JAILS
FOR JIHADIS:
TO
STOP THE KILLING
AND REHABILITATE THE WARRIORS
1. JIHADIS AS THE NEW NAZIS
2.
JAILS FOR JIHADIS
3.
NEW NATIONAL LAWS TO PUNISH VIOLENT JIHADIST BEHAVIOR
A. Raising
Money to Support Terrorist Armies
B. Recruiting
Fighters for Jihad
C. Receiving
Combat Training for a Jihadist Army
D. Fighting for
a Terrorist Organization
4.
PRODUCTIVE DEBATE ABOUT PROPOSED NEW LAWS
5.
FIRST STEPS ALREADY BEING TAKEN BY WESTERN COUNTRIES
6.
LARGE-SCALE PRISON-CAMPS FOR BATTLEFIELD JIHADIS
7.
TREATING FORMER JIHADIS AS INDIVIDUAL PERSONS
RATHER THAN
NAMELESS
PRISONERS
8. ISOLATION CELLS FOR VIOLENT JIHADIS
9.
DISARMING ALL TALIBAN IN PAKISTAN
10.
HOW LONG WILL VIOLENT JIHAD LAST?
JAILS
FOR JIHADIS:
TO
STOP THE KILLING
AND REHABILITATE THE WARRIORS
by James Leonard Park
1. JIHADIS AS THE NEW NAZIS
In the 1930s, the National Socialist Party (Nazis)
took over Germany.
The Nazis appealed to German nationalism.
And many otherwise reasonable German people
were drawn into Adolf Hitler's vision of world conquest.
And before the rest of the world got organized to oppose Nazism,
their storm troopers did
take over large parts of Europe.
The Second World War was needed to defeat the Nazis.
The Third Reich was supposed to last for 1,000
years,
but it only lasted 12 years.
However, even those terrible
years could have been avoided
if the world had been better prepared to handle the Nazi threat.
At the beginning of the 21st century, a new military
force arose
with a similar purpose of taking over the whole planet Earth
and imposing their version of 'Islamic' law on everyone.
Their chances of success are nil.
But the Jihadis can cause
immense damage and death
before they are finally defeated, killed, or imprisoned.
Instead of taking over an established country
and then using its organized industrial and military might,
the Jihadis work by taking
over parts of failed states,
which do not have enough power or will to resist them.
If the first few thousand Nazis had been captured
and put into prisons or prison-camps,
the Second World War could have been avoided.
The Nazi belief-system did not survive that war against Germany.
There was nothing essentially Nazi about the German psyche.
If all the Nazis had been captured and put behind
bars,
their dream of world-domination would have died much sooner.
And now if all Jihadis are captured and put behind bars,
they will be prevented from harming the other people of planet
Earth.
2. JAILS FOR JIHADIS
While Jihadis believe they are winning,
they will just laugh at any talk of establishing prisons for
them.
They are not being captured in large numbers
because they prefer to die
for their cause,
believing that dying in Jihad will take them instantly to Paradise.
And the rest of the world has used primarily
military methods
to control the armies of
Jihadis.
When Jihadis took over towns and villages,
they set up their own alternative systems of law-and-order.
Military rule by Jihadis replaces whatever existed before they
came.
Killing Jihadis using airplanes and drones
has made little difference on the ground.
In fact, the news of such martyrdom at the hands of the infidels
helps to recruit more
Jihadis to the cause.
So the first Jails for Jihadis will be created
by the organized nation-states of the rest of the world.
These civilized governments will have to create new laws
to punish the behavior of
their own citizens
who are traveling to the war-zones to join the Jihadist cause.
It is not yet clear to people who are
thinking of joining Jihad
that their behavior should be against the law in their own countries.
And in most countries, existing laws do not always fit well.
When Jihadis return to their countries of
citizenship,
they are sometimes surprised
to find themselves under arrest.
Having clear new laws would eliminate this confusion.
Some Jihadis might have believed that their home communities
would support their efforts
to fight in the holy war in Syria.
3. NEW NATIONAL LAWS TO
PUNISH VIOLENT JIHADIST BEHAVIOR
Exactly what actions should be prohibited by the new
laws?
Each country will have to define Jihadist behavior
they want to prohibit
and punish.
Jihadis believe that it is their religious right to kill all infidels.
