A counseling program that employs Muslim clerics to rebut extremist views of detainees has steadily reduced their numbers over the past four years in Singapore, suggesting that religious-based rehabilitation may offer an alternative to indefinite detention without trial in the US-led war on terrorism.<\/p>\n
Faced with swelling detention centers, US military commanders in Iraq have begun to take note. In recent months, they have introduced religious-education programs for adults and juveniles that are modeled, in part, on Singapore’s and on a much larger program in Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n
Setbacks in a similar program in Yemen, shelved in 2005 because of high rates of recidivism, had raised doubts about the approach. Experts also distinguish between rehabilitating low-level sympathizers and hardened leaders of terrorist groups, groups, who may see little to gain from cooperating with authorities.<\/p>\n
But proponents say that an effective counterterrorism strategy must include efforts to combat religious indoctrination, especially for suspects held behind bars. Injustice is a recruiting tool, and open-ended detention of suspects is an affront to many Muslims. Releasing them into the community armed with Islamic teachings that debunk Al Qaeda’s do-or-die rhetoric can help to win a “war of ideas,” the proponents argue.<\/p>\n
“Deprogramming is not 100-percent successful. Among suspects that you rehabilitate, some will go back (to militancy). But it’s the only intelligent thing to do,” says Rohan Gunaratna, a terrorism expert at Nanyang Technological University and a consultant on the Singaporean program. “We’ve planted a seed.\u201d\u00a6 Iraq was the beginning. I believe America can take this idea to Guant\u00c3\u00a1namo, Afghanistan, and other areas.”<\/p>\n