Deradicalisation programme
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Saudi Arabia
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Name
Deradicalisation programme |
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Target audience
Moderate extremist inmates arrested for having connections to extremist militant groups or having militant jihadi materials in their possession |
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Organisation
Saudi government |
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Objectives
Deter people from radicalising, rehabilitate radicals, and reintegration into society |
Description
The Saudi programme is the most well-known and longest standing, having started in 2004. It was developed by the Saudi government in response to its increasing concern over “jihadists” who received military training and were ideologically indoctrinated in Afghanistan and returned to the kingdom disgruntled and advocating for it to be overthrown. In response to this societal challenge, a group of well-known clerics began a prison-based deradicalisation programme.
The garget group of this programme is mainly moderate extremist inmates (i.e., inmates arrested for having connections to extremist militant groups or having militant jihadi materials in their possession).
The counselling programme seeks to deter people from radicalising, to rehabilitate radicals, and to help them so that they reintegrate into society. Regarding the intervention’s approach, the Saudi programme began solely with the involvement of clerics, but them they understood that a purely ideological (in this case Islamic) approach was not sufficient, inviting psychiatric and psychological professionals to help assess inmates throughout the treatment programme and have added many psychological aspects to their programme including art therapy.
This programme is implemented as follows:
The Saudi programme is the most well-known and longest standing, having started in 2004. It was developed by the Saudi government in response to its increasing concern over “jihadists” who received military training and were ideologically indoctrinated in Afghanistan and returned to the kingdom disgruntled and advocating for it to be overthrown. In response to this societal challenge, a group of well-known clerics began a prison-based deradicalisation programme.
The garget group of this programme is mainly moderate extremist inmates (i.e., inmates arrested for having connections to extremist militant groups or having militant jihadi materials in their possession).
The counselling programme seeks to deter people from radicalising, to rehabilitate radicals, and to help them so that they reintegrate into society. Regarding the intervention’s approach, the Saudi programme began solely with the involvement of clerics, but them they understood that a purely ideological (in this case Islamic) approach was not sufficient, inviting psychiatric and psychological professionals to help assess inmates throughout the treatment programme and have added many psychological aspects to their programme including art therapy.
This programme is implemented as follows:
- The duration can go from eight to twelve weeks;
- The clerics visited the inmates individually to engage militant jihadis in discussions about their beliefs, carefully challenging them in instances where the militants’ views did not coincide with authentic teachings of Islam. The Saudi clerics were often able to win these debates and move them to a more moderate stance of no longer endorsing terrorism;
- It gives attention to the inmate’s social and practical needs, having resources to offer substantial incentives to the inmates for positive participation in the “reform” process. These include:
- Arranging marriages for single disadvantaged inmates (no small thing in Saudi Arabia, where failing to find a wife can be a serious frustration);
- Offering new cars and jobs upon release (all things to help ex-inmates settle down and start a family);
- Making financial provisions for wives and families of the married extremist inmates.