Some might even say that it is their duty before God
to kill as many of the non-believers as possible
—sometimes
sacrificing their own lives in murder-suicide.
A. Raising
Money to Support Terrorist Armies
Wherever Jihadis are able to gather support for
their cause,
there are sympathetic people who are willing and able to send money.
And as far as most of these contributors knew,
it was perfectly legal for them to give material support
for armed conflict in foreign lands.
Thus, new laws are needed in every civilized country
of the world
to describe and define exactly
what kinds of material
support will not be tolerated.
New regulations will have to be written
and new enforcers will have to be hired
to stop all flows of money and weapons to Jihadis anywhere in the
world.
Each of the civilized nations on the planet Earth
will have to outlaw Jihadist
behavior.
And different nation-states will define the prohibited behavior
differently.
Some Muslim states will have significant minority support for Jihadism.
Especially in such countries, defining what should be unlawful will be
difficult.
Each country can pay attention to what other nations are doing
—in
case it might be wise to enact similar laws.
The public debate that should accompany any
discussion of new laws
will be quite interesting.
Who will favor any
specific element of proposed laws?
And who will oppose
making specific behavior illegal?
Giving material support for Jihadist killing
might be defined by such phrases as these:
"collecting money or other materials to support violent struggle"
"supplying arms and ammunition for violent military struggle
to any organization not approved by this government"
"supporting a foreign terrorist organization".
B. Recruiting
Fighters for Jihad
Just
as raising money for Jihad should be defined in law,
so encouraging people to
join the violence must be explicitly outlawed.
Advocates of violent Jihad in all countries of the world
have often recruited others to go to
Jihadi camps
for training
and later to join actual armed conflict with the 'enemies of God'.
Sometimes such recruiting has been quite open and public
—in
part because the countries where it happens
have not yet defined
recruiting as a criminal offense.
Disillusioned Jihadis will be a good source of
information about recruiting.
If and when they return to their homelands alive,
they might provide information about the individuals and
organizations
that got them involved in violent Jihad.
Who were the specific individuals who drew them into the movement?
Where and how did the recruiting take place?
Who arranged their travel and probably paid for it?
What information do they have about the recruiting organizations?
Were they radicalized by Jihadis using social media?
Jihadis who recruit fighters from anywhere on Earth
should be arrested and tried under these new national laws
so that at least some
radicalization will be prevented.
For each recruiter put into prison, several
lives will be saved.
And recruiters must be separated from all other prisoners
because they will attempt to radicalize other
Muslims in jail.
Isolation cells will be required for these most dangerous Jihadis.
Using electronic media to recruit new fighters must
also be outlawed.
Not only should new laws permit closing down such recruiting,
but methods should be employed that will empower authorities
to identify and imprison the individuals
who created and distributed the electronic materials.
International cooperation will be needed to combat
recruiting for Jihad
because many methods of 'radicalizing' Muslims cross national borders.
The world will have to define exactly where to draw the line
between freedom of speech
and criminal recruiting.
Some countries have outlawed 'glorifying Jihad',
but that might be too vague and general
to stand up against the claim that it is free speech.
But when the website or other electronic medium
gives specific information about how to join Jihad,
this can be outlawed by the various countries of the world.
And the people behind such efforts to gather more Jihadi fighters
should be located and taken into custody.
Ending religious indoctrination to join violent
Jihad
might be the most important new step
that can be taken to slow
and then reverse the
growth of 'Islamic'
terrorism.
Gathering more fighters to join Jihad
might be defined in new laws with phrases like these:
"recruiting new people to join violent causes"
"facilitating travel for the purpose of joining armed conflict"
"creating or distributing propaganda supporting violent behavior"
"encouraging others to join violent armed struggle".
When no
new Jihadis are radicalized,
the movement will die out.
Good detective work everywhere on Earth
will identify recruiters and permanently prevent them
from radicalizing a single additional young Muslim.
C. Receiving
Combat Training for a Jihadist Army
Military training for the Jihadist movement
is now taking place in many countries
that at least tolerate
such preparation for Jihad.
Getting ready to fight the infidels is supported in some
countries.
In any case, military training is mostly an overt, public behavior.
And even where Jihadis are training in secret,
there are many people nearby who know what is happening.
The new laws might have to be quite broad,
to outlaw any combat
training for a private army
not approved by the nation that is writing this new law.
