RELIGIOUS
PRISONS
TO REHABILITATE ISLAMIC TERRORISTS
SYNOPSIS:
The planet Earth is suffering a plague of
'Islamic' terrorism.
They use random killings (and sometimes suicide) as their main method.
And the world has used violent methods of warfare against them:
The leaders and members of groups labeled 'terrorist'
are frequently killed in Syria, Iraq,
Afghanistan, Yemen, & Pakistan.
But sometimes, 'terrorists' are captured alive.
What should we do with captured members of murder-suicide cults?
Would it be possible to rehabilitate them in Islamic Religious
Prisons?
OUTLINE:
1.
MILITARY METHODS HAVE NOT WORKED.
2. THE 'TERRORISTS' ARE MOTIVATED BY RELIGIOUS BELIEFS,
COUPLED
WITH TRIBALISM.
3.
RELIGIOUS PRISONS MIGHT BE THE ANSWER.
4. RELIGIOUS PRISONS IN ISLAMIC COUNTRIES.
5. RELIGIOUS PRISONS IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
6.
THE THREE PURPOSES OF PRISON.
(A) PUNISHMENT
(B) REHABILITATION
(C) PROTECTION OF THE PUBLIC
7. CULTURES AND SUB-CULTURES OF VIOLENT 'MUSLIMS'.
8.
RESULTS WILL SHOW WHICH PRISONS WORK BEST.
9. THOUSANDS OF VIOLENT 'MUSLIMS' NEED
REHABILITATION.
RELIGIOUS
PRISONS TO
REHABILITATE ISLAMIC TERRORISTS
by
James Leonard Park
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba still has a few prisoners.
Other countries also have 'terrorists' in custody.
What should be done with these detainees?
1. MILITARY METHODS
HAVE
NOT WORKED.
Because many of these prisoners were captured in
Afghanistan,
they were first processed by the U.S. military forces.
These jailers naturally used military
methods in handling the prisoners
and attempting to get useful information from them.
But they are not normal prisoners-of-war.
They were not employed and paid by any national government.
They were not under the control of any political leaders.
Often they cannot be returned to their countries of origin
because they are not wanted
by the governments of those countries.
They were never directed by any central government,
so they cannot simply be 'repatriated' after the end of hostilities
—as has happened after all organized wars.
2. THE 'TERRORISTS'
ARE
MOTIVATED BY RELIGIOUS BELIEFS,
COUPLED
WITH TRIBALISM.
The young men who fought for Osama bin Laden
and the self-radicalized 'Muslims' from everywhere
believe that they are fighting a holy war against Western infidels.
They have been deeply indoctrinated to believe that their cause is just
and that it is glorious to
die in the effort
to
kill the 'enemies of Allah'.
They believe that if they die in holy warfare, they go instantly to
Paradise.
Often this religious motivation is coupled with Arab
nationalism.
They want to expel all Westerners from the holy lands of Islam.
Sometimes they believe they are fighting for a new world
to be ruled by their version of Islamic law.
3. RELIGIOUS PRISONS
MIGHT
BE THE ANSWER.
Instead of keeping them in military prisons anywhere
on the Earth,
should we try a new approach to this new kind of prisoner?
Instead of torturing
them to give up their secrets,
we can attempt to convert
them to peaceful Islam,
so that they will voluntarily
tell us about their former
leaders.
Where waterboarding
did not work, perhaps prayer
will.
Religious prisons would still be places of
confinement.
We cannot allow members of various murder-suicide cults
to endanger their perceived enemies.
If we just turn them loose wherever they choose to live,
many of them would re-join the 'Muslim' underground,
planning to kill as many of the infidels
as they can,
perhaps 'sacrificing' their own lives while killing
others.
The expression "religious prisons" is new.
The history of the world contains very few examples
of prisons run by
religious organizations.
The primary examples from history
would be imprisonment before people were burned as heretics.
They were taken into custody by the religious authorities
because they had written or said something that "went against religion".
