Many extremists linked to groups such as al-Qaeda and the Taliban walk around freely in flowing white robes, and have access to a spacious gym, a swimming pool and a banquet hall in this Saudi Arabian complex. This is a rehab centre for violent jihadists
Fighting ideas with ideas
Riyadh’s Mohammed bin Nayef Counselling and Care Centre, a cushy halfway house between prison and freedom, spotlights a controversial Saudi strategy for tackling homegrown extremists. While the global fight against terrorism is often associated with drone strikes and torture, the philosophy that underpins the centre’s approach is that extremism requires not coercion but an ideological cure, according to AFP
Ideological detox with clerics and psychologists
Overseen by clerics and psychologists, it works to prevent convicts who have served their sentences from returning to jihad, through what it calls religious counselling and ideological detoxification. The convicts are housed in a series of low-slung buildings, outfitted with large-screen televisions and king-size beds, all framed by manicured lawns
Not inmates but beneficiaries
“We make the ‘beneficiaries’ feel they are normal people and still have a chance—a chance to return to society,” AFP quoted one of the centre’s directors as saying. The director also insisted that the centre refrained from calling them prisoners or inmates
Going back to terror
The rehab facility, founded in 2004, is one of the centrepieces of Saudi Arabia’s strategy to expunge
violent extremism at home. It claims to have treated more than 3,300 men convicted of terrorism-related crimes, including repatriated Guantanamo Bay detainees. But an American terror expert said the recidivism rate was higher, pointing out media reports of graduates from the centre who have showed up
on battlefronts