Here are some concepts that might be included
in new
laws against Jihadi training:
"military or para-military training to commit violent acts"
"learning or teaching methods of killing humans
apart from this nation's official military training"
"traveling for the purpose of receiving terrorist training".
D. Fighting for
a Terrorist Organization
What qualifies as a terrorist organization?
And just listing names of organizations will be useless,
since it is easy to change names.
So perhaps each nation-state will have to outlaw
fighting for any private
army anywhere on Earth
—perhaps
including private militias on their own soil.
The laws against 'treason' already outlaw
fighting on the side of any 'enemy'.
So these laws might be a place to begin
for creating new laws to cover the new forms of behavior.
Any American who takes up arms against the United States is a
'traitor'.
But is fighting for God in some foreign land 'treason'?
In the USA, these crimes will have to be defined in federal laws
in order to make them uniform
for the whole country.
Most criminal law is now state law,
but it would create tremendous confusion
if Jihadis were prosecuted under laws written by state
legislatures.
If state laws prevailed, fighting for a specific terrorist organization
might be a crime in one state but not in another.
Here are some suggested phrases to use
in outlawing
becoming a Jihadi fighter:
"becoming part of any organized killing activity
not approved by the government of this country"
"joining any organization already named as a terrorist group
or any similar collective effort devoted to the same process of
killing".
4. PRODUCTIVE DEBATE ABOUT
PROPOSED NEW LAWS
As each government of the planet Earth
discusses what new provisions to put into its laws,
there will be wide public debate about
just which behaviors should
be prohibited.
In most non-Muslim countries,
only a small minority will claim that Jihadist behavior
should be protected
because it is based on religious belief.
And careful laws will have to be enacted and enforced
in such ways that they do not prohibit and punish
non-violent
expressions of religious belief.
These laws will describe
violent behavior
(which might be motivated by religious beliefs)
that will not be tolerated in that society.
And the new laws will prohibit various forms of support
for the outlawed violent behavior.
And in all civilized countries of the world,
there will be full opportunities for the accused
to defend their behavior as an expression of religion.
Defendants charged under these new laws
will have professional lawyers
to help them state their cases as strongly as possible.
And, as a result, some laws might have to be modified
in order to articulate more clearly than ever before
exactly what forms of religious
expression will be permitted
and exactly what kinds of violent
advocacy and behavior will be prohibited.
In majority-Muslim countries, this debate will be
even more contentious
because each side will claim that its advocates are the 'true Muslims'.
Muslim religious leaders might become involved
in helping to define behaviors
that are non-Muslim,
even if the advocates of violent 'Islam' can quote the Koran.
In the United States, new proposed federal criminal
laws
will give rise to lively debate about the limits of religious freedom.
Muslim families might have some members who favor violent Jihad
while others firmly believe the opposite
—that
all Muslims should follow the path of peace.
And when new federal laws outlawing violent
behavior are enacted,
then all Muslims will fully understand what behavior is permitted
and what other behavior is
against federal law.
If and when young American Muslims go overseas to join Jihad,
they will know what awaits them if they return to America—jail.
If they go to Syria, Iraq, Somalia, or Afghanistan to fight the holy war
and if they survive, they will be greeted by federal agents upon their
return.
They will be taken into custody at the airport and go directly to jail.
Knowing these facts ahead of time
will help many Muslim families to discourage their young men
from joining the violent Jihad.
Not only is their Jihadi plan against their faith,
but it will also be a violation of U.S. federal law.
The United States will show that it takes the
Jihadist movement seriously
by the fact that new laws have been passed to prohibit the violent
behavior
and new prisons have been constructed to confine convicted Jihadis.
These new federal prisons will be specifically for
American Jihadis,
not for everyone captured on the battlefield.
And the USA will show its seriousness in confronting this threat
by establishing about 100 isolation cells
for Jihadis who come back from holy
warfare
or who were convicted of other terrorist violations while in the USA.
Also the public discussion about such Jails for
Jihadis
will make everyone more aware than ever before
that the Jihadist threat is very real
and that actual young men (and some women) from their own communities
will be lured into violent Jihadism, go abroad to kill the 'enemies of
God',
and possibly return to the USA to be put into prison.
The most appropriate term in prison will have to be
decided in each case.
The less-committed Jihadis might quickly realize their mistake
and prove by giving useful information about the Jihadist movement
that they have joined peaceful
Islam once again.
