Sayyid Qutb. Both books have been linked to the radicalisation of young Muslims.
Milestones, first published in 1964, is regarded as an influential jihadi call to arms. It claims Judaism is responsible for the “destruction of the family and the dissolution of society”.
The Way of Jihad describes holy war as an obligation for every Muslim.
Earlier this month, Acheson told MPs that Islamist extremism was a growing and potentially lethal problem in prisons, that there were numerous examples of extremist literature available in chaplaincies, and that the recruitment, training and supervision of prison imams was “seriously deficient”.
Writing in the Times, Acheson said: “Young men in our prisons are at risk of being indoctrinated by a warped ideology that mobilises their capacity for violence and that, at the most extreme, provides them with theological permission to kill the unbeliever.
“Noms [the National Offender Management Service] must do more to prevent its inmates from becoming seduced by an Islamist world view and potentially taking a weaponised version into the community.”
The Ministry of Justice said: “We will not tolerate extremist literature in our prisons and have taken action to remove them all from the prison estate.
“The new justice secretary will now work closely with the Home Office and other agencies to tackle the important issue of Islamist extremism in prisons.”
