The Counterterrorism Blog: Radical Indoctrination in the U.S. Prisons: "The investigation of a recent alleged terrorism plot that law enforcement officials say was hatched in a California prison has raised fears about radical Islamic indoctrination in the country's prison system.  Law enforcement officials told ABC News that former Oakland gang member Peter Martinez and cellmate Kevin James, both held in the New Folsom State Prison, organized a plot to attack military and Jewish targets in the Los Angeles area this coming September 11.  The plot was discovered when former Folsom Prison inmate Levar Washington (who converted to Islam while in prison) and an accomplice were arrested for a string of gas station robberies."

...

I would like to shed some light on the kind of material that has been used in recent years to indoctrinate prison inmates by showing selections from two books that were widely distributed in American prisons by the U.S. branch of the al-Haramain Islamic Foundation, which was designated a sponsor of terrorism by the Treasury Department in September 2004.  The .pdf's that you can dowload below are a Counterterrorism Blog exclusive.

First, the al-Haramain Foundation distributed The Noble Qur'an, translated by Muhammad Taqi-ud-Din Al-Hilali and Muhammad Muhsin Khan, to an estimated 8,000 to 10,000 prisoners.  (Download NQ_Title.pdf)  This translation uniquely advances a radical interpretation of the Muslim holy book through the use of footnotes and bracketed material that does not appear in the Arabic text, but rather serves an entirely "explanatory" function.  An early footnote in this translation lays out, at length, the importance of jihad:  "Al-Jihad (holy fighting) in Allah's Cause (with full force of numbers and weaponry) is given the utmost importance in Islam and is one of its pillars (on which it stands).  By Jihad Islam is established, Allah's Word is made superior, . . . and His Religion (Islam) is propagated.  By abandoning Jihad (may Allah protect us from that) Islam is destroyed and the Muslims fall into an inferior position; their honour is lost, their lands are stolen, their rule and authority vanish.  Jihad is an obligatory duty in Islam on every Muslim, and he who tries to escape from this duty, or does not in his innermost heart wish to fulfil this duty, dies with one of the qualities of a hypocrite."  (Download NQ_71.pdf)  Thus, this translation both rules out non-military interpretations of jihad by specifying that it involves "full force of numbers and weaponry) and also states that it is "an obligatory duty on every Muslim."

(Via The Counterterrorism Blog.)