Keeping jihadis locked up for longer isn’t the whole solution
hugely betrayed – this was someone I trusted, and now I’ve got to live with this the rest of my life.”
Amman had been released from prison a few days before the attack, but she said that she was unaware.
She said: “I haven’t heard from him for a long time. I don’t know what happened to him in prison.”
She did not agree with the increasingly radical views he expressed during their relationship, she added.
“I didn’t believe in his ideology, I didn’t condone it, I didn’t agree with it and I never will – but I couldn’t stop it.”
The woman called for the authorities to “focus on rehabilitation”.
“Offenders like this, with that sort of ideology, if they’re not rehabilitated properly before they’re released, or the penalties are increased, then this will just happen again,” she added.
“My tears and heart are with the innocent people affected.”
Amman as teen
AS someone who was radicalised as a young man into revolutionary Islamism, but saw my way out of it, I am familiar with the challenges of extremist ideology and its grip on young minds.
I have worked with over 100 individuals in the last 10 years to help them turn their back on violent Islamist ideology.
This ideology is a blend of distorted politics, manipulating emotions, and religious convictions aimed at motivating individuals to engage in what they perceive as actual war against the West and its “agents” through acts of terror.
The current debate centres around sentencing measures aimed at keeping people safe from violent individuals, and whether we should instead focus on deradicalisation efforts. The truth is we must do both.
It is not easy. Not every individual will turn away from the allure of extremist ideology. And some may take longer than others.
We know from research we have conducted at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue that groups like ISIS instruct their followers to avoid engaging with prison staff and to see them as the enemy. The closed cultlike mindset poses challenges.
CHALLENGE
That does not mean even hardline terrorists haven’t been changed. There are many who have.
But the challenge of breaking into a closed mind, of undermining the world view, of dismantling the supposed religious convictions, and helping people refind their own moral compass and ethical and religious values is a difficult one.
Measuring such changes in identity, world view and the effect it has on a person’s way of thinking – in other words, whether they’ve been deradicalised – is not a precise science. It requires a level of expertise we’re only just developing.
The need to ensure public safety may well be addressed by some of the suggested measures.
But life meaning life imprisonment is rare in the UK, and it will not deal with lesser offenders who would not receive such sentencing. Prisons are already struggling to contain extremist cultures and recruitment.
This is a long-term struggle. Our policies, strategies and tactics need to reflect an understanding of that. ■ Rashad Ali is a counter-terrorism practitioner and a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, who works on deradicalisation initiatives. He was once a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir, the revolutionary Islamist organisation.