Today, the most significant terrorist threat emanates from a global movement, underpinned by a violent politico-religious ideology. Political incompetence drives it; religious misinterpretation legitimizes it. Members of this movement seek to overturn regimes they consider to be apostate through violent and undemocratic means. The local and international grievances of the Muslim masses are exploited to help construct a picture of a hostile modern world towards Islam and Muslims. The threat driven by a volatile ideology can never be adequately addressed by military and law enforcement actions. A paradigm shift must occur.
A terrorist suffers from exposure to militant propaganda and indoctrination. A vicious by-product of society, perhaps he was more susceptible and vulnerable to the terrorist message than other members of his society. By skillfully approaching and interviewing a terrorist, it is possible to map his ideological, theological, and intellectual makeup, as well as his orientations and inclinations. After discerning the terrorist narrative that caused him to cross the line, the factors that radicalized him to hate, conceive, plan, prepare, and attack can be identified. Obtaining the understanding and knowledge residing within a terrorist helps to fight the contemporary wave of radicalization and violence strategically. Rehabilitation allows for communication with the captured terrorist to allay any misgivings he harbors. Such an approach will eventually defeat terrorism by decreasing the need for military solutions.
The war over the mind is the neglected battlefield. A strategic investment, winning hearts and minds is far less costly than physical combat. Extricating negative feelings and replacing them with positive thoughts is a more humanitarian approach. Laws mandating such terrorist rehabilitation will have other benefits as well, such as reducing humiliation, abuse, and torture, which are routine in most detention facilities and penitentiaries in the developing world.
Modes of Rehabilitation
A successful rehabilitation program must recognize all modes of rehabilitation and requires engaging the beneficiary in numerous ways. Within each mode of rehabilitation, there are various styles, with the four principle modes of rehabilitation being: religious, psychological, social, and vocational.
(1) Religious Rehabilitation: Although all the great religions espouse compassion, toleration, and moderation, these tenets have at times been twisted to provide justification for violence. In the past two decades we have witnessed terrorism stemming from the propagation of deviant versions of Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism, and Sikhism. Only religious teachers and scholars can correct misguided interpretations and teachings. Many terrorists believe that the US and its allies are deliberately attacking Islam and killing Muslims. They are made to believe that the West is Satan and that they have a religious obligation to attack the West. Through the imposition of an extremist and militant interpretation of Islam, the terrorists are committed to re-establishing the Caliphate.
To derive legitimacy for their struggle, they interpret the Qur’an in a manner that portrays them as the true guardian of Islam. A learned Islamic scholar and a cleric have the understanding, knowledge, and authority to correct the Islamic misconceptions a terrorist believes to be true. Unfortunately, the realization of the dangers of terrorism has not adequately reached the religious community. Only men of religion are adequately equipped to address this urgent issue. If the right formula is not applied, the terrorist message will spread to epidemic proportions. A systematic methodology is needed to bring the misguided back to the right path.
Singapore’s Religious Rehabilitation Group produced two manuals in 2004 and 2009 to aid religious counseling of Jemaah Islamiyah detainees held by the Internal Security Department (ISD), the security and intelligence service of Singapore. In addition to imparting structured counseling sessions, the detainees are provided religious texts to correct their misconceptions about Islam. In addition to the Koran, books on Tafsir (exegesis of the Qur'an) the Hadith (sayings and deeds of Muhammad), Fiqh (jurisprudence), and Sira (the Prophets' histories) are provided.[1]
The staff of Religious Rehabilitation Group in Singapore, as taken from the group’s website www.rrg.sg
Due to the closeness of wives to their husbands, the services of Ustazahs (female clerics) are made available to counsel wives. In some cases, the husband tried to indoctrinate the wife and the children with extremist beliefs and thoughts. As the husband went through a period of exposure to deviant teachings, the wife must understand that her husband has been propagating harmful views. In the future, the wife must neither propagate nor facilitate such beliefs within the family. Some wives, especially those who attended similar classes, were highly exposed to detrimental teachings. When husbands became very secretive, wives became confused with their husbands' ideology and behavior. As such, it is necessary for wives to be provided religious counseling Although some children as young as 14 were exposed, the preference is that they be counseled by family members.[2] To prevent this vicious cycle, mothers are advised with the hope that they understand their mistake and guide the children to follow the correct principles of their religion.[3]
Through a combination of tools, a terrorist who needs help can be reformed. While psychological, vocational, social, and family rehabilitation can change one's heart and mind, the most effective reform is religious rehabilitation. Religious rehabilitation has the power to unlock the mind of a detainee or an inmate. It has the power to make a beneficiary of rehabilitation repent, become remorseful, and re-enter mainstream society.
(2) Psychological rehabilitation: The psychologist adds an important dimension to the rehabilitation process. Psychology enables one to understand why some cross the line and kill. The methodology involves psycho-profiling, assessment, and solution. From a psychological perspective, it is much easier to change behavior with rewards than with punishment. Introducing a carrot to accompany the many sticks available to reform terrorists may be less costly than to omit it outrightly. Showing terrorists that they can benefit from denouncing a violent ideology and from becoming more socially accepted will remove their reason to fight. Unless a major crime had been committed, their violence must not solely be met with punishment in the form of prolonged imprisonment or detention, as this may increase their rage and sense of social alienation.[4] For others, it could be misconstrued as injustice.