But these new Islamic Religious Prisons would not kill
people.
The prisoners would be kept in jail until they prove by their
behavior
that they had recovered from their former misguided religious beliefs.
And if they are never
rehabilitated to give up their violent ways
they might have to be kept in prison for the rest of their natural
lives.
4. RELIGIOUS PRISONS IN
ISLAMIC COUNTRIES.
Such Islamic Religious Prisons would exist
primarily
in Islamic lands.
And they would be run by peaceful Muslims from those countries.
The prisoners' own languages would be used with
them.
They would never be punished beyond being kept in confinement.
And they can be released when they prove their change of mind.
Different methods of re-education might work for
different prisoners.
But these would all be compassionate
methods —designed
to suit the states of mind of the prisoners.
Some would be allowed to have contact with family members
if these family members are peaceful
Muslims, not violent Muslims.
Peaceful
religious leaders of Islam would be in
charge. They could read and recite the Koran, counsel, educate,
& pray with the prisoners individually and
collectively
as long as such methods show some results
in the form of violent
Muslims being converted to peaceful Muslims.
Teaching the peaceful contents of the Koran would
be encouraged.
The prisoners would be empowered to question their new teachers,
since they will probably have been indoctrinated to believe that Allah
favored their former purpose of killing as many infidels as possible.
Day by day, they would learn that Islam is a tolerant and peaceful
religion.
They would explore the Islamic texts
that were used to recruit them to
become violent Muslims.
And if former violent Muslims convert to peaceful
Islam,
they could teach newcomers who are put in that religious prison.
By word and deed it would become more obvious
just which prisoners have discovered how they were misled
and have now embraced a peaceful form of Islam.
When they are completely rehabilitated,
they should be released to whatever part of the world they want
and to the embrace of whatever family-members will accept them.
Everyone who knew that they used to be violent
Muslims
will watch to prevent any return to their old beliefs and behavior.
And if they do revert
to association with violent Muslims,
they should be returned to the Islamic Religious Prisons.
In other words, they will be on
parole for as long as necessary
to protect the peace of the world.
We should be realistic that some prisoners will
never be rehabilitated.
They might have to be kept in the most appropriate secure setting
for their rest of their lives,
since, if released, they would re-join the violent Muslims,
who
believe that murder and suicide are glorious behavior.
Some early efforts along these lines in Islamic
countries
have worked better than others.
Any such new forms of rehabilitation need to be tested by their results:
Have these prisoners really changed their minds enough
so that they can be safely released to live in open society?
The Islamic teachers who run the religious prisons
must not be too closely identified with their national governments.
They should be free to pursue Islamic practices as they see fit,
as long as they do not teach violent 'Islam'.
5. RELIGIOUS PRISONS IN
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
Following the patterns successfully developed
in Islamic lands,
the USA should create at least one religious prison for
violent Muslims.
These would be for English-speaking members of murder-suicide cults.
Some would be 'Muslims' who converted
themselves to
violence,
independent of any explicit religious training.
In the United States, prisoners would be sent to the
religious prison
after they have been convicted of a federal crime.
Which current federal law would be most appropriate?
Perhaps we will need new
anti-terrorism laws
to define the new federal crime of religious killing
or conspiracy to commit religious killing.
And a new federal law will be required to create a religious prison.
The security of the
prison could be given to regular prison authorities.
But the educational
component would be organized
by Muslim religious
leaders who are well known to be peaceful.
As this new rehabilitation system is developed and
evaluated,
the former federal justice
system should be applied in creative
ways.
The judge will have to sentence the violent American Muslims
to the most appropriate federal prison
until the first religious prison begins to operate.
Violent Muslims sentenced because of their murderous
behavior
should not be mixed with regular violent offenders in federal prisons.
Violent 'Islam' is not going to disappear from the
face of the Earth
for several decades into the 21st century.
So we might need to have religious prisons for the indefinite future.
