Muslim prisoners in England more frequently subjected to force, data shows

Muslim prisoners in England more frequently subjected to force, data shows
Maslaha, a social justice charity, requested data from nine prisons with higher than average Muslim populations. (Getty Images)
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Updated 16 April 2025
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Muslim prisoners in England more frequently subjected to force, data shows

Muslim prisoners in England more frequently subjected to force, data shows
  • Freedom of information request highlights disparity in treatment of prisoners
  • Muslim prisoners account for 18% of all inmates in England and Wales

LONDON: Muslim prisoners in England are more frequently subjected to painful restraining techniques at the hands of prison staff compared with other inmates, new data shows.

In eight out of nine prisons with high Muslim populations, Muslim men are more frequently targeted with batons, made to wear rigid bar handcuffs, or are held in painful positions, according to data obtained by freedom of information requests.

Maslaha, a social justice charity, requested the information from the nine prisons, The Guardian reported.

It comes amid calls for a crackdown on Muslim gangs in British prisons. The data received by Maslaha covers 2023, the latest full year available.

In London’s Belmarsh prison, which often holds terrorist suspects, Muslim prisoners made up 32 percent of the population in 2023.

However, that year, Muslim men in Belmarsh were subjected to 43 percent of incidents involving the use of rigid bar handcuffs and 61 percent of instances relating to pain-inducing techniques.

Similar disparities were recorded in Cambridgeshire’s HMP Whitemoor, London’s HMP Isis and HMP/YOI Feltham B, as well as HMP Woodhill in Milton Keynes.

Just one of the nine prisons included in the data, HMP The Mount, recorded a use of force against Muslim prisoners lower than for the overall population.

Maslaha’s director, Raheel Mohammed, said that the disparities “lay bare the realities of life” for Muslims in British prisons.

He added that Muslims were “being targeted by the use of force, subjected to dangerous, pain-inducing techniques and singled out for deliberately humiliating treatment.”

Separate data from the Ministry of Justice, for September last year, showed that there were 15,594 Muslim prisoners in England and Wales. They accounted for 18 percent of all prison inmates.

In response to the statistics concerning the use of force, Mark Fairhurst, the national chair of the Prison Officers’ Association, said: “Staff only use force at the last resort when necessary and when it is used, it is always proportionate and reasonable.”

Last year, HM Prison & Probation Service launched a national initiative to tackle racial disproportionality in the use of force.

It included measuring disparities in treatment between prisoners of different ethnic groups and religions.
A Prison Service spokesperson said: “We recognize the use of force in prisons needs greater supervision and have already introduced mechanisms to reduce the disparities in how it is used.

“Our new race disparity unit will help tackle racial discrimination further.”


Trump slams Zelensky over ‘inflammatory’ Crimea stance

Updated 2 sec ago
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Trump slams Zelensky over ‘inflammatory’ Crimea stance

Trump slams Zelensky over ‘inflammatory’ Crimea stance
“It’s inflammatory statements like Zelensky’s that makes it so difficult to settle this War,” Trump said
“Ukraine will not legally recognize the occupation of Crimea,” Zelensky was quoted as saying

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said a deal on halting the Ukraine war was “very close,” but slammed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky over his refusal to formally cede Crimea to Russia.
“It’s inflammatory statements like Zelensky’s that makes it so difficult to settle this War,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
The outburst came after US media reports said Trump was ready to accept recognition of annexed Crimea as Russian territory, and after Vice President JD Vance said land swaps would be fundamental to any deal.
In his post, Trump was referring to Zelensky’s comments, published in the Wall Street Journal Wednesday, in which he said that ceding Crimea is against Ukraine’s constitution.
“Ukraine will not legally recognize the occupation of Crimea,” Zelensky was quoted as saying. “There is nothing to talk about here.”
Trump lambasted Zelensky over the remarks.
“This statement is very harmful to the Peace Negotiations with Russia,” Trump said, adding that if Ukraine “wants Crimea, why didn’t they fight for it eleven years ago when it was handed over to Russia without a shot being fired?“
He added: “The statement made by Zelensky today will do nothing but prolong the ‘killing field,’ and nobody wants that!“
“We are very close to a Deal, but the man with ‘no cards to play’ should now, finally, GET IT DONE.”

Court overturns French decision to cut funding to biggest Muslim school

Court overturns French decision to cut funding to biggest Muslim school
Updated 17 min 29 sec ago
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Court overturns French decision to cut funding to biggest Muslim school

Court overturns French decision to cut funding to biggest Muslim school
  • Lille administrative court said the prefecture didn’t provide sufficient evidence that the school was failing to comply with French republican values
  • “It’s a victory for the rule of law,” the high school said

PARIS: An administrative court on Wednesday overturned France’s decision to cut government funding to the country’s biggest Muslim high school in 2023, in what rights groups say is part of a wider crackdown on Muslim schools.
Private school Averroes, the first Muslim high school to open in mainland France in 2003 in the northern city of Lille, had 800 pupils in 2023 and had been under contract with the state since 2008. Pupils follow the regular French curriculum, and are also offered religion classes.
At the end of 2023, the government’s local representative known as the ‘prefecture’ said the school had administrative and financial problems and some teaching did not align with French republican values, therefore public funding was to be cut.
In its Wednesday ruling, the Lille administrative court said the prefecture didn’t provide sufficient evidence that the school was failing to comply with French republican values. Other failings for which the prefecture did have evidence, such as refusing a surprise inspection, did not give sufficient grounds to justify ending its contract with the school.
“It’s a victory for the rule of law,” the high school said in a statement on Wednesday. “Averroes is a high school aiming for excellence and will now be able to continue its work with its pupils serenely.”
As a result of the ruling, the high school’s contract with the state will be automatically reinstated, Paul Jablonski, a lawyer for Averroes, told Reuters. He added he hoped the prefecture would not appeal the ruling.
The Lille prefecture didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.


