One in five prisoners in Britain’s top-security jails are Muslims, figures show.
The eight Category A jails contain 5,885 highly dangerous lags and 1,229 — 20.8 per cent — say they follow the Islamic faith.
That is up from a total of 999 just five years ago, a jump of 23 per cent.
At Whitemoor prison in Cambridgeshire almost half the 447 inmates — 199, or 44 per cent — are Muslim.
In stark contrast, only five per cent of the overall UK population is Muslim.
The figures obtained by The Sun highlight the pressure on the prison system which is struggling to cope with radicalisation and Muslim gangs.
Steven Gillan of the Prison Officers Association said it was a “recipe for disaster” that jails were having to deal with an increasingly complex mix of inmates at the same time as officer numbers were cut.
London’s Belmarsh prison, which has held soldier Lee Rigby’s killers Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale, has 248 Muslim inmates out of 868 — over 28 per cent.
Manchester prison holds 202 of 1,106. Other Category A jails are Long Lartin (163 out of 615), Full Sutton (137 of 586), Woodhill (108 of 707), Frankland (97 of 832) and Wakefield (75 of 724).
Islamic think-tank the Quilliam Foundation warned jails were “ripe” to become extremist recruiting grounds.
The Prison Service said: “We are committed to meeting the needs of all faiths.”