In this chapter, using seven short case studies, we give voice to the often intense experiences of the different types of Muslim prisoner that we have outlined in the previous chapters: Converts, Intensifiers, Shifters, Remainers and Reducers, who hold different types of Islamic Worldview.

We tell the stories of these prisoners to illustrate the opportunities for rehabilitation and the risks involved in significant religious change in prison, as well as the complexity and diversity of Muslim prisoners’ lives.

The Converts

Converts we have defined as those prisoners who chose to follow Islam for the first time from another faith or from no faith in prison. Converts represented 21 per cent of our data sample.

As we discussed in Chapter 3, the largest proportion of Converts were in English prisons (27 per cent). In Switzerland and France, it was far less common to choose Islam for the first time in prison.

We have also seen how Converts are likely to exhibit strong Attitude to Rehabilitation, as well as being prone to some risk of Islamism and Islamist Extremism.

Case study 1: Chris, ‘Convert’, HMP Cherwell, Category C Prison

Chris is an example of a slow reflective process of religious conversion and rehabilitative change in prison. Chris had turned to Islam with a Mainstream Worldview to help him give up his dependence on drugs and to achieve emotional balance. This rehabilitative change was supported by engagement with Muslim prison chaplains and caring relationships with other Muslim prisoners.

Biography

Chris is a 47-year-old, White British Convert to Mainstream Islam in prison from Anglican Christianity (Church of England). Coming from a “strict” Anglican upbringing which involved going to Church and Sunday School every week and being “taught right from wrong” by his grandmother, conversion to Islam had been a slow and reflective process for Chris.

Chris’s journey towards Mainstream Islam was eased by the fact that he had close family members who were also Muslim. Chris’s parents had split up a few years before his arrest. His mother remarried a Moroccan and she herself converted to Islam after her marriage. Chris’s brother had also been sentenced to prison and he too had converted to Islam during his sentence.