Greek PM ‘not trying to pick a fight’ with Turkiye, to pursue visit

Greek PM ‘not trying to pick a fight’ with Turkiye, to pursue visit
Updated 25 min 43 sec ago
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Greek PM ‘not trying to pick a fight’ with Turkiye, to pursue visit

Greek PM ‘not trying to pick a fight’ with Turkiye, to pursue visit
  • Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said he would go ahead with a planned meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan

ATHENS: Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Wednesday vowed to carry out a planned visit to Turkiye despite regional tension and the recent arrest of Istanbul’s mayor.
The Greek leader was to visit Ankara this month under a schedule agreed in 2023 to smooth over differences between the rival neighbors, who are NATO members.
The trip appeared to have been shelved after the Athens government last month said it was “difficult” to organize after the “worrying” arrest of Istanbul’s opposition mayor Ekrem Imamoglu.
Mitsotakis said Wednesday however that he would go ahead with a planned meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He did not say when it would happen.
“There is no issue or particular reason why this meeting should be postponed,” he told Proto Thema daily.
Mitsotakis added that he was “not trying to pick a fight with Turkiye” to burnish his domestic standing.
The Aegean boundary between the two, which Greece says is based on 20th century treaties, is a key obstacle in relations.
There are frequent disputes over migration, energy exploration in the Aegean and territorial sovereignty.
Greece last week released a marine spatial planning map which Turkiye said violates its maritime jurisdiction in the Aegean Sea and the Eastern Mediterranean.
Turkiye has also sought to impede an electricity cable project between Greece, Cyprus and Israel called the Great Sea Interconnector (GSI).
Mitsotakis on Wednesday called the cable “a European project which will proceed in due course.”


Germany says monitoring Russia’s use of ‘disposable’ agents

Germany says monitoring Russia’s use of ‘disposable’ agents
Updated 42 min 38 sec ago
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Germany says monitoring Russia’s use of ‘disposable’ agents

Germany says monitoring Russia’s use of ‘disposable’ agents
  • European intelligence services believed that Russia was behind the plot
  • Kock declined to go into detail but said German authorities were “closely observing the means Russian services are now resorting to”

BERLIN: Germany said Wednesday it was monitoring changing Russian sabotage tactics, after media reports linked a plan to plant explosive devices on cargo planes to low-level operatives hired by Moscow.
European intelligence services believed that Russia was behind the plot, which saw parcels explode at two DHL depots last July, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily and public broadcasters WDR and NDR reported.
Several people implicated in the operation were believed to be “disposable” agents with no official position in the Russian intelligence services, according to the report.
Such low-level agents were typically recruited via messaging apps to carry out tasks for money, the report said.
Quizzed about the incidents at a regular press conference, German interior ministry spokeswoman Sonja Kock said investigations were “continuing intensively.”
Kock declined to go into detail but said German authorities were “closely observing the means Russian services are now resorting to,” including the use of “so-called low-level agents.”
Kock also told the briefing that Russian intelligence services operating in Germany had been “recently weakened by the expulsion of numerous agents.”
Another interior ministry official later told AFP that she was referring to the April 2022 expulsion of 40 Russian diplomats who were intelligence officers, and further departures of diplomats the following year.
The explosions at DHL depots in Leipzig, Germany and Birmingham in Britain have been described by Germany’s domestic intelligence chief Thomas Haldenwang as a “lucky accident” because of the limited impact.
Testifying before a parliamentary committee in October, Haldenwang said “there would have been a crash” if the parcels had exploded mid-flight on planes.
Kock said Wednesday that the “danger of sabotage... has increased significantly in Germany since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine.”
German authorities were doing “everything in our power to thwart... Russian espionage, sabotage and cyber-attacks,” she said.


Following Kashmir attack, Modi cuts short Saudi trip after talks on energy, defense

Following Kashmir attack, Modi cuts short Saudi trip after talks on energy, defense
Updated 23 April 2025
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Following Kashmir attack, Modi cuts short Saudi trip after talks on energy, defense

Following Kashmir attack, Modi cuts short Saudi trip after talks on energy, defense
  • Saudi Arabia is one of the top exporters of petroleum to India
  • Modi met Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman before cutting short his visit 

DUBAI: Saudi Arabia and India agreed to boost cooperation in supplies of crude and liquefied petroleum gas, according to a joint statement reported by the Saudi state news agency on Wednesday following a visit by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which was cut short by a militant attack in Indian-administered Kashmir. 

Saudi Arabia is one of the top exporters of petroleum to India. 

Modi met Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman before cutting short his visit and returning to New Delhi after an attack on India's Jammu and Kashmir territory which killed 26 people, the worst attack in India since the 2008 Mumbai shootings. 

The two countries also agreed to deepen their defense ties and improve their cooperation in defence manufacturing, along with agreements in agriculture and food security.

"The two countries welcomed the excellent cooperation between the two sides in counter-terrorism and terror financing," the joint statement said.