These individuals can be released back into peaceful society.
But the hard-core Jihadis will have to be kept in
prison for more years.
Some might never show
any inclination to change their minds.
They will have to be kept in custody for the rest of their natural
lives.
Especially the most committed of Jihadis
will have to be kept separate from everyone else,
precisely because they will continue to recruit people for Jihad.
And even ordinary jails and prisons everywhere on
Earth
will have to take measures to prevent people
who were not Jihadis before they were imprisoned
from being converted to that violent world-view,
making them want to join Jihad after they are released from prison.
When all of these facts become well known,
the Jihadist movement will begin to decline.
Peaceful Muslims will re-gain respect from all observers
because of their role in helping to reform violent
'Muslims'.
5. FIRST STEPS ALREADY
BEING TAKEN BY WESTERN COUNTRIES
Europe has even more people supporting violent Jihad
than
the USA.
In some European countries, the governments have taken away
passports
from people who have traveled for Jihadist training
or who have already fought for Jihadist organizations.
When these Jihadis return to their homelands
(occasionally disillusioned in some respects),
their governments want to make certain
that they will not bring the
holy war home with them.
Some of them will be found committing
terrorists acts at home.
And they might actively
recruit more Jihadis.
When their passports are taken away,
this at least prevents them from returning to the armed struggle,
using any legitimate public transportation to cross borders.
But, of course, committed Jihadis will find other ways
to go where they are needed for the violent struggle.
Re-training camps and programs have been established
in some countries for the purpose of rehabilitating
former Jihadis.
Some Jihadis' commitment to the movement was quite shallow.
Were they attracted by the glamor of holy warfare?
Were some women attracted to male warriors?
Were they naive teen-agers when they joined Jihad?
Jails for Jihadis can take all individual
differences into account.
But there must be country-wide laws defining what behaviors
qualify one for being put
into jail until further information can be
obtained.
And one of the purposes of such prisons should be
to
change the minds of
people who were initially attracted to Jihadism.
For this purpose, it would be wise to employ scholars
who know more about Islam than the original recruiters.
Religious re-education could change the thinking of some Jihadis
—away
from their violent ideology, toward peaceful Islam.
If they begin to see that Islam is a religion of peace,
then they can turn away from their earlier violent ideology.
If and when former Jihadis radically change their minds,
the prison system might release them into their original
communities.
Of course, some forms of follow-up will have to be applied
to make certain that they do
not return to their former violent
ways.
The United States, Great Britain, Germany, &
France
should each establish special jails for Jihadis,
including Jihadis who are citizens of their countries.
Such imprisonment for violent
behavior should probably be indefinite,
until the former Jihadis
abandon their commitment to kill infidels.
Saudi Arabia applies jail terms of up to 20 years
for traveling abroad to fight for violent Jihad.
Jordan has jailed Muslim extremists who
planned to join Jihad in Syria.
Israel puts militant Islamic leaders into
"administrative detention".
France has sentenced a French citizen to 7 years in
prison
for joining Jihad in Syria.
Germany has jailed one returning disillusioned
Jihadi.
Minnesota has sent some women to prison
for raising
money for Al-Shabab in Somalia.
And several young men from the Somalia community
are now serving long terms in prison
for
trying to join Jihad.
Each week, we learn of a few new Jihadis
who have been captured, tried, & convicted in their home countries
when they returned from Syria, Iraq, or other locations of Jihadi
conflict.
The news media can help to make clear to everyone
that violent Jihadist
behavior is against the law.
6. LARGE-SCALE
PRISON-CAMPS FOR BATTLEFIELD JIHADIS
In locations where Jihad has broken into open
warfare,
the established prison systems of the state being attacked
cannot be expected to house any captured Jihadis in their regular
jails.
And only rarely will the nation-state be able to create prison-camps
for fighters taken into custody on the battlefield.
Thus, other (nearby) nation-states will have to
prepare holding facilities
to keep Jihadis safe both from their former enemies
---and from their former commanders and comrades-in-arms.
Getting Jihadis to surrender
should be preferred to killing
them.
Killing Jihadis will tend to make them into martyrs
for their cause.
And more people will join the Jihad
because their friends and relatives have been killed by the 'enemies of
God'.
However, taking Jihadis into custody
can provide them opportunities to see the error of their ways
and to leave behind that phase of their lives
in which they fought for
the Jihadi cause.
