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VOL. V NO. 12, May 22-June 04, 2009

From Jihad to Rehab

Lawrence Cline describes the Saudi rehabilitation program led by the Saudi government in the Small Wars Journal. The Saudis started the “advisory committee” or “Munahasa” program in 2004 to “reform prison inmates convicted of involvement in jihadist extremism.”

Back in November 2008, journalist Katherine Zoepf looked at the Saudi government’s rehabilitation program for the New York Times Magazine as both holistic and a promising model for other Islamic societies.

In an article entitled Deprogramming Jihadists, Zoepf describes the program’s emphasis on psychology, getting behind why men answer the call to join terrorist groups in the first place. One rehabilitation student, named Azzam, described his emotions when deciding whether to fight, when he learned of “the little girl named Abeer who was raped and killed by the Americans.”

“I felt so much sympathy for the Muslims,” said Azzam. “The infidels rape women and kill children. I decided then that I should join the Muslims in Iraq in order to drive the Americans out.” But after Azzam went to fight, he said, “To tell you the truth, I didn’t find what I was expecting […] in Iraq, even the Muslims fight each other. I was expecting them to be well organized, but they weren’t.”

According to Zoepf, the program’s administrators point out that with Islam’s two holiest sites located in Saudi Arabia, Mecca and Medina, a successful Saudi program could carry weight with other Islamic nations battling extremism.

But how effective is this approach? Journalist Robert Lacey refers to this method as “Soft policing.” Lacey, who has written a new book on Saudi Arabia entitled, Inside the Kingdom, described the Saudi rehabilitation program in the Small Wars Journal.

Lawrence Cline and others note that the program has already graduated men who landed – post-rehabilitation – on the Saudi Interior Ministry’s wanted list. This list, issued in February 2009, names some 85 men who joined foreign jihadist groups, comments Arab News.

“They know they can’t eradicate Jihad from their spirit,” Lacey notes of the program’s holistic, psychological approach. Yet Lacey says that ultimately, any approach is going to be complicated by the poverty in places like neighboring Yemen, and the lure of money floating around jihadist groups like Al Qaeda.
“The US has Mexico. Saudi Arabia has got Yemen […] where Al-Qaeda can come in and get refuge,” Lacey points out. “The Interior Ministry has an almost impossible challenge to keep out every potential terrorist through this porous border to its south.”

But is the government alone responsible for taking action?

Robert Lacey tells NOW, “9/11 was a very, very good thing for Saudi Arabia, because it showed the mistakes it was making. This country had to look hard, and they suddenly saw that they’d given too much power to religious extremists – and now the battle is to claw that power and influence back, and that’s what they’re trying to do.”

Lacey points out that, while today’s 18-36 year old Saudis grow up on the heroic stories of answering the call to fight the Soviet in Afghanistan, and how the Kingdom itself was created on the notion of Jihad, the Kingdom has begun to see the vast ramifications of glorifying a militant interpretation of that term.

He notes that “the Age of Terror began for us [in the West] with 9/11. But for the Saudis, their Age of Terror didn't start until two years later in May 2003, when Al-Qaeda attacked inside Saudi towns for the first time, and suicide bombers began blowing themselves up in the Kingdom. They issued orders for the royal family to be overthrown, and this is when people's view of the Interior Ministry started to change.”

The new role of the Saudi Interior Ministry, Lacey stresses, is one against violent religious extremism. “When I came to live here 30 years ago, people were scared of the Interior Minister and his secret police, and whispered about them. Now, strangely, they've become the heroes of society, because they've chased the bad guys away, they've protected the king and the royal family, they keep the streets of Saudi Arabia safe, and of course, when they die fighting the terrorists, now they become the martyrs.”

Yet Tariq Al-Homayed, Editor-in-Chief of Asharq-Alawsat, insists that the burden of prevention and rehabilitation go far beyond merely government responsibility.

“We should first blame ourselves, and question why there is no ideological effort [to combat extremism] with regards to education and religious figures,” Al-Homayed urges. Teaching, and selecting responsible teachers is key, and the religious community must accept its role in educating its members to disavow violence if progress is to be made, he says. “The most important thing is to protect our youth and keep them away from this danger.”

With these challenges in mind, some point to encouraging signs of progress.
Sheikh Ahmad al-Jilani, who teaches one of the rehabilitation courses Zoepf examined, expresses his hopes in The New York Times. “The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has the confidence to fight thoughts with thoughts.”

Also, the Emirates News Agency reports that “The Executive Bureau of Arab Justice Ministers Council has condemned terrorism in all its forms, and stressed the need to avoid linking that phenomenon with Islam.” The group emphasized the need to ban the use of the internet for terrorist activity.

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