This leaves humankind with an obligation compelling immediate attention. The captured terrorists must be convinced that their imprisonment or detention is to allow them to participate in a rehabilitation program. They must be assured of getting all the help they need to understand where they went wrong and how to avoid falling into the same behavioral patterns that trapped them in the first place. For this, they must be given access to enter into dialogues with qualified clerics and scholars of Islam. Their genuine concern for the suffering of Muslims in places such as Gaza and the West Bank, Iraq, and Afghanistan must not be quickly dismissed as extremism. On the contrary, it should be considered a window capable of providing greater understanding of how their minds work. This will present the counselors with the opportunity to strengthen the poor reasoning capacity and communication skills most of them are known to have. Whenever they manifest emotional attachment to a certain issue, counselors must help them develop a positive attitude to deal with their concerns and seize the opportunity to diminish extremist thought and behavior. With all these benefits, rehabilitation becomes not a choice but a necessity.
(3). Social Rehabilitation: When the head of a family is detained, he ceases to be the breadwinner and is often the only provider in the family. As the family starts to suffer, both the wife and the children need assistance to survive. Social rehabilitation becomes essential in helping a family traumatized by the detention. Such rehabilitation addresses the family's livelihood, the children's education, and ensures that the wife and children have a roof over their heads. As such, family rehabilitation becomes a part of social rehabilitation. The family should receive community assistance to carry on with their lives.
As a part of this aftercare initiative, the wives should be visited by the community and social workers. Children should not be socially isolated and treated as if everyone in the family were a terrorist, as it is necessary to care for children in a way where they do not form the next generation of terrorists. Preventing isolation and trauma facilitates the family’s reintegration back into society.
Social workers assigned to the program should give the children toys and help them with school. In once instance, when images of a child's father were published in the newspaper and he was accused of being a communist, the child was ridiculed.[5] In response, the community and social workers arranged for the child to be transferred to another school.[6] Social workers regularly visit to motivate children and engage them to prevent anger and resentment. Otherwise, their situation might create an opportunity for extremists and extremist groups to reach out to them. To deny bitterness and counter extremism, community and social workers provide aftercare by way of jobs, monetary assistance, and presenting a fresh outlook on life. By the time the detainee is released, both he and his family are transformed. Even after a detainee's release, community and social workers should continue to work with the family.
Vocational Rehabilitation: To reintegrate the detainees and inmates back into society, they need to be guided and prepared through the development of skills and obtaining an education. Designed to provide necessary skills for a job, vocational rehabilitation imparts skills useful to detainees and inmates upon release. This includes teaching them metal and wood work, carpentry and masonry, dairy farming and agriculture, computer and language skills and self-study and distance education. Unlike the other modes of rehabilitation, vocational rehabilitation runs a security risk. To minimize the risk, detainees and inmates are not taught certain skills such as electronics, a capability that could be used to build circuitry for bombs.
More than in any other country, under the careful guidance of Major General Douglas Stone, vocational rehabilitation was developed in Iraq to an unprecedented level. Working with OSS, a US Department of Defense contractor specializing in rehabilitation, and the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research in Singapore, Dr. Stone’s vision and mission created renowned resident expertise.[7] After release, “Picasso,” a former al-Qaeda in Iraq detainee with a talent for art was recruited by OSS to teach art.[8] A master theoretician and practitioner of rehabilitation, Dr. Stone built a wide ranging program in Iraq from which governments interested in creating rehabilitation programs continue to benefit.
Coupled with vocational rehabilitation, the integration of art, dance, song, and other cultural expressions into the rehabilitation package broadened the horizons of the detainees. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia established a care center in a suburb of Riyadh with games, cooking, and the study of art. A beneficiary of the center, Mohammed Dousery, a Guantanamo detainee for six years, said, “The center prepared me to engage gradually with the rest of society; ‘You can’t go directly from Guantanamo Bay to a normal life. This is an extremely difficult thing, and everything changes, Saudi changes and so does the rest of the world. I have a great wife, and she is encouraging me to try to forget Guantanamo, and she says to me, 'Forget that prison, you are a new man and you have a new life in front of you, and you have your family. Focus your concerns on this.' This makes me feel much better.’[9]
The five compounds, each with a capacity of 1200 people, support reintegration back into Saudi society. The beneficiaries, as they are called, are able to swim, play football, table tennis, and video games. An air-conditioned tent converted into a dining hall serves traditional food where the men engage in dialogue. In vocational rehabilitation, as in other modes, the range of activities is only limited by the imagination.
Working Model
There are practical difficulties in developing a universal model to rehabilitate terrorists seeking to justify their actions through Islam. To start with, Islam comes to every country in a different way. As such, there is a need to understand the diverse values and traditions of the Muslim community – how they practice Islam, how they relate to each other, and how they see the world. The economic context, political environment, and unique language and culture make standardization a challenge. As the security landscape in every country is different, the terrorists are also different. As the conditions of capture, treatment during incarceration, and release differ, there will never be one standard rehabilitation program. A government can develop a standard model, but it will be applicable to a specific threat group at a specific place and time. Every rehabilitation program operates in a community context. Although criminal justice and prison systems are unique to different countries, an approach to rehabilitation must exist. Instead of a standard model, a working model on rehabilitation should consider a number of essential aspects.
