A Muslim imam who previously espoused the belief that those critical of Islam should be put to death was hired by the Department of Justice to teach Muslims in federal prison, reported The Daily Caller.
Egyptian-born Fouad ElBayly, the imam at Islamic Center of Johnstown in Pennsylvania, was awarded two contracts, one dated Feb. 20, 2014 and the other Dec. 8, 2014, that stipulated he be paid $12,900 in taxpayer money to teach Muslim classes to inmates held at Cumberland Federal Correctional Institution in Cumberland, Maryland.
The contract states that ElBayly is to provide "religious services" along with "leadership and guidance," but some are now questioning whether ElBayly should be tasked with such a job considering his controversial views on Islam.
In 2007, ElBayly said that Somali-born activist and former Dutch parliamentarian Ayaan Hirsi Ali should be put to death for comments she made criticizing Islam over its treatment of women.
Ali fled Somalia when young and has since become an outspoken critic of the Islamic faith, famously calling Islam "the new fascism" and "a destructive, nihilistic cult of death," according to The New York Times.
ElBayly called her statements "poisonous," telling a local newspaper, "If you come into the faith, you must abide by the laws, and when you decide to defame it deliberately, the sentence is death."
As The DC notes, ElBayly's violent views seem to contradict one of the program's main requirements, which stipulates that applicants must agree to the following: "I do not endorse nor will I practice or use language in the institution that will support violence, terrorism, discrimination against other inmates."
It's certainly not the first time the federal government has hired people of questionable character to work in the nation's prisons.
Paul Pitts, who converted to Islam while serving 14 years in prison for murder, becoming Imam Abdu-Shahid, was paroled in 2001 and hired as prison chaplain in 2007 with a salary of $49,471. He was then caught in 2010 attempting to bring scissors and razor blades into the Manhattan Detention Complex, reported the New York Daily News.
Abdu-Shahid's boss, head chaplain Umar Abdul-Jalil, served 14 years for dealing drugs and was then hired with a salary of $76,602. In 2006, he was suspended for two weeks without pay for saying that "the greatest terrorists in the world occupy the White House," according to The New York Times.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Wallace Gene Marks, who was hired as one of the first Muslim chaplains in 1975 and has hired almost 45 other chaplains, called prison "the perfect recruitment and training grounds for radicalism and Islamic religion," going on to say that the 9/11 hijackers should be honored as martyrs.
