Muslim prisoners intimidating non-Muslim prisoners, getting preferential treatment

And prison authorities are afraid to cross them. "Islamic inmates hand back TVs to escape X Factor," by Ben Goldby for the Sunday Mercury,

Islamic inmate Abu Dira wrote to lag magazine Inside Time about the X Factor protest at the Worcestershire jail.

He said: "Many Muslims in Long Lartin have handed back their televisions, as they are viewed as nothing more than a distraction to religious study.

''I do not envisage hordes of crying Muslims lamenting the loss of X Factor."

The inmate also blasted plans to fight Islamic extremism by flooding the prison library with books from moderates, saying no-one would read them, "let alone accept the viewpoint of those individuals who align themselves with occupational forces".

Figures revealed by the Sunday Mercury last year show the Muslim population inside Long Lartin has doubled in just two years, with a quarter of all prisoners now followers of Islam.

Meanwhile, it has emerged that extremists held in the maximum security terror detainee unit are being given fresh sheets after every cell search by drug dogs - so that their religion is not offended.

Yet non-Muslim prisoners have complained that Islamic inmates are being offered preferential treatment as others are not offered clean sheets....

And a former Long Lartin prison officer has also claimed non-Muslim prisoners are being intimidated for refusing to abide by unofficial rules imposed by Islamic gangs, about eating pork and listening to Western music.

One Christian prisoner was even stabbed for refusing to read the Quran, she claimed.

"Prison officers feel helpless against this situation," she said. "It seemed to me like the prison authorities were scared to upset the detainees so they had to be seen to protect them - even if they were in the wrong."...