First, those selected to undergo rehabilitation should be viewed as a beneficiary and no longer as an inmate or detainee. Most security prisoners and detainees are treated poorly, at times harassed, and even tortured. Most guards have a preconceived notion of detainees and inmates that lead them to act aggressively towards them. Brandon Neely, US soldier assigned to Guantanamo Bay testified, “We would be coming face to face with the worst people the world had to offer.”[10] As most penitentiaries and detention centers have no rehabilitation space, the potential beneficiaries should be relocated to a facility that mirrors society. As the beneficiary is to be released back to society, he should no longer be isolated but engaged. To build understanding and create a channel for peaceful articulation of differences, an environment conducive to dialogue with the beneficiary should be created.
Second, rehabilitation should begin on day one of the arrest. If the captured terrorist is beaten, he is likely to harbor a grudge, or at least remember the treatment meted out to him on the first day. Even the best form of interview with a detainee is rapport based. Threats and torture are unlikely to yield truthful information. Rehabilitation is a painstaking process that requires patience, dedication and reflection, and requires finding and matching the right counselor with the beneficiary. For instance, a Shi'a cleric will not be able to rehabilitate a Sunni beneficiary; the moment the cleric walks in, the beneficiary will think that Satan has arrived. To ensure successful reintegration back into society, rehabilitation should be continuous during incarceration and upon release to the family and community leaders.
Third, rehabilitation is a collective effort not only by investigative officers and operations officers but also by the clergy and academia. Although rehabilitation involves different interest groups working together, the most crucial is the public-private partnership between the security and intelligence services and the clergy. It is paramount to build a lasting relationship between the government holding the detainees and inmates and the clerics and scholars committed to protecting their faith from misinterpretation and misrepresentation. Unless the government and clergy work together, the rehabilitation program will fall apart. The most crucial platform built for rehabilitation can eventually be expanded to engage the Muslim community.
Fourth, as religious justification was used to bring the concept of hate and violence into the terrorist mind, counseling by clergy should be an essential part of the program. In the West, where church and state are separate, there is a reluctance to use religious counselors. By neglecting this crucial dimension, other modes of rehabilitation are unlikely to work. Government should cast aside their suspicions and find a channel to understand and work with the clerics more effectively. Gradually, the clergy themselves must be made to witness what terrorism has done to individuals. The clergy should decide for themselves that the terrorists are wayward from the right Islamic teachings. When it becomes apparent that a minority is casting a bad image on their religion, there will be many clergy volunteering to protect Islam. Then, working with terrorists becomes the responsibility of clergy keen to uphold the dignity of the religion itself. The members of the clergy must be careful not to project their own school or orientation as the right interpretation of Islam. Such actions will lead to discord among the clergy. Clerics from diverse schools and orientations should join hands and work together to fight this common threat.[11]
Fifth, successful rehabilitation requires the continuous study of the evolving terrorist narrative and ideology, including their perceived and real grievances and aspirations, as well as access to studies by other programs and institutions. The terrorists and their supporters believe that they can help Muslim brothers by engaging in “jihad” in Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Palestine, Chechnya, Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines. The clerics and scholars should develop an intellectual capacity to rebut this ideology and deliver an Islamic alternative to traveling and fighting in conflict zones. The response should be a rebuttal to correct the deviant belief that jihad permits killing non-Muslims.[12] Instead, an alternative can be proposed to support humanitarian work in places like Gaza and Kashmir, redirecting energy and resources to work peacefully to rebuild the lives and property of those who have suffered in conflict zones.
Sixth, constant training and education of the professional and support staff at the rehabilitation center is essential. Whether it is a guard or a sports instructor, no one should be assigned to the rehabilitation center without undergoing an orientation course. Even momentarily, if a guard poorly treats a beneficiary, the goodwill built by others will be damaged.[13] As terrorist rehabilitation is a new discipline, there is no standard text book for such an ambitious program. It is necessary to nurture a culture of research where a team of specialist will constantly learn, develop, and refine the existing understanding and knowledge of this emerging field.[14] Terrorist rehabilitation is neither an exact science nor a romance but is both a science and an art. As such, a rehabilitation center should never be run by a bureaucrat but instead by a dynamic leader. As beneficiaries differ from each other, it requires creative leadership, not classical bureaucracy. Evaluation becomes essential to maximize successes and minimize failures.
Seventh, trained and dedicated expert staff are needed to classify and profile the detainees and inmates. Before selection as a beneficiary for the rehabilitation program, it is necessary to assess if the terrorist is a high, medium, or low risk, as well as to profile his education, family, and the depth of his operational involvement and ideological commitment. His involvement and ideology are not dependent on his level of education (low, medium or high) but rather on the degree of his exposure. Even the most educated are susceptible to the message of a charismatic preacher: “By doing jihad, we can go to paradise.” Like love, ideology makes terrorists and supporters blind. As the degrees of indoctrination and commitment differ, government experts, together with clerics and scholars, should work on a structured program and a tailored syllabus for each of the beneficiaries. Otherwise, the message will not reach the beneficiaries, and the investment will be wasted.
Eight, resources are needed to create an environment conducive for counseling. As most detention and penitentiary facilities are over-crowded and conditions are exceptionally poor, the environment is not conducive to rehabilitation. As such, governments should invest resources to construct new facilities or relocate the beneficiaries. As opposed to mass and group counseling, one-on-one counseling should involve a dialogue in a comfortable setting.[15] Seated on a sofa, the preacher and the beneficiary will sit sipping tea, eating dates, and listening to each other while discussing matters of interest, such as God, the Qur'an, and Islam. If mass counseling is employed, it is necessary to determine the target audience and structure the message by considering to whom we wish to talk and what we want to talk about. There should be continuous assessment of the beneficiaries to determine how well they are responding to counseling.
