REHAB FOR TERRORISTS
Almost nine in 10 abandon it
It’s often argued that the people who commit acts of terrorism are troubled and vulnerable individuals. In Saudi Arabia, the government takes that thinking further: In 2004, it set up a high profile “rehabilitation” system for terrorists, which aimed to de-radicalize them through religious education and psychological counselling.
The goal is for these people to reenter mainstream society. Sometimes, however, they do not. This week, Maj. Gen. Mansour al-Turki, a spokesperson for the Interior Ministry, said about 12 per cent of people involved in the rehabilitation programs returned to activities related to terrorism, according to Arab News.
Turki said the country’s Mohammed Bin Naif Counseling and Care Center is now looking into ways to lower that number, although the government still felt the program was a success overall.
“Without the program, thousands of those who were released would have been exploited by terrorist organizations,” Turki said.
Saudi Arabia isn’t the first country to try to rehabilitate terrorists; its program followed earlier versions in Singapore and Yemen. However, its well-financed system soon earned the plaudits of the international community. In 2008, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown shook the hands of two former al- Qaida members who were in the program, and the United States looked to it as a model for Iraq and Saudi Arabia.
As the Council of Foreign Relations has noted, part of the initial hype around the Saudi system was a self-proclaimed 100 per cent success rate. However, it soon became apparent that wasn’t accurate. In 2009 it emerged that a number of former prisoners at the U.S. detention centre in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, that were sent to Saudi Arabia to take part in rehabilitation programs, had ended up taking senior positions in al- Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb.
Studies into the effectiveness of this type of rehabilitation program have found success hard to measure.
Although Saudi Arabia formed its program after an upsurge in alQaida-related domestic terrorism, in 2014 hundreds of Saudi citizens have gone to fight with an organization many perceive as even worse: the Islamic State. There are deep fears about what these people will do if and when they come home. For example, a Sunni extremist group was recently linked to an attack on a Shiite village that left eight people dead — which has already prompted an expansion of the rehabilitation program.
It’s not just an issue for Saudi Arabia. Thousands of people have travelled to Syria to be “foreign fighters” for extremist groups, and many Western countries are unsure how to respond to these people when they return home. Denmark offers returning fighters counselling and help with their careers. In contrast, Britain and Canada are now aiming to take away the passports of people who travel to fight with extremists.
It’s unlikely that any system will be perfect. Saudi Arabia’s 12 per cent rate compares well to relapse rates for drug addiction and recidivism rates for U.S. criminals.
“No rehabilitation program could be 100 per cent successful,” Turki explained.