Essay --

We like to think that at a time a criminal is specify behind bars that he or she no longer poses a threat to society. In The plenteous priming of Jihad Terrorisms Prison Connection, Patrick Dunleavy, a former official within the New York State Department of correctional Services, pictures the delusion behind this mindset. Dunleavys thesis is that terrorists use the American prison system to recruit the disenfranchised to radical Islam. While many Americans may be oblivious to this practice, Dunleavys involvement in Operation Hades, an investigation conducted by the State of New York to determine the extent of recruiting to Islamic extremism that took stupefy within the states prisons, makes him quite familiar with the offset. Writing from experience, Dunleavy examines cases that show just how this recruitment takes place.Throughout the book, Dunleavy follows the story of Abdel Nasser Zaben. An immigrant and member of Hamas, in 1993 Zaben was arrested and send to prison in Ne w York State. Dunleavy finds that convicts today are not stray from society (p.100), Zaben being a prime example. Like others before and since, once within prison Zaben became a clerk for a prison imam. This spread out his influence, furthered the radicalization process, and put him in contact with other radicals outside of prison.The Fertile Soil of Jihad demonstrates that Dunleavy has a clear arrangement of the prison system in America. It benefits the reader by showing the problems in this system (at least as far as its connection to terrorist recruitment goes) as characterized by Zabens experience. Perhaps the most glaring issue is that of prison imams. Dunleavy indicates that many of the imams in the employ of the New York State Department of Correctional Servi... ...Patrick Dunleavys The Fertile Soil of Jihad endeavors to bring to light an often misunderstood or unrecognized problem. And in so much as it does that, it should be praised. However, his summary of this issue is fraught with his own misunderstanding. Ultimately, the books worth depends on what the reader wants to get out of it. If he or she seeks to understand the radicalization process that occurs in American prisons, then it is a good source. Yet, if the desired burden is to understand Islam, jihad, or how prison radicalization can be addressed on a societal or cultural (rather than institutional) level, then it is inadequate. Whether America is at war with Islam or it is the other way around is never make clear. The book could be read either way. To truly address the problem, an understanding of Muslim culture and Islam is necessary a radical notion indeed.