Ninth, no rehabilitation program will achieve its desired impact unless government works to counter the extremism dormant in the community. While the reverse of radicalization in custody is rehabilitation, the reverse of radicalization outside detention is community engagement. Ideally, the blue print for winning hearts and minds should come from debriefing and deprogramming detainees. Terrorist rehabilitation holds the key to inoculating communities against the contemporary wave of extremism and terrorism.
During rehabilitation, the counselors can elicit from the beneficiary the content to counter terrorist propaganda targeting and affecting the community. As the terrorist in custody portrays both the problem and solution, the detainee needs to be managed and handled to be helpful toward curing the others in the community who are also affected but undetected.
Tenth, no one can give a guarantee that a person’s mindset can be changed through rehabilitation. To ensure a detainee will not become a contaminant upon release, it is necessary to support his gradual reintegration into society. Even before final release, the beneficiary should be placed in a halfway house where he can spend time with his family and friends and remain committed to peace. To prevent rejuvenation of extremist ideas and thoughts, the counsellors that helped in his transformation should remain in contact. If the milieu is hostile, the revival of earlier beliefs will lead him to violence. A classic example is Said Ali al-Shihri, alias Abu Sayyaf, a detainee released from Guantanamo in November 2007, who went through the Saudi rehabilitation program.[16] After he was approached and recruited by the Yemeni branch of al-Qaeda, he travelled to Yemen where he was appointed deputy leader of al-Qaeda in Yemen. He participated in the bombing of the US Embassy in in Sana'a in September 2008 that killed 16 people.[17] Abu al-Hareth Muhammad al-Awfi, alias Muhamad Attik al-Harbi, another Saudi beneficiary who joined al-Qaeda in Yemen, returned home after the clergy and his fmaily spoke to him.[18] As there is no methodlogy to read the mind or to test if the beneficiary has transformed after treatment, there will always be lapses in judgement and assessment. High rates of recidivism will adversely impact the reputation of the program.
Eleventh, a fully transformed beneficiary is a strategic weapon in the fight against terrorism and extremism. If successful, upon release, every beneficiary can play his role to spread the message of peace. Both in the real and cyber world, they could serve as guardians of their faith and champions of peace.
Twelfth, a comprehensive security framework must be formulated, implemented, and managed to rehabilitate the detainees and inmates. This program should involve both security and religious screening of staff. Depending on the environment, it might be necessary for professional and support staff to be screened routinely and possibly continuously. The beneficiary should be closely monitored during counseling sessions, when with family and other visitors, and fellow detainees and inmates. If there is suspicion that a beneficiary has not fully transformed and will return to violence, he should not be released. It is necessary to understand that rehabilitation should never be the end goal, but safety of the community. Early release should be regarded as a breach of security. After release, the beneficiary should be monitored to ensure that he does not return to violence. In a conflict zone, there are inherent difficulties of monitoring a terrorist that has been released. By releasing a beneficiary to a tribal elder and to the family, and by swearing an oath on the Qur'an and to a religious figure, mechanisms have been developed to enhance compliance.
Challenges
There are multiple challenges in initiating, building, and sustaining national programs. First, the government should understand that religious justification was used to bring about the terrorist mindset. Furthermore, government should understand that Islam is never the driver but that Islam has instead been misinterpreted and misrepresented to legitimize violence. As such, the role of the Ulema[19] is at the core of dismantling the concept of hate and violence harbored by operational terrorists and extremist supporters. This understanding should generate willingness by every government to bring Islamic scholars and clerics - those learned and knowledgeable about Islam – to the frontline.
There must be recognition that a theologian is as important as a counterterrorism practitioner.[20] Without Islamic scholars and clerics, we can fight operational terrorism but not its precursor and generator, ideological extremism. However, most governments treat terrorism as a mere law enforcement issue and extremism as a non-issue. Church and state are separate in the West, the group of nations with a global reach, staying power, and the discipline to fight terrorism. As such, there is reluctance in North America, Europe, and Australasia to bring in Islamic scholars and clerics to the forefront in matters of state. Government also has difficulty in identifying the rightful scholars suitable to staff and lead the ideological fight. Overcoming negative thoughts about religious leaders, governments must understand the ground reality and start to work with them.
Second, Islamic scholars and clerics, through training and education, should develop a full understanding of the ideology and psychology of detainees and inmates. The scholars and clerics know about Islam and Islamic law (Shari'ah), but they do not know the religious understanding of the terrorists. Even if government identified the scholars and clerics with the right attitude, they must still be trained. The training should cover two principal areas: first, terrorist ideologies—the linkages between ideology and operations, and secondly, the skills to provide psychological counseling, especially listening patiently to the inmate or detainee. The Islamic scholars and clerics must relearn the Islamic concepts in Islam, especially its misinterpretation and misrepresentation. They should examine the writings and speeches of ideologues of hatred and violence, especially how Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi and his followers perceive Islam and how Usama bin Laden’s followers understand jihad as holy war.
The Islamic scholar and cleric engaged in rehabilitation is part psychologist. In the human system, there is a link between belief and feelings. Although feelings of hatred, anger, and and the terrorists' resentment of the West have nothing to do with Islam, the ideology will support these feelings, with which psychologists are trained to confront. While the heart produces the feelings, the mind controls them. It is natural to get angry, but a sound mind prevents him or her from killing. At Singapore’s Religious Rehabilitation Group (RRG), about 80% of the staff have completed a seven month diploma course in psychological counseling Without a dedicated, well-trained, and motivated staff, such a program cannot succeed.