Every individual now fighting with the Jihadis
is a person with several years of living before they joined Jihad.
And if they survive this Jihadist period of their lives,
they will live more years, pursuing other life-meanings.
They can return to whatever peaceful ways of life they followed before.
Or they can invent brand-new meanings for their lives.
Of course, some Jihadis will never be rehabilitated
by prison.
They will continue to embrace their violent terrorist ways
no matter what happens in their own individual lives
or in the course of world history.
And, if they cannot be turned around,
they will have to stay in prison for the rest of their lives.
The same was true of Nazis after the Second World
War:
Some saw the error of their Nazi beliefs.
They could be released to take up peaceful ways of life.
But others were hopelessly rigid in their Nazi ideology.
They were kept in prisons for the rest of their natural lives.
Once the world begins to organize against the
new Nazis—the
Jihadis—
one important compassionate step will be the construction of
prison-camps
for all former Jihadis who choose to surrender
or who are captured (instead of being killed) on the battlefield.
The United Army for Disarmament will show that it is
serious
about the long-range solutions to Jihadism
by creating good places to house Jihadis who are captured alive.
Once the forces of order and civilization re-take Syria and
Iraq,
prison-camps can be established in the liberated areas,
where captured Jihadis can be taken for possible rehabilitation.
Then, the relatives will learn that So-And-So has been captured
and will be held until the end of hostilities
or until they gives up their violent Jihadist beliefs.
This will be much more welcome news
than the information that So-And-So
has been killed in violent Jihad.
And communication with relatives who are peaceful
Muslims
might be pivotal in rehabilitating especially young, misled Jihadis.
If and when these former fighters pose no further threat to
civilization,
they can be returned to their families
—with
all appropriate follow-up to prevent any future violent behavior.
In part because of past abuses in prisons for
Jihadis,
these large-scale prisons for what used to be called
"prisoners-of-war",
should not be under the control of any one nation-state.
Closed military organizations are too prone to abusing the prisoners
—and
then covering up that abuse.
(Abu Ghraib comes to mind.)
Rather, before the World
Peace Force
itself is
established,
some international body will have to take charge of the Jails for
Jihadis.
These large-scale prisons or prison-camps will be open for inspection
by any responsible individuals or organizations.
Visitors will be invited to talk with any prisoners
to see if they have been treated well.
Some Jihadis captured on the battlefield
might be sent to prisons in their home countries
—if
those countries have already established good prison-systems
for Jihadis who are citizens or permanent residents of those
countries.
However, countries still engulfed in warfare
should not be expected to create prison-systems for captured Jihadis.
Jihadis of those nationalities will go to internationally-controlled
prisons.
7. TREATING FORMER JIHADIS AS
INDIVIDUAL PERSONS
RATHER THAN
NAMELESS
PRISONERS
If Adolf Hitler had been put into prison rather than into power,
what Winston Churchill called "the unnecessary war"
would never have happened.
One leader of violent Jihad—Osama
bin Laden—has
already been killed.
But others will keep arising, until this movement is finally
extinguished.
Also, because this new 'Islamic' movement has deep roots,
cutting off the heads will not be sufficient.
And all anti-Jihadist efforts must be careful not to create more Jihadis.
Respectful, compassionate prisons for captured
Jihadis
might be the most effective method
for the world to throw cold water on the violent Jihadist movement
—instead
of inflaming passions by
committing hot war against the holy
war.
Each individual now fighting for violent Jihad was
once a peaceful child.
Each Jihadi has a family and a personal history.
What was he or she doing ten years before joining Jihad?
What factors led to the 'radicalization'?
The future of Jihadism is the same as the future of
Nazism:
After several years of killing and turmoil,
the violent movement will be defeated by the forces of civilization.
Many Nazis had to be killed
to prevent them from taking over the world.
But several survived the Second World War and were put into
prison-camps.
The same choice awaits Jihadis:
Will they choose to fight until they die in battle?
Or will they ultimately save their lives by surrendering?
Periodically, small groups of neo-Nazis arise.
And when they commit violent acts, they are put into prison.
But Nazis will never again threaten the whole world.
After the anti-Jihadi wars are over,
there will periodically be small groups of Jihadis
who once again proclaim their right to shape the world to their design.
And they will be put into prisons if and when they commit violent
acts.
