Terrorism
and the Drug War:
More Unforeseen Consequences
by
William L. Anderson
Unwise
and unjust laws and government policies have this way of coming
back to us with a vengeance. For example, the current government
jihad against the stock market – camouflaged as action to stop "insider
trading" and make markets more "democratic" – is
sure to make economic recovery less likely to happen.
These
pages have long pointed out that the misnamed War on Drugs has taken
a toll upon this country by inflicting unwarranted property seizures,
long prison sentences, and no relief in sight, as law enforcement
agencies, federal, state, and local, are hooked as much on federal
anti-drug money as the neediest junkie is on his next hit of heroin.
The United States, with about two million prisoners, incarcerates
one-fourth of the world’s prisoners, by far the highest per-capita
rate on the planet. And we are about to reap the bitter consequences
of that policy in a way that no one foresaw when Congress, legislatures,
and various U.S. presidents first started to push this drug war
in order to appease the voters, and especially religious conservatives.
Over
the last week, columnist Cal Thomas and Charles Colson, the founder
of the Christian-based Prison Fellowship Ministries, have written
about Islamic radicalization of thousands of black inmates in U.S.
prisons. The numbers are quite frightening, as more than half of
U.S. prisoners are incarcerated for crimes tied to illegal drugs,
be they violent or even simple possession. As one might expect,
a large proportion of those prisoners are blacks, young men who
have been disaffected in society and are burning for revenge against
the government that put them there.
Colson
is quick to point out that most of the inmates who convert to Islam
do so peacefully. Furthermore, most black Muslims in this country
are law-abiding people and for all of their rhetoric, some Muslim
leaders like Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam have done some
good for people.
However,
there is a very dark side to all of this, and most people either
are blind to the problem or are unwilling to do anything about it.
Furthermore, most Americans are vastly ignorant about Islam, which
only makes matters worse. Colson writes of an encounter in a prison
in Jackson, Michigan, when he spoke to a group of Christians and
Muslims:
Over
300 Christians filled the seats on one side of a cavernous auditorium;
an equal number of Muslims took seats on the opposite side. The
tension was palpable. Extra guards were posted at the rear doors.
They were right to worry. Every time I mentioned Jesus in my speech,
Muslim inmates cranked up their portable radios full blast. Soon
there was shaking of fists and taunts hurled back and forth. As
angry men moved to the center aisle, I pleaded with the Christians
to sit quietly and ignore the hecklers. But only by the grace
of God was I able to keep order. Several times, I feared they
would lose it – and we’d have a full-scale riot on our hands.
This
is hardly an isolated incident, and Colson points out that for some
inmates, the more radical the message, the better it is accepted:
Alienated,
disenfranchised people are prime targets for radical Islamists
who preach a religion of violence, of overcoming oppression
by jihad. Yes, most Muslims interpret jihad as an inner struggle.
But the radical fundamentalists – some of whom are invading
our prisons – mean it literally. Those who take the Koran seriously
are taught to hate the Christian and the Jew; lands taken from
Islam must be recaptured. And to the Islamist, dying in a jihad
is the only way one can be assured of Allah’s forgiveness and
eternal salvation.
My
home church has a ministry in a local prison, and our pastor told
of a recent experience by a guard who was in a worship meeting of
the inmate Muslim population. They listened to a tape of someone
exhorting the prisoners to rise up, kill their guards, and overthrow
the prison. While nothing happened, the guard related to our pastor
that he feared for his life during that meeting.
This
is not to say that all Muslims are violent killers. However, as
we have already seen, militant Islam does have its bloody side and
as the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks tell us, it does
not take a large number of people to do an extraordinary amount
of damage.
As
usual, however, those who point out our present danger also neglect
to point out that the law-and-order mentality that seeks to criminalize
peaceful, private behavior is one of the reasons that all of us
are now sentenced to a life of terror attacks without end. As I
talk to many of my conservative Christian friends about the dangers
of the drug war, without exception they reply as though I have told
them that I want every child in America to be hooked on crack. Drug
laws, they reply, discourage bad behavior and, beside, since taking
drugs is bad, it is good for the law to be a "teacher"
of good conduct.
Of
course, in 1919, just before Prohibition began, most Americans were
willing to say that drinking alcoholic beverage was bad and should
rightly be banned. And even though Prohibition gave rise to the
Al Capones of this country, there always was a sizeable contingent
of people in the United States who supported this inane policy.
For that matter, our modern prohibitionist society, while permitting
us to drink under regulated circumstances, attempts to keep us from
smoking, taking drugs, eating fatty foods, eating candy, and doing
whatever else the Ralph Naders of this country demand we not do.
Given
that drug prohibition means that most sales will be made in poor
neighborhoods by poor blacks, the zero-tolerance mentality has resulted
in an explosion of young black men who are imprisoned for things
that would not have resulted in jail time as recently as 30 years
ago. However, given the rise of more drug laws and asset forfeiture
policies, the drug war has taken on a life of its own.
The
problem with snaring so many young black males in the anti-drug
net is that they are vulnerable in many ways. First, as any student
of Islam knows, it is a religion that completely orders one’s life
and gives a purpose in life. Many of these young men are rather
aimless and have grown up without any kind of family structure.
Islam provides that structure for them, and much more. Furthermore,
young felons are not likely to be good job candidates when they
are released, so being part of an Islamic group at least provides
some personal protection.
Second,
it is not a long jump for someone who already has demonstrated tendencies
of violence to combine that trait with religion. When one can be
violent – and go to Paradise for acting out that violence against
"infidels" – it is not surprising that our prisons are
fertile grounds for recruiting such people.
Yes,
by all means we need to monitor our prisons. However, because the
political classes have insisted on incarcerating huge numbers of
people for nonviolent offenses, the momentum has long been going
in the wrong direction. Politicians and political activists have
insisted that we lock up people for engaging in peaceful, private
exchange. We have paid heavily for this policy mistake, and I fear
the price tag is about to go up.
June
25, 2002
William
L. Anderson, Ph.D. [send him
mail], teaches economics at Frostburg State University in Maryland,
and is an adjunct scholar of the Ludwig
von Mises Institute.
Copyright
© 2002 by LewRockwell.com
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Anderson Archives
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