Around 10 percent of the militants and convicted terrorists are not even religious people, according to an Interior Ministry study. The study also says that 35 percent of those serving various jail terms for acts of terrorism had traveled to troubled countries, such as Chechnya, Afghanistan and Iraq. Prof. Abdulrahman Al-Hadlaq, Director General of cultural security at the Saudi Ministry of Interior, is the author of two major research studies on prisoners detained on charges of violent terrorist activities. The studies included interviews with hundreds of prisoners who had been held for committing several terrorist acts since 2003. The studies focused on a number of aspects, including family background, lifestyle, education, reading habits, companionship and other related issues. Hadlaq, who specializes in terrorism and political science, said his research had revealed some interesting results, such as that most of those who were arrested on terrorism charges were between the ages 20 and 30. These people so young of age were members of large Saudi families. “They were easily tempted and brainwashed, because of their parents being too busy or too old to monitor their activities,” he said. “These youths were ignorant of true Islamic Shariah,” he said, “and hence confused about a number of crucial Islamic teachings, and thus easily swayed to adopt deviant thoughts.” Hadlaq said besides their poor levels of religious or Shariah knowledge, other factors that swayed them were traveling to troubled countries such as Chechen, Afghanistan, and Iraq, lack of self-employment and involvement in petty criminal activities. His studies also show that Around 22 percent of them have police records. Owing to their deviant thoughts, many resented working in the public sector, he added. The study also revealed that the majority of the detainees used to read literature and biographies of people considered as radical. “Their extremist views were also obtained from cassettes and some Internet sites that promoted radical literature,” he said. __
