Coordinator speaks of detainee contradictions MADINA – Abdul Salam Bin Salem Al-Suhaimi, a Madina coordinator on the Al-Munasaha Committee which runs the terrorist rehabilitation program targeting “deviant thought”, has said that detainees in the program not only accuse others of being “infidels”, but also themselves. He also revealed how some persons in the program have turned their backs on terrorism after their experiences abroad. In an interview with Al-Madina Arabic daily this week, Al-Suhaimi, who is also a teacher at Madina's Islamic University, gave details of the program's progress and further insights into the thinking of individuals enrolled, saying that some detainees accused themselves “at least once a day” of being infidels “because they noticed in their superficial thought contradictory views concerning Islam”. “Some detainees used to swear by God that they had never heard of some Islamic rulings by which the Al-Munasaha program has made them aware of their misunderstandings and the errors of their ways,” Al-Suhaimi said. “Some of them were unable to differentiate between the moral side of jihad and their violent methods because they didn't have the necessary knowledge of Islam.” According to Al-Suhaimi, this lack of knowledge enabled them to permit for themselves “things forbidden in Islam, such as lying, cheating, betrayal and failing to meet commitments”. “Many of the detainees are young men lacking in a basic knowledge of Islam, which explains how they are so easily exploited and influenced by advocates of deviant thought,” he said. Al-Suhaimi related several personal accounts from detainees in the program. “I wanted to go for Jihad in occupied Iraq, so I shaved off my beard for the first time in my life and wore trousers,” he quoted one detainee as saying. “The people helping me to get there wanted me to carry out a suicide attack, but I said I didn't want to, as the scholars hadn't issued a fatwa permitting that.” The detainee said that when asked to name a sheikh whose fatwa he would respect, they said they would “cut off (the sheikh's) head like a sheep”. “When I found out what those people were really like, I decided to come back to the Kingdom,” the detainee said. Another member of the program had a similar tale. “I went abroad and met with a group who said they would send me to Iraq, and I gave them money for it, but they wanted me for a suicide attack and I refused,” he said. “They took my passport and all the money I had, and then dumped me in the middle of the desert where I fell and fainted. When I woke up, I realized I hadn't even crossed the border into Iraq. I was put in prison for a few months until the Kingdom's authorities brought me home.” Another member of the program who handed himself in to the authorities, said that he didn't go through with a plan to blow up a site because his father was the manager. According to the same individual, he had learnt numerous inconsistencies, and “we applied them to everyone”. “Once we saw a soldier with a beard, and my friend said to me he was a kafir, just because he was a soldier!” “We joined up with Al-Qaeda and we were asked to follow one of their leaders who had managed to get no further than intermediate school, and he arrived with a group disguised in women's clothes and started ordering us about accepting no discussion. With the amount of contradictions we have and the way we bandy about on everyone we even end up accusing ourselves of being kafirs, and come back to the fold by renewing our faith.” Another inmate told members of the Al-Munasaha Committee that he didn't recognize them as Muslims. “We asked him if he knew us personally, and how he knew we weren't Muslims,” said Al-Suhaimi. “He replied: ‘It's enough that you are here to call you infidels'.” “We asked him how a person became a Muslim, and he replied that it was through the Shahada (declaration of Oneness of God), and then committee member said the shahada in front of him, but he rejected it, saying, ‘You're still in this place.'” Al-Suhaimi said that the Al-Munasaha worked on two fronts, addressing detainees and non-detainees. “Earlier we used to hold group sessions but we found that one-on-one sessions were more effective,” he said. “One or two sheikhs, a psychiatrist and a social worker discuss with the deviant his personal life and the objectives of Al-Munasaha in helping him address his misunderstandings.” “Some detainees have been reluctant to speak to the scholars, but changed when they realized the committee was designed to help them and guide them onto the right path.” Study sessions, according to Al-Suhaimi, involved 20 to 25 detainees focusing together for three weeks on controversial issues such as definitions of infidelity, sedition and innovations before being given a test on their studies. “Over 70 sessions have been held so far,” Al-Suhaimi said. According to Al-Suhaimi the committee uses “dialogue and discussion, not lectures, and has been instructed to “harm in no way the persons in the program, whether through word or deed”. “It seeks to be beneficial for the detainees and save them, not to attack or harm them,” he said. __