Jails for Jihadis will treat each prisoner as an
individual person,
with a family background and a pre-war history.
Some have been Jihadis for just a few months.
These might be the first to have their thinking reformed.
And when they really become peaceful persons once again,
they can be returned to their countries and their families.
Other Jihadis will be more deeply committed to their
ideology.
And some might never abandon their violent world-view.
If they do not give up their plan to impose their way of life on others
by force,
then they will have to be kept in prison for the rest of their natural
lives.
The subsequent years in prison might produce
unexpected results.
Especially if the Jihadist movement is mostly defeated everywhere on
Earth,
the Jihadis who remain in prisons
might decide that they were misled by their leaders:
Where is the wonderful new world-order based on their belief-system?
As the world learns the lessons arising from
defeating Jihadism,
preventive actions can
be taken everywhere
to prevent such movements from arising again.
The civilized world has not had to be
vigilant
to prevent Nazism from coming back.
As popular as it was for a time with certain people in Europe,
once the Nazis were defeated in battle,
there was little worry that they would re-organize and try again.
Peaceful Islam will replace the violent forms
that were popular for a few years.
And the prisons established to rehabilitate former violent 'Muslims'
might be one of the main ways Jihadism will die out.
Peaceful Muslims will help Jihadis to see the error of
their ways.
And when their minds are definitely changed,
the former followers of violent Jihad
can be freed to join the civilized world once again.
8. ISOLATION CELLS FOR
VIOLENT
JIHADIS
Because
the violence committed by Jihadis arises from religious beliefs,
prisons for these individuals motivated by 'radical Islam'
should be especially designed to educate and reform the thinking
of the men and women who have embraced this ideology.
Thought-police would not be appropriate for any open
civilization,
but people who have been justly convicted of violent acts
or supporting violent behavior
motivated by their religious belief-system
should be offered at least the opportunity to reform their thinking.
If they continue to believe that they have a
religious right to kill all infidels,
they can never be released into free society ever again.
If Jihadis have no higher purpose in life than to kill the 'enemies of
God',
then all civilized forces of law and order have a duty to keep them in
prison.
However, we should never give up hope that some can
be saved.
And the prison-systems that keep them from killing their enemies
might also be the place where their thinking will change so radically
that they can ultimately be released into free society.
First, we must make certain that the prison
environment itself
does not enable more
indoctrination into Jihadist beliefs.
Some Muslim criminals were put into prisons for other offenses.
But in prison they met
Jihadis for the first time
and were sometimes radicalized to become violent Jihadis.
Thus, first to protect other vulnerable prisoners,
known Jihadis should be kept separate
from all they might infect.
"Isolation
cells" does not mean solitary
confinement.
Convicted violent Jihadis could still be permitted to interact
with all people known to be safe from Jihadi beliefs.
In fact, visits from
peaceful Muslims should be encouraged.
When they have family members who embrace peaceful Islam,
these family members should have regular visits with the prisoners.
Classes taught by peaceful Muslims might help Jihadis to recover.
Or individual instruction might be possible in some cases.
But otherwise, the violent Jihadis will live in
cells
with no possibility of
communicating with anyone
either inside the prison or outside the walls.
All permitted communication will be monitored
by people skilled in detecting secret codes
and impermissible support for Jihadi beliefs.
Special care must be taken for Jihadis known to
radicalize others.
If they have attempted to spread violent beliefs,
these recruiting Jihadis might have to be kept in solitary confinement.
If and when the imprisoned Jihadis begin to show
changes of thinking,
they can be allowed additional forms of communication.
But they will be kept away from any expressions of support for Jihad.
And if ever they revert to Jihadi thinking,
they can be put back into their isolation cells.
Organized efforts of deprogramming should be tried.
Every day the Jihadi in prison could be visited by a peaceful Muslim.
The prisoner and the deprogrammer should be closely matched:
They should be from the same ethnic group whenever possible.
They should speak the same language.
If the deprogrammer was formerly a part of the Jihadist movement,
so much the better.
They will be able to share that experience in common.
After each encounter, the deprogrammer will write a
brief report,
expressing his or her sense of whether the prisoner is moving
away from Jihadi beliefs or not.
If no progress is
achieved with some prisoners,
they can be put on a wait list for later renewed attention.
And the deprogrammers can concentrate their time
on those Jihadis who show signs of changing their minds
about those former beliefs that led them to commit the acts
that originally put them into prison.
