I wonder why this seemed like a good idea.

An Egyptian-born imam who in 2007 said that Somali-born activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali should receive the death penalty for her criticism of Islam is now a Department of Justice contractor hired to teach classes to Muslims who are in federal prison.

According to federal spending records, Fouad ElBayly, the imam at Islamic Center of Johnstown in Pennsylvania, was contracted by the DOJ’s Bureau of Prisons beginning last year to teach the classes to Muslim inmates at Cumberland Federal Correctional Institution in Cumberland, Md.

Does the DOJ’s Bureau of Prisons also contract Nazis and KKKers to teach Christians?

It was April 2007 when ElBayly, the imam at the Islamic Center of Johnston, protested Ali’s scheduled appearance at the University of Pittsburgh-Johnstown.

Because she’s critical of Islam.

Those comments have angered many, including ElBayly, who called Ali’s statements “poisonous.”

“If you come into the faith, you must abide by the laws, and when you decide to defame it deliberately, the sentence is death,” the imam told a local newspaper ahead of her university visit.

No, actually, that’s not how that works. You can be a socialist and then change your mind and criticize socialism. You can be a libertarian and then change your mind and criticize libertarianism. You don’t get so much as a ticket for doing that, let alone a death sentence. What a terrible religion Islam must be, to feel compelled to kill people for rejecting it.

And in any case Ayaan Hirsi Ali didn’t “come into the faith.” She was drafted into it at birth.

ElBayly was heavily criticized for his comments, which gained national attention at the time. He apologized in a letter to the newspaper and seemingly resigned his post.

But that resignation was temporary, it turns out.

The federal Bureau of Prisons requires religious services contractors to provide credentials and other background information in their applications. One section asks applicants to list their associations with established religious organizations. According to recent news reports, ElBayly is once again the imam at the Islamic Center of Johnstown.

An interview is optional, so the Bureau may have skipped its chance to get ElBayly to unburden himself of his thoughts on apostates and critics of Islam.

Besides the credentials, applicants have to provide two personal references and a letter of recommendation from their local religious organization.

Perhaps the highest hurdle for ElBayly to clear would be the program’s requirement to affirm, ”I do not endorse nor will I practice or use language in the institution that will support violence, terrorism, discrimination against other inmates.”

Oh well he will have just done the usual rationalization – it wasn’t language that would support violence or terrorism because reasons – she’s an apostate and a kafir so calling for her to be killed is entirely justified. That’s how it’s done.