24-05-2025
Attacks on prison officers by Muslim inmates double
The number of Muslim prisoners involved in attacks on officers has more than doubled in four years to nearly eight a day, official figures have revealed.
The data from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), published in the wake of the stabbing of three officers by the brother of the Manchester Arena bomber, show there were 2,916 attacks on staff by Muslim prisoners in 2024, up from 1,393 in 2020.
Muslim prisoners accounted for more than a quarter of the 11,180 inmate attacks in 2024 – with a disproportionately higher number relative to their prison population in England and Wales.
The 2,916 attacks on staff represented a rate of just over 18 assaults for every 100 members of the Muslim prison population, compared with 12.6 for the 4,955 assaults on staff by Christian prisoners.
Prof Ian Acheson, a former prison governor who advised the Government on extremism in jails, said the general rise in violence was 'much more pronounced' among those who identified as Muslims.
'In my view, this is because of a general collapse of authority and order due to poor training, leadership, resourcing and overcrowding. There seems to be a more oppositional environment generally,' he said.
'But it is possible that the rise of Muslim gangs and their visibility across the high security prison estate, where there is a constant struggle for power and space has had an additional impact.'
A 2023 report by the terrorism watchdog said the prison service had failed to recognise the dangers Islamist gangs posed in prisons. It added that prison staff were so concerned with being labelled as racist that Muslim terrorists had been able to seize control of wings and set up sharia courts behind bars.
Prof Acheson said it was more important to record incidents by faith rather than religious affiliation to get to the root of extremism in jails, as he recommended in his report to the Government in 2016.
Recent wave of violence
In April, Hashem Abedi, 28, who is serving a 55-year sentence for 22 murders for his part in the Manchester Arena bombing, attacked three prison officers with two makeshift knives and boiling cooking oil in a special separation unit for Islamist extremists in HMP Frankland. Two officers suffered life-threatening injuries.
In May, Axel Rudakubana, the man who killed three girls in Southport, allegedly used a kettle to pour boiling water over an officer at HMP Belmarsh in south London, where he is currently being held.
Shabana Mahmood, the Justice Secretary, has ordered a review into ways of segregating dangerous offenders including Islamist terrorists in the wake of the attacks.
Data obtained by Maslaha, a Muslim charity, found prison officers were more likely to use force against Muslim inmates than other prisoners.
The official figures, obtained through freedom of information requests, showed that prisoners in eight of the nine jails with high Muslim populations were more likely to be confronted with batons, made to wear rigid bar handcuffs or deliberately held in a painful position.
The figures, which include Belmarsh, do not show whether the disproportionate use of force against Muslim prisoners by staff was a result of discrimination or because the inmates were worse behaved than others.
Maslaha said it reflected a 'culture of Islamophobia and racism that runs through the prison system', but the POA, a trade union for prison staff, maintained officers only used force as a 'last resort' and in a 'proportionate and reasonable' way.
An MoJ spokesman said: 'We take attacks on our hard-working staff incredibly seriously. The vast majority of attacks did not involve Muslim prisoners.'
Moj sources said for all religions, the figures included attacks where there may be several prisoners involved, of whom some may not have directly assaulted an officer.
