A disturbing report by the Justice Department Inspector General has revealed that incarcerated terrorists associated with international jihadist groups like al-Qaida, ISIS, and al-Shabaab have been allowed to lead religious services in Bureau of Prisons' (BOP) chapels.

"We found that some institutions permitted inmates with a known nexus to international or domestic terrorism to lead religious services," said the report, which was issued earlier this month.

The Inspector General investigated the BOP's overall Chaplaincy Services Program (CSP), and how it balances inmates' rights to faith-based activity with security risks.

Not only did prison administrators allow terrorists to run religious services, the report found, but they also ascribed religious titles to them, like amir, which means ruler, or commander of the faithful.

The danger in this practice, allowing inmates to lead worship services and granting them official titles, the Inspector General noted, "presents a risk that inmate religious leaders could misuse services to encourage violent behavior, [and] radicalize other inmates."

This practice, granting religious titles to inmate religious leaders, has surfaced before. In 2012, convicted terrorist John Walker Lindh, known as the "American Taliban," and several other Muslim inmates in Terre Haute's maximum security facility were allowed to serve as prayer leaders. A federal judge even ruled that, while the warden had a genuine concern about the influence terrorist-convicts could exert, the BOP had no policy prohibiting inmates from choosing their own religious leaders.

Had the BOP enacted that policy change in 2004 as the IG recommended, it might have won the case. The issue surfaced prominently in the new audit.

Prison officials said they let inmates conduct religious services because of a shortage of chaplains.

However, the IG found that in one case, the individual hired to conduct services was removed after the inmates decided to choose their own leader. Officials felt that having the hired chaplain remain in the chapel posed a serious threat to the employee's safety based on the animosity directed toward him from inmates who did not agree with his ideology.

But investigators found "terrorist inmates" regularly leading religious services in four of the 12 prisons they visited. One had al-Qaida connections.

"The facility's chaplain explained that the inmate was selected to lead services by the other inmate faith group members due to his extensive faith knowledge and Arabic fluency," the report said.

This would be the same "faith knowledge" that motivated al-Qaida member to hijack airplanes, bomb embassies, and kill thousands of innocent civilians in the name of Allah.

As the 20th anniversary of 9/11 approaches, this type of rationale exhibited by the Bureau of Prisons is inexcusable.

*Credit to the Investigative Project on Terrorism*