The Saudi Interior Ministry has announced that people arrested in connection with terror acts will undergo therapy. The Director-General of Relations and Guidance at the ministry, Dr Saud bin Saud al-Musaibeeh, told the official Saudi news agency that the orientation programme is aimed at showing "those with deviated ideologies" the danger those ideologies represent to Muslim society and convincing them to renounce those "destructive thoughts"."They will be provided with books and will attend orientation courses that will enable them to correct their false beliefs and conceptions through effective means," al-Musaibeeh said.
Those who benefit from the therapy, repent and return to the right path, he said, will be released gradually, after their families confirm that they will not allow them to "return to their deviant thoughts".
However, he stressed that no-one involved in the planning or carrying out of bombings in the kingdom would be included in the initiative, under the express orders of Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz.
He also urged Saudi citizens to cooperate with the authorities in protecting young Saudis against any thoughts which go against Islamic teachings and values. "Everyone has a responsibility, as much as they can to cooperate with the concerned bodies to fight this delinquency which affects the security and stability of the kingdom," the UAE newspaper Gulf News quoted him as saying.
Neighbouring Yemen has tried out a similar form of therapy on arrested terror suspects, spearheaded by magistrate Hamoud al-Hitar, who seeks to steer extremists away from violence and towards accepting tolerance and peaceful coexistence. His unconventional methods of using dialogue sessions to change the mindsets of militants, in return for provisional release, have been observed with interest by intelligence services in other countries.
In 2002 alone, some 346 suspects were released from prison and offered the possibility of taking training courses to help them get a job. One tip-off from a former militant is said to have led to the assassination of al-Qaeda's leader in Yemen, Abu Ali al-Harithi, in 2002. However, last month Yemeni newspapers reported that two Yemenis who died in a suicide bombing in Iraq in July were among hundreds of Islamic extremists released from prison in Yemen under al-Hitar's dialogue programme.