Deradicalization programs are an abysmal failure everywhere they have been implemented. From the Jihad Watch archives:
UK: Libyan migrant who went on stabbing spree in Reading was in government deradicalization program
Gitmo prisoner reveals: Saudi “deradicalization program” is really a jihad training program
11 ex-Gitmo prisoners flee the Saudi “rehabilitation program” and join up with terrorist groups
Jaw-dropper: 25 former Gitmo detainees “return to militancy” despite Saudi rehab program!
Flight 253 jihadist wasn’t cured by Saudi anti-jihad art therapy
Former Guantanamo detainee now top al-Qaeda ideologue — “He was transferred to Saudi Arabia in 2006 where he was placed in a national rehabilitation project.”
Indonesian government admits that its jihadist rehab program is a failure
Malaysia: Muslim cleric active in deradicalization program promotes hatred of non-Muslims
France’s only jihadi “deradicalization” center is closing — it was voluntary, and it was empty
The whole premise of “deradicalization” is that Islam is a religion of peace that jihadis misunderstand, twist, and hijack. Since that is a false premise, and warfare against unbelievers is actually taught in the Qur’an and Sunnah, “deradicalization” focuses on other issues, such as “anger issues” that the jihadi may have, his feelings of “alienation,” and the like.
But since none of that changes what the Qur’an and Sunnah say about warfare against unbelievers, it doesn’t “deradicalize” the jihadi at all. A British psychologist behind a “deradicalization” scheme has admitted that there’s no guarantee that jihadis can ever be “cured.”
“Isis supporter who said ‘attack’ video was just dog command jailed for encouraging terrorism,” by Lizzie Dearden, Independent, November 21, 2020:
An Isis-supporting drug dealer has been jailed for encouraging terror attacks, after claiming he was merely practicing dog commands.
Shehroz Iqbal posted a video of London landmarks in an extremist WhatsApp group on 11 March, the Old Bailey heard.
While the camera panned across Waterloo Bridge and the Royal Festival Hall, he could be heard saying: “This is my spot akhi (brother) central London. Attack, attack.”
Judge Katz QC said he posted the video in an Islamist WhatsApp group to urge “likeminded extremists” to carry out terror attacks.
Iqbal claimed that he was saying “attack, attack” because he wanted a German Shepherd like his former pet dog, Rocky, and was practicing commands.
But the judge called his explanation “absurd” at a sentencing hearing on Friday….
The court heard that he had been on the Home Office Desistance and Disengagement programme”, which aims to deradicalise extremist offenders, for more than a year at the time.
Judge Katz said Iqbal had participated voluntarily in the programme and claimed that he wanted more help in the time between his two terror offences….
Ms Wilkinson said Iqbal had been “covering up his true beliefs” during meetings for the Desistance and Disengagement programme.
Concerns are mounting over its effectiveness following three terror attacks committed in England over the past year by prisoners who underwent deradicalisaton work.
Iqbal was participating in the scheme because of a previous conviction from 2019, when he was prosecuted for stirring up racial hatred with a series of antisemitic posters.
Iqbal, of Kenwood Gardens in Ilford, was spared jail last September and given a 12 month prison sentence suspended for two years, rehabilitation activity, unpaid work and £100 fine for breaching another suspended sentence.
That was for sending a threatening email to a member of the local Jewish community threatening to visit their office and calling them a “Zionist murdering community”….
Judge Katz ruled that he was a dangerous offender, telling him: “You have blamed your offending on everything, from drugs and mental health issues to difficulty opening a bank account and ironically feeling you were the victim of racism.”