Third, without vision, resources, and a strategic direction, no program that requires a long term investment will succeed. For a rehabilitation program to be successful, a long term commitment is necessary. Rehabilitation comes with the notion that a country must gain a greater understanding from others and invest more resources. For instance, the Saudi Interior Ministry spent 1.7 billion riyals to construct five modern headquarters and high-tech security prisons in Riyadh, Jeddah, the eastern region, and in Abha and Qassim in 2008.[21] Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz, Minister of the Interior, and his son, Prince Muhammed bin Nayef, the Assistant to the Interior Minister for Security Affairs, oversaw the establishment of nine centers for rehabilitation, which began in a center near Riyadh. In addition to the special facilities for housing families and meeting visitors, high tech classrooms and libraries for reading and studying were built. A committee oversaw specialists in security, sports, Islamic law, social science and psychology, drawn from government and academia, working together.
Guiding Principles
Terrorist rehabilitation specifically deals with those incarcerated but have not disengaged from violence. Although not all security detainees and inmates can be rehabilitated, it is the moral responsibility of every government and well-meaning citizen to advocate the establishment of rehabilitation programs in every penitentiary and detention center from Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe and North America. As no one is born an extremist or terrorist, rehabilitation is the only intelligent option. Transforming a terrorist into a person who actively seeks peace takes time, it has the potential to influence our threat landscape.
Successful terrorist rehabilitation comes with several premises and notions. First, there must be zero tolerance towards any promotion of hate and violence using religion as justification. By condoning the fighting in Iraq as a legitimate jihad but not a jihad at home, a program would not succeed. Only by developing, instilling, and adopting the principle of zero tolerance can there be success.
Abdullah al-Ajami, former Guantanamo detainee and ISI suicide bomber
Second, terrorist rehabilitation should not be a symptomatic approach; it should be a cure for everyone. It should address those who are radicalized and those who are constantly exposed to the radicalization. Those susceptible will fall immediately. Those who are regularly bombarded with propaganda will eventually fall, too. As such, any rehabilitation program should be complemented with public education and public awareness. Otherwise, contamination will result, and those who are supposed to be immune will fall wayward towards radicalization. Here, drug rehabilitation provides a good analogy. Detoxification of the offender includes increasing their physical fortitude to make them stronger combined with drug counseling to prevent a return to drugs. However, as the environment is not drug-free, many become repeat offenders.
Unless there is a larger effort to prevent contamination of the rest of the community by former terrorists or by terrorists not exposed to rehabilitation, the effort to rehabilitate terrorists will not yield the best results. A few countries have developed programs where community participation is lacking and absent. As the need of the hour is to protect the community, for optimal outcome and synergy, governments should work with the community. In order to prevent the community from being infected and stop ideas from festering within the community, the effort must be sustained and wide-ranging.
Third, a successful rehabilitation program requires the support of a range of actors: endorsement at the highest level of government, community participation, and a good media, which can shape public opinion and build support across the spectrum. In many Muslim countries, the media are promoting and projecting Usama bin Laden but have not given space to Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi.[22] Many do not even know that Sheikh Tantawi is the Grand Imam of al-Azhar Mosque and Grand Sheikh of al-Azhar University, the highest seat of learning in Sunni Islam. As practitioners, especially security officials and clergy, lack access to resources, academic scholars can support their efforts. As ideology is evolving, constant research and analysis is needed to both produce and update rehabilitation manuals. Academic communities can generate new ideas, look at the antecedents, examine successes and failures, as well as scan, analyze, and raise potential knowledge gaps. Academics look beyond the immediate and the urgent and provide strategic direction. For instance, by reviewing detainee debriefings, academic specialists can formulate the counter-ideological arguments to rebut the terrorist narrative aimed at de-radicalizing the detainee, as well as the community. Building a partnership between government, the Muslim community, and academia is at the heart of a successful rehabilitation program.
Classifying the Terrorists
As different levels of extremism require different levels of response, governments should be able to differentiate between terrorist leaders, members or operatives, and supporters and sympathizers. Just as there are circles of extremism, there are multiple target audiences. Counterterrorism practitioners, Islamic scholars, and academic specialists should work together to develop a program and a syllabus that can tailor to every category, from extremists who advocate and support, to the terrorists who kill, maim and injure. As not all detained are identical in their understanding, it is necessary to divide them into leaders, operatives, and supporters. For instance, many foot soldiers do not know ideology. But if told, “To die as a martyr is the best thing,” they will.
When a terrorist is detained, he is assessed. As each of these categories requires different approaches, the detainee is categorized into high, medium and low risk.
High risk: They are mostly spiritual and operational leaders. They are usually the hardcore terrorists who are believe in the ideology and never want to deviate from it, despite many counseling sessions. Such people are very few, but they had contact with, and received direct inspiration from, the terrorist leadership. Even though Mullah Omar never completed his religious education and Usama bin Laden has had no formal religious education, many terrorists received instruction and guidance from them. They consider a poorly educated Afghan or Saudi more of a religious authority than a true scholar or cleric from their own country. They consider what they believe to be correct. It is necessary to use the most prominent Ulema to talk to them and allow them to reflect and repent. When released, they become the most susceptible to return to violence.