For Jihadis whose 'Muslim' faith was not very deep,
atheist deprogrammers
might be appropriate.
These reasonable people can explain
that all supernatural beliefs are
baseless.
Jihadis who are completely de-converted from Islam
could also be released from prison
because atheists are very unlikely to rejoin Jihad.
Rehabilitation should be evaluated by a variety of
people
who have some expertise in detecting false claims of change.
Only rehabilitated Jihadis will ultimately be released from prison.
And even after release, they will have to be followed carefully
to make certain that they do not return to Jihadist beliefs and
behavior.
Here are some estimates of the number of isolation
cells needed
for Jihadis from various nations:
USA: 100 isolation cells
France: 1,000
United Kingdom: 600
Belgium: 100
Germany: 100
Each new prison system for Jihadis should be expandable
if the number of people convicted of Jihadist behavior
is greater than the number of isolation cells originally created.
We cannot predict what percentage of Jihadis
might give up their violent belief-system.
But new experiments might always be tried
hoping that some violent
people might become peaceful
people.
9. DISARMING ALL TALIBAN IN
PAKISTAN
In Pakistan violent Jihad is manifested by various
Taliban groups
residing mainly in the northern 'tribal' regions of Pakistan.
There are about 30,000-35,000 such militants,
supported (or at least tolerated) by an unknown number of local people.
In December 2014, the Pakistan Taliban were in the
news for killing
140 children and teachers in a school in Peshawar
run by
the Pakistan military.
This is just one of many attacks by the Pakistan
Taliban,
which are often against educational institutions.
Such attacks might mobilize Pakistan
to take more effective action to control Jihadis.
In the past, the central government of Pakistan
has used exclusively military
means to try to control the Taliban.
This has consisted of pushing
them back into their tribal areas.
But, of course, there are no effective ways to prevent Jihadis
from going anywhere they wish to commit acts of violence.
Perhaps Pakistan should establish prisons for
Taliban fighters.
This might express the will of the majority of Pakistan's people
better than the military efforts to keep the Taliban isolated.
The public debate surrounding establishing prisons
for Taliban
would necessarily explore the differences between "good" and "bad"
Taliban.
When there are ethnic differences,
it would not be appropriate to imprison whole groups of the population
because of the misbehavior of some of their members.
The likely criterion for deciding who
should go to prison would be violence.
New national laws in Pakistan could define exactly what kinds of violence
will result in the perpetrators being put into jails.
This situation in Pakistan might be compared to the
pacification of 'Indians'
in the early history of the United States of America.
Whatever we might now think about these events, this is what happened:
For many years, there was warfare between the Indians and the U.S army.
Indians were pushed farther and farther away from
the areas being settled by white people—mainly
from Europe.
Eventually defined 'reservations' were created for each tribe of
Indians.
They were allowed to follow their own peaceful ways of life.
But all Indians tribes were disarmed
so that they could never
again attack the white settlers,
engage in battles with the U.S Army, or fight other
tribes.
Thereafter, Indians were no longer killed by the
U.S. government
just because they belonged to hostile groups of human beings.
Law-and-order was imposed on Indian lands.
Only Indians convicted of specific violent acts were imprisoned or
executed.
The Taliban of Pakistan (or other countries) might
be disarmed in similar ways.
The national law of Pakistan will make clear what behaviors are permitted
and what behaviors will be
prohibited and
punished.
Thereafter, individuals (from whatever groups and locations)
will all be subject to the same laws against violent behavior.
All private armies will be outlawed and disarmed.
This could take several years,
depending on how much time, energy, money, & blood
the central government of Pakistan wants to devote
to this process of creating law-and-order in the
northern tribal areas.
And there will be resistance at first from some
Muslims
who believe that the new laws restrict their religious freedom.
Islamic leaders should be allowed all reasonable input for defining
which kinds of behavior will be permitted by the new laws of Pakistan.
Probably all of the main-stream Muslims
will agree to outlaw violent
behavior that kills people.
Using violent means (and the threats of violence) to
impose
religiously-based laws that are not shared by all of the people of
Pakistan
will become condemned and prohibited forms of behavior.
And any people convicted of violating these new laws
will be put into Pakistani prisons for appropriate periods of time.