As the new forms of rehabilitation prove themselves effective,
more prisoners can be transferred to the new Islamic prison.
When the new place for Islamic rehabilitation is
well established,
newly-captured violent Muslims can be sent to this special prison.
And as it become obvious that the USA
is not an enemy of Islam,
there will be fewer self-radicalizing American Muslims
who turn to violence because they misunderstand Islam.
English would be the major language used in the U.S.
religious prison,
since the prisoners would be people who have lived
in the American culture probably for many years.
And their religious instruction and worship would be led by Muslims
who believe that the violent
ideology of the prisoners is not true
Islam.
The families of the prisoners would be encouraged
to participate in the rehabilitation of the violent Muslims —if
(as it likely to be the case) these family members
are not sympathetic toward violent 'Islamic' actions.
And when the prisoners are able to see the error of their ways,
that would be one major turning-point in their rehabilitation
to join American society once again as peaceful, non-violent Muslims.
6. THE THREE PURPOSES OF
PRISON.
All systems of justice that use prisons have three
basic purposes:
(A) punishment, (B) rehabilitation, & (C) protection of the
public.
(A)
PUNISHMENT
'Muslim' prisoners who have killed other people
might have to suffer the death-penalty themselves.
Martyrdom might be their life-goal in any case.
Their own views—initially
and after attempted rehabilitation—
should be taken into account.
Some who cannot be
rehabilitated might be offered a choice
between life in prison
and voluntary execution.
Once it has been established exactly what the
prisoners did
that put them into federal prison,
then a tentative term of imprisonment can be set
as a punishment for that criminal behavior.
However, the exact term of imprisonment can be left
open,
to see what happens concerning the other purposes of
imprisonment.
(B)
REHABILITATION
Islamic Religious Prisons will seek to change
violent 'Muslims'
into Muslims who embrace the peace and tolerance central to Islam.
The particular Islamic religious leaders
who are engaged in the work of rehabilitating former violent Muslims
will have the best perspectives for noticing
whether or not each prisoner has been reformed.
The most dramatic proofs of their rehabilitation
will be the information they provide about the
organizations
that led them down the path toward becoming violent Muslims.
If any Muslim leaders still outside prisons are still preaching
violence,
they should be exposed and then imprisoned.
(Of course, due legal process must be followed.
A real crime must be committed before anyone goes to jail.)
Converts to peaceful Islam want to see their former leaders put
away
(and then perhaps rehabilitated in prison).
And they can probably provide valuable detailed information
about the preaching, teaching, & lifestyles of the violent leaders
which will allow such leaders to be captured and imprisoned.
Rehabilitated Muslims will show their good faith
by helping police to capture others who still follow
the path of violence.
But some violent 'Muslims' will never be
rehabilitated.
If they cling to some violent form of 'Islam',
they will have to be kept in prison for the rest of their
natural lives.
(C)
PROTECTION OF THE PUBLIC
Violent 'Muslims' will have to be kept behind secure
walls
for as long as they pose a meaningful threat to anyone.
This will not always be easy to decide.
So, if released, former prisoners will have to be followed
to see if they associate
with violent 'Muslims' once again.
This is similar to parole for regular criminals.
If they link-up once again with their former criminal colleagues,
then they must be returned to prison
because they will harm the public
if
left free.
In the conventional wars of the past on the planet
Earth, prisoners-of-war were kept in
prison "for the duration".
This meant that there was no specified length of time to serve.
Rather, as long as the conventional war was still on-going,
these enemy prisoners would be kept in safe confinement
until the war was over (until the end of hostilities)
and the prisoners on each side could be returned to their homelands.
For example, captured Nazi soldiers
were kept in prison camps until after the Nazi threat was over.
Once Nazi German was completely defeated and disarmed,
then the former fighters were returned to where they lived before the
war.
There was no further danger that they would re-group
and start the war all over again.