Medium risk: They are the operatives and the experts that form the bulk of the membership. They are active ideologically and operationally. They are full of hatred and ready to commit violence. They will always look for justification and interpretations that suit their current mindset. They have usually served for a long time as members of the organization. They know the ideology and accept it. They can be rehabilitated, but in a few cases, it is debated as to whether there is genuine transformation or a strategic calculation. There are cases where detainees have tried to mislead their counsellors by agreeing with them with the intention of gaining an early release.
Low risk: They are active and passive supporters. They are mostly foot soldiers, inactive members, and are not involved in crimes. They do not know the religious ideology. They joined thinking that their peers (relatives, colleagues, and friends) were fighting for Islam. They completely believe that whatever they do is justified by religion. Some provided money without realizing that their contributions have been used to purchase arms.
After a process of assessment, the right cleric or psychologist is assigned to counsel the detainee, who is continuously assessed. It is essential to identify the problems of the detainee. Is the detainee motivated by character or dangerous ideology? Is he still sympathetic to jihadist ideology? What is his actual problem? The process of rehabilitation is long and multifaceted. Unlike in many countries, Singapore will not release a detainee unless the government is fully convinced they he does not pose a threat to security. If a detainee or inmate is prematurely released, he is likely to participate in terrorist and extremist activity, which will risk discrediting the vital tool of rehabilitation and the program itself.
Towards a Global Regime
The US, the nation leading the global fight against terrorism, was late in buying into the idea of rehabilitation. After 9/11, the US leadership did not see rehabilitation as a solution. Although the US invested expertise and resources to build a rehabilitation program in Iraq, as a government the US did not espouse the concept of rehabilitation. Building on the success of Task Force 134 in Iraq, there is some interest on the part of the US to initiate a similar program by Task Force Guardian in Bagram, Afghanistan. At this point of time, there are more countries that do not believe in rehabilitation compared to the countries that embrace and promote it. A number of other countries, including Israel, do not believe that terrorists can be ideologically rehabilitated.[23] Even if terrorists disengage from violence, they need to be de-radicalized; otherwise, there will be no end to hate and violence in the Middle East. To break the cycle of violence and bring about peace, rehabilitation is a worthwhile investment and endeavor.
To make terrorist rehabilitation a global imperative, there must be agreement that rehabilitation is a part of the global solution to the problem. The key to establishing a global rehabilitation regime is to build a sufficient number of national rehabilitation programs. A roadmap towards establishing national programs includes establishing:
(1) Common database: An information repository – a common pool of resources – was launched by Singapore Law and Second Minister for Home Affairs K. Shanmugam at the inauguration of the first International Conference on Terrorist Rehabilitation on February 24, 2009. The p4peace portal has both a public and a restricted interface. The password verified restricted section for practitioners and scholars is a dedicated space for counter ideology content focusing on terrorist rehabilitation. This includes a database of articles, papers, and other documents for use by practitioners and scholars. P4peace solicits contributions for writings from delegates and their colleagues on counter-ideology, focusing on rehabilitation.
(2) Exchange of personnel: Governments worldwide lacked both human expertise and material resources to start ad hoc rehabilitation initiatives and structured rehabilitation programs. One of the most effective methods to build capacity to rehabilitate terrorists is to exchange personnel. Exchange of personnel will lead to information sharing on systems, modes and best practices of terrorist rehabilitation. Building capacity helps to raise new, and improve existing, capabilities of detainee and inmate rehabilitation. Countries with rehabilitation programs can either attach or send their specialist staff to support countries keen to build rehabilitation programs. Likewise, countries keen to build rehabilitation programs can learn from countries with rehabilitation programs. Such exchanges will also enable countries with ad hoc programs to build systematic programs and enable countries with no programs to initiate programs. The personnel can learn by observing inmate/detainee counseling to management of facilities and operations.
(3) Joint research, publication, education, and training: Joint research into the terrorist mindset, psychology, use of religion, and other areas could pave the way for collaboration in more challenging areas. For terrorist rehabilitation to be successful, all the staff of the program should receive orientation. As a specialist discipline, the clerics, scholars, psychologists, security and intelligence professionals, prison guards, and the others servicing the program should be trained. While courses on counseling skills could range from 7 months to one year, a course on counter-extremism and counterterrorism could range from one week to two years. Specialist trainers or trainees can be exchanged, either to impart training or to receive training. When conducting courses, countries with fully-fledged rehabilitation programs could invite staff from countries keen to initiate them to participate. As the number of specialist trainers is limited, some courses could be jointly conducted. A successful rehabilitation program requires the government, academia, and community to work together. Without well trained, dedicated, and motivated staff, a national program cannot succeed. Together with the Religious Rehabilitation Group of Singapore, the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research plans to host the first International Course on Terrorist Rehabilitation in August of 2009.
(4) Transfer of expertise and resources: Without a vision and a strategic direction, no terrorist rehabilitation program can 
succeed. For a rehabilitation program to be successful, a long term commitment of intellectual and material resources is a must. Rehabilitation comes with the notion that a country must gain a greater understanding from others and invest further resources. The program in Egypt died a natural death because resources for the program were diverted. In contrast, governments from Uzbekistan to Singapore and Saudi Arabia have allocated significant resources. Although Malaysia, Indonesia, and Yemen have invested in such programs, they need to have a full-time, dedicated specialist staff focusing exclusively on terrorist detainees and inmates. To make terrorist rehabilitation a global imperative, wherever possible, countries need to share the expertise and resources with countries that lack them. As of 2009, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Thailand, and the Philippines expressed an interest in building programs. To build a global regime to rehabilitate terrorists, governments with the expertise and resources needs to pave the way and create a path for other nations. Every successful program requires a long term investment of intellectual and other resources.