Pakistan will show that it is serious
about controlling the Taliban
by establishing reasonable and compassionate prison-systems
which are large enough to
keep all violent Jihadis in jail
for as long as necessary to protect the public from violent Jihadi
behavior.
And care must be taken in any such new prison system
to prevent the time in jail from being used to strengthen Jihadi
beliefs.
Would isolation cells be possible and appropriate for convicted Jihadis?
What other methods might be used to prevent
Jihadis from recruiting new fighters while in jail?
10. HOW LONG WILL VIOLENT
JIHAD LAST?
When this essay was first written, at the end of
2014,
there were only a few thousand committed Jihadis.
Because the world was not yet organized against Jihad,
the movement might grow before it is finally defeated.
At its peak, what will be the total number of Jihadis?
It would not be impossible for the world to
construct
thousands of isolation cells for violent Jihadis.
We need only recall that the USA already has two million people in
jail.
And only a few of these jail cells for Jihadis will be in America.
Muslim countries must take the lead in putting Jihadis behind bars.
The other alternative is to kill
those who will not surrender.
As said before, the chances that violent Jihad
will take over the whole world is very close to zero.
But many people who are now
alive
will be dead before
this conflict reaches its conclusion.
If the
world is wise, we will have short wars
against
the holy war.
But given recent history, it does not seem that the main countries of
the world
will be aroused sufficiently until violent Jihad comes to their
homelands.
Jihadi warfare will continue into the indefinite
future.
Some nations might be completely taken over by Jihadis
—as
happened in Afghanistan when the Taliban ruled from 1996 to 2001.
The world ignored the Taliban until 2001,
when it became obvious that Afghanistan was the main place
where Jihadis were training for holy war.
The Nazis were defeated by the Second World War.
Their dream of ruling the world from Germany was ruined.
During the Cold War that followed,
Communists were the main bogey-men.
Anti-Communist wars were fought
to keep the Communists from taking over the whole Earth.
But as it turned out,
the International Communist Conspiracy was a Western fantasy.
The on-the-ground Communists were more nationalists.
And even in Russia—the
center of Communism—
Communists
did not stay in power indefinitely.
And many of the 'Communists' turned into super capitalists:
They were more interested in their own individual wealth and power
than in taking over the whole world.
However, Jihadis
do represent a serious, deadly
threat.
Because of their religious motivations,
perhaps most will not give up until they are dead.
This prediction might be wrong:
Perhaps peaceful Muslims will
be able to save their violent brothers
from self-destruction in
trying to take over the world.
Jihadism will end when almost all Jihadis are
detained or dead.
The best way to keep this total number small
is to prevent the
radicalization of new Jihadis.
Once the tide of world-wide public opinion turns decisively against
Jihad,
the murderous religious cult will begin its decline.
For every year the war against Jihadis is shortened,
thousands of Muslims will be saved from self-destruction.
Once Jihadism begins to decline,
many who might otherwise have been radicalized
will turn away from violent 'Islam'.
Many Muslims will be saved simply because they were too young
when Jihadism was at its peak.
Nazism lasted for 12 years.
Jihadism could have a similar run.
This would take the planet Earth into the middle or late 2020s.
What the forces of civilization start to do right now
will determine just how long this war against Jihadis will last.
The world can declare the end of the Jihadi wars
when all individuals who were ever Jihadis are either
(1) in recovery from
their violent beliefs,
(2) in prison to
prevent all future killing, or
(3) in their graves.
Will some whole nations be taken over by Jihadis?
Will Jihadis get nuclear weapons?
How many people must die
before the world is sufficiently aroused
to rise up against violent Jihadis, killing many of them
and putting the rest of them into Jails for Jihadis?
AUTHOR:
James Park is an independent thinker,
living and writing in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.
He has no connections whatsoever with any Jihadis or anti-Jihadis.
And he might not live long enough
to see the end of the Jihadi struggle.
Much more about him will be discovered on his
personal website:
James
Leonard Park—Free
Library
Created
December 1-3, 2014;
Revised and expanded 12-11-2014; 12-15-2014;
12-21-2014; 12-27-2014;
1-6-2015; 1-15-2015; 1-23-2015; 1-31-2015; 2-27-2015; 3-6-2015;
3-11-2015;
3-13-2015; 4-7-2015; 7-8-2015; 9-10-2015; 9-12-2015;
4-22-2016; 10-17-2016; 2-2-2017; 2-19-2020;