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Federal officials suggest a jailhouse conversion to Islam turned Brooklyn-born Jose Padilla into Abdullah al Muhajir, ally of international terrorists. But experts are deeply divided over the risk posed by such conversions.
Jun 11, 2002 | The arrest of Abdullah al Muhajir on suspicion of being an al-Qaida operative allegedly planning to set off a "dirty bomb" in Washington has raised a new set of concerns for Americans already fearful about potential attacks. That's because unlike the 19 hijackers who struck on Sept. 11, this suspect was born Jose Padilla, and he was born in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Just as the capture of John Walker Lindh -- "the American Taliban" -- baffled and outraged the nation in November, the May 8 arrest of Al Muhajir seems certain to provoke intense debate over how a man could turn so fiercely against his own nation that he would consider attacking it with a crude but potentially lethal nuclear device.
Answers to that question were difficult to come by yesterday. But with information trickling in from the federal government and local law enforcement agencies, analysts pointed to al Muhajir's criminal record and his conversion behind bars to Islam as crucial episodes in the story. And while opinion was divided, some suggested that prisons could be a breeding ground for homegrown Islamic terrorists.
"Surely Americans should be concerned about it," says Vibert White, a former high-ranking advisor with the Nation of Islam. White notes Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan has routinely used bitter, anti-American rhetoric in his speeches and over the years has aligned himself with extremists such as Libya's Moammar Gadhafi, who, says White, once urged Nation of Islam members to take up arms against their government.
According to reports from the Justice Department and local police departments, Padilla had a history of street crime with a penchant for violence. CNN reported yesterday that he served three years in a Chicago-area juvenile detention center for aggravated battery, armed robbery and attempted armed robbery. In 1991 he was arrested for a Florida road-rage incident, and while in jail, he attacked a deputy.
Exactly when he converted to Islam and changed his name is unclear. But the transformation is hardly rare. Prison conversions to Islam date back more than half a century among African-American men -- the conversion of the late civil-rights leader Malcolm X was the most famous -- and remain common today.
Observers suggest that the change of faith helps prisoners reform themselves, even as it grants them access to a larger community, which is important for physical protection behind bars.
There are between 4 million and 7 million Muslims in America today. Approximately 2million of them are African-American, and just 30,000 are Hispanic, as the suspect al Muhajir appears to be.
According to recent population surveys, roughly 20,000 Americans convert to Islam every year, with the vast majority of them (between 85 and 90 percent) being people of color. There are no hard numbers on prison conversions, but experts suggest they make up a significant portion of the overall conversions.
But whether that creates a risk of domestic terrorism is a subject of deep disagreement.
Appearing on MSNBC yesterday, noted terrorism expert Steven Emerson suggested the plot highlighted the danger of allowing radical Muslim gangs to proliferate inside America's prison system as more and more minorities convert to Islam while serving time.
White agreed, saying cause for concern has been rising for years.
"Farrakhan has been very, very close to people we'd consider today as being extremist, or at least very dangerous to America," says White, author of "Inside the Nation of Islam," a recent book critical of Farrakhan.
"It's a message that's being echoed by [Middle Eastern] groups toward American Muslims -- you're part of the same problem, that the American government is corrupt and is brutalizing Muslims," says White. "When they get out of prison their language is really aggressive in reference to U.S. government activities."
Others, however, insist that such characterization exaggerates the risk of the Islamic conversions that arise from time behind bars.
"There is frustration and anger with the American government, but in my opinion the vast majority of Muslim converts coming out of prison are not al-Qaida sympathizers," says Mustafa El-Amin, who recently spoke at New Jersey's Rahway State Prison at a conference on the role of religion among inmates. "They may have issues with America or Bush, but you can't even attempt to justify Sept. 11."
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