(5) Sharing of experience: Every national rehabilitation program is country specific. In Saudi Arabia for instance, they look for wives, buy them cars and homes, provide jobs, and assistance in starting businesses. To change the mindset, there is sustained family pressure to transform. Some have made use of the benefits and gone back to violence. Instead of seeking to replicate national models, what would be useful is to draw lessons and adapt them to specific country conditions. However, there are many common areas for collaboration, from research into key Islamic concepts misinterpreted by terrorists to how to assess progress or non-progress in rehabilitation.
(6) An international advisory council: To sustain momentum, to ensure common interest, and to create synergy, it is necessary to create an international advisory council of practitioners and scholars. The council will determine membership, set modalities, and provide strategic direction to the community of terrorist rehabilitation practitioners and scholars. The council will plan and prepare for an annual international conference on terrorist rehabilitation. This conference should continue to serve as a platform to project to the world the message of rehabilitation. Formal and informal education of leaders and others of the importance of such an approach rather than incarcerating and throwing the key away until the day the terrorist is released.
To make terrorist rehabilitation a global imperative, governments need to move from a cooperative to a collaborative model. While preserving their unique identities, they must be willing to advance common interests. To have universal acceptance of an idea such as terrorist rehabilitation, the understanding of the community of nations, especially in the West, is paramount. A United Nations convention making it mandatory for member countries to pass legislation, the nations that constitute the UN need to be convinced. It will require a step-by-step approach of formally and informally educating the government and the intelligentsia, building a significant number of national rehabilitation programs and initiatives, and eventually approaching the UN. Through the collaboration of national programs, the case can be built to make terrorist rehabilitation a global regime. A regime will enable orderly progression towards dismantling the terrorist ideology.
The Future
After 9/11, the Western-led kinetic, lethal, and punitive approaches have emerged as the dominant strategies to fight terrorism. These tactical and operational responses have produced mixed successes. Although several important terrorists have been killed or captured, the strategic threat has not diminished. Soon it will be ten years after the terrible attacks in New York and Washington, DC. Unless governments share and adopt non-kinetic and non-lethal measures to fight terrorism and extremism, the threat will persist The ideology driving violence including terrorism is growing. Unless the ideology in the environment and inside the minds of the terrorist is dismantled, the threat is likely to persist in the foreseeable future. Terrorist rehabilitation is a classic example of using smart power that is neither soft nor hard power. It is a combination of integrating our laws to detain and hold but also to offer our goodwill and judgment to correct the misled and the misguided. As no one is born an extremist or a terrorist, it is necessary to reverse the global trend of radicalization.
The science and the art of terrorist rehabilitation rest within the rubric of counter-ideology. Ideological and intellectual responses present a positive and plausible avenue to create an environment that is hostile to terrorists and unfriendly to extremists. For it to be effective, it must come from the Muslim community. However, unless Muslim majority and minority governments and all communities work with and support these Muslim leaders, it is unlikely to happen. As the urgent and the immediate take priority over the important and the strategic, terrorism will remain the tier-one national security threat to most countries in the foreseeable future. Al-Qaeda and its associated groups will continue to inculcate the Muslim world with its vicious ideology producing the next generation of terrorists.
The world is at an early stage of understanding both extremism and terrorism. An evil political ideology espoused by a violent group masquerading as religious men drove youth from across the globe to fight thousands of miles from home. For three decades, many participated in all facets of the global terrorist network's support activities and operations. For every active terrorist, there are thousands of active supporters, and tens of thousands of passive sympathizers. As every supporter is a potential terrorist, early ideological intervention is an absolute necessity. As heightening of extremism leads to violence, approaches of engagement and legislation should be applied to prevent, deter, cure, and punish.
Conclusion:
Rehabilitation is a holistic program. For rehabilitation to work, community engagement is as important as the four modes of rehabilitation. The confluence of these two domains must take place to bring about successful rehabilitation. The most crucial partnership is government and community working together. As communities produce extremists and terrorists, the participation of the community in the fight against extremism is essential. Law enforcement, intelligence, and militaries can help, but ultimately, the community must defeat terrorism. Without community participation, where the Ulema and secular leaders take the lead, no program can succeed. There should be synergy where government works with the elite of the community to create an environment hostile to the terrorists and unfriendly to extremists.
The Islamic World has yet to play the frontline role in both countering extremism and its vicious by-product, terrorism. As religion has been misused and abused, the Muslim world looks up towards Saudi Arabia to debunk the terrorist ideology. Although the early tell-tail signs are positive, the royal family, religious scholars, and Ulema in Saudi Arabia should give a bold mandate, resources, and the direction in the Muslim world. Other strong referral points should be Egypt and Pakistan, where radical movements emerged and festered. Unless the Ulema in Muslim-majority countries such as Indonesia, Bangladesh, Jordan, and Algeria speak up, a segment of the Muslim community will continue to consider Usama bin Laden, Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, Abu Baker Bashir, and Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi as their Ulema. More than ever before, the Muslim nations are facing a grave challenge. For success, coordinated and collective effort is needed.
