Based upon four years of anthropological research within prisons and Muslim communities in the UK, this book offers a unique discussion of the relationship between the experience of prison among Muslims and the formation of religious identity. Using an innovative neurocognitive anthropological approach which rejects cultural essentialism and reductionism, Gabriele Marranci, after discussing the controversial topic of ‘Muslim criminality’, thoroughly examines the religious life of Muslim prisoners and ex-prisoners. He provides an analysis of the effect of current prison policies aiming to prevent radicalisation, and discusses the increasing young Muslim presence in prisons. Marranci suggests that the prison environment itself and increasing restrictions therein, rather than alleged exposure to radical material within prisons, are facilitating identity processes in which Islam turns into an ideology.
