MUSLIM inmates in some of Britain’s top security prisons are forcing non-Muslims to pay a “protection tax” if they do not follow Islam, a government-appointed team investigating extremism in jails has been told.

The tax, called jizya, is being imposed by gangs of Islamist extremists at Belmarsh, Long Lartin, Woodhill and Whitemoor prisons, according to evidence supplied to the team.

All four prisons, which have a total capacity of 2,633 inmates, are rated category A, meaning they hold the most dangerous criminals, including terrorists.

Counterextremism experts working in the jails have told the review — established in August by Michael Gove, the justice secretary — that inmates claimed to have been bullied and threatened with violence unless they made payments with phone cards, food, tobacco