In most Muslim-minority governments, the greater challenge rests with government, where Muslims have few or no channels to interact with the leadership of their country. As counterterrorism is within the realm of national security, if governments are to successfully target the conceptual terrorist infrastructure, they have no option but to invite Muslim leaders, elders, and the elite to work with them. Governments must take the initiative and create bridges and pathways by opening doors, inviting participation, and through better integration in their country to foster a national Muslim identity. Governments should take the lead in fostering government-community partnerships towards building a viable program. At the beginning, initiatives to engage Muslims will only have the support of a handful of genuine Muslim leaders and institutions. With success and time, more volunteers will join participation will rise.
To enlist greater Muslim participation and support, the orientation of the fight should change from a tactical and operational footing to a more strategic one. Rather than enforcement, the emphasis will shift to engagement. The very concept of terrorist rehabilitation will refocus the attention of the world to the battlefield of the mind and make governments think strategically and plan for the long term. If the UN, a world body, passes a resolution on rehabilitation, more countries will take note. They would be more likely to initiate rehabilitation programs that will produce results, convincing others that rehabilitation works. Similar to countering the financing of terrorism or banning torture, a worldwide resolution to enforce rehabilitation will be regarded as humanitarian, particularly by the Muslim world.
[1] Interview, Ustaz Mohamed bin Ali, former Secretary, Religious Rehabilitation Group, and Associate Research Fellow, International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, February 22, 2009.
[2]After coming to know of the father’s arrest, his indoctrinated son said: “Dadda, you terrorist! Very good Dadda.” As the son believed the father to be fighting the US, its allies, and friends, the father was his personal hero. Interview, senior government official, July 2008.
[3]Ustaz Mohamed bin Ali, “Striking the Roots of Radicalism, Reclaiming Islam’s Intellectual Heritage,” in, Countering Radicalism: The Next Generation and Challenges Ahead,” edited by Abdul Halim bin Kader, (Singapore: Taman Bacaan, Singapore, 2009) 107-112.
[4]Conversation, Ustaz Mahfuh Halimi, International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, February 22, 2009.
[5]Halim Kadir, President Taman Baccan, Singapore, Question and Answer Session, Panel on Singapore Experience, International Conference on Terrorist Rehabilitation, February 26, 2009
[6]Ibid.
[7]After assessing the degrees of radicalization of detainees at Camp Cropper, the Singapore delegation trained US and Iraqi personnel on how to build a rehabilitation program in Baghdad in December 2007, and thereafter worked with OSS to build the religious rehabilitation manual and counseling guide. Singapore’s assistance to build a rehabilitation program in Iraq was classified until it was publicly acknowledged both by General Stone, the former Deputy Commanding General in Iraq responsible for detainee rehabilitation, and the Singapore delegates at the inaugural International Conference on Terrorist Rehabilitation in February 2009.
[8]Stone, who assumed duties in mid-2008 was impressed by the art program for detainees in Saudi Arabia. He adapted it in Iraq with the assistance of Dr. Ami M. Angell of OSS.
[9]Special center for rehabilitation of deviating groups in Saudi Arabia, http://www.al-jazirah.com.sa/277512/ua1d.htm, July 9, 2008
[10]Testimony of Spc. Brandon Neely, Guantanamo Testimonial Project, December 4, 2008
[11]There is a maxim in Islamic law stating that if you busy yourself with something which is not your objective, it is the same as turning away from that objective. Conversation with Ustaz Mahfuh Halimi, March 10, 2008
[12]From the Medina charter to the Alliance of Excellence [hilf al-fudul], Islam has promoted peace between Muslims and non-Muslims. For instance, when Ali, the fourth Caliph was asked about the relationship between two Muslims, he said, “We are brothers in faith.” When asked about the relationship between Muslims and non-Muslims, Ali answered, “We are brothers in humanity.” Conversation with Ustaz Mahfuh Halimi, March 10, 2008 Also visit Muslims United Against Humanity <http://www.muat.co.uk/islam.asp>
[13]The Governor of Helmand Province in Afghanistan, Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, the former Taliban Ambassador to Pakistan, spent three years at Guantanamo Bay. In his book titled “Da Guantanamo Anzoor”, he admires a few Americans who were nice to him, did not torture or beat him, and spoke to him kindly. <http://wwwcageprisoners.com/print.php?id=28123>
[14]The motto of RRG is “Loving, Caring and Sharing.” “Winning Hearts and Minds, Embracing Peace,” Khadijah Mosque, Singapore, 2008, p. 1.
[15]For instance, in the Malaysian case, the detainees stay in a dormitory. They live together and receive both group and one-on-one counseling.
[16]Robert F. Worth, “Freed by the U.S., Saudi Becomes a Qaeda Chief,” New York Times, January 22, 2009
[17]Ibid
[18]Yemen Captures al Qaeda Commander, A former Guantanamo Detainee, Associated Press, February 17, 2009
[19]Islamic Scholars
[20]At Singapore’s International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research in Singapore, the counterterrorism research and training center, 60% of the staff are Muslim and 25% are Islamic scholars and clerics.
[21]“1.7 billion Riyals to develop Saudi prisons and rehabilitation centers for terrorists,” http://www.arabianbusiness.com/arabic/517622?refresh=1&r=1
[22]While Google reports 14 million hits for the search term “Osama bin Laden,” it only reports 25,300 hits for “Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi”. <accessed March 10 2009>
[23]Like most other countries, Israel’s vocational and educational rehabilitation programs are geared towards rehabilitating convicted criminals but not security detainees.