Made in Prison

Four young Egyptians transformed into extremists inside the Egyptian prisons that became recruiting stations for Takfirist and Jihadi groups.

Takfirist and Jihadi groups have turned Egyptian prisons into recruiting stations,taking advantage of jammed quarters to recruit young men to join them.

The National Council for Human Rights warned in a report covering 2013-2017 that Egyptian prisons are overflowing with men one and half times beyond their capacity to hold. And thousands of those are young men jailed after the rebellion of June 30, 2013 that swept Mohammad Morsi from the President’s office, the dispersal of the Rabe’a Al-Adawiya sit-in, and the many terrorist attacks targeting the army and police. In prisons as crowded as Egypt’s regulations stipulating that prisoners must be classified and housed only after their psychological, personal, health, and social status have been evaluated go mostly ignored. We will tell here the story of how prison transformed four young men into extremists. We talked with their parents; prison friends; and lawyers. We also met with ex-convicts, former jihadists; and experts in the affairs of Islamic groups.

* At their request and to insure their safety, names of the prisoners have been changed.