A similar principle will apply to captured Jihadis:
They will have to be kept in secure confinement
until such time as there is no danger to the public
by releasing them from their imprisonment.
This will probably mean that they will have to be kept confined
until after the end of all Jihadi behavior anywhere on Earth.
After the Second World War all Nazis had to be:
(1) in their graves,
(2) in prison, or
(3) in recovery from Nazism.
After the end of Jihadi warfare and terrorism,
all former Jihadis will be either
(1) in their graves,
(2) in safe prisons where they can do no further harm, or
(3) in recovery from their former belief-system.
After there is no longer any significant Jihadist
ideology still active,
then former Jihadis can be returned to their homelands and families,
as long as it remains completely clear
that they will never again take up arms against the 'enemies of God'.
The release of the last Jihadis from prison
might have to wait for some years after the end
of this phenomenon of killing human beings for religious reasons.
Thus, the prison-terms for convicted Jihadis
might have to be indeterminate,
so that the release date can take account
of the continuing need to protect the public from Jihadist violence.
Clearly their own personal recovery from Jihadist beliefs
should be taken into account in deciding when it is safe to release
Jihadis who were convinced of violent behavior and/or plans.
But even more important might be the
world-historical fact
that Jihadis have permanently ceased to be a threat to the world.
This could be the new meaning of "for the duration":
When Jihadism is defeated everywhere on Earth,
then the former advocates of taking over the planet
to re-shape it according to their own religious beliefs
would have no movement to
join.
And random killing would be completely senseless.
This would be similar to releasing Nazis after the Second World War:
We were safe because the Nazi movement
had been completely and permanently eliminated from the Earth.
And former Nazi no longer believed in killing their enemies.
7. CULTURES AND
SUB-CULTURES OF VIOLENT 'MUSLIMS'.
When it is well-known that a culture or sub-culture
still supports some form of violent ideology,
the prisoners should not
be returned to those places.
The peaceful world will have to isolate violent cultures and
sub-cultures.
And as Muslims continue to see that at least some
of their own co-religionists have become peaceful,
some of the members of the violent culture or sub-culture
will stop supporting their violent belief system.
If this means moving to a less violent part of the world, so be it.
Violent Islamic countries will not be tolerated by the world community.
The community of peaceful nations will have to
decide
how best to deal with nations that continue to harbor violent 'Muslims'.
Most central governments of Islamic lands do not support violent
'Islam'.
Often the central government has been a target of the violent 'Muslims'.
And sometimes other countries have helped them
to cope with violent 'Muslims' living within their borders.
Here are some obvious clues:
If guns, bombs, & other weapons are found in a 'religious' building,
we know that this is not a peaceful religious organization.
If the people leave Friday worship chanting "Death to America",
we know that these are not peaceful Muslims.
The leaders of such 'religious' organizations should
be imprisoned
by whatever authorities have the capacity to do so.
And violent 'Muslims' will have to be placed in Islamic
Religious Prisons
to see if they can be rehabilitated to become peaceful Muslims.
8. RESULTS WILL SHOW WHICH
PRISONS WORK BEST.
When we consider creating religious
prisons for violent 'Muslims',
we must also acknowledge that some methods of rehabilitation will fail.
We can only keep trying until we find the best techniques.
And the same methods of treatment will not work for everyone.
Islamic prisons that fail to rehabilitate will
probably have to be closed.
Or the complete staff will have to be changed
so that a new approach can be tried.
The worst religious
prisons can learn from the best
religious prisons.
Violent 'Islamic' organizations took several years
to recruit and train several
thousand violent followers.
And it will probably take many years to undo such training.
But at least, we can show that we are being compassionate toward
the young men who have been indoctrinated by violent 'Islam'.
When Islamic prisons use soft
methods to reform violent Muslims,
advocates of violence will find it more difficult to recruit
followers.
Family members who are basically peaceful
will want their relatives to embrace peaceful Islam
rather than lose their lives in a foolish attempt to kill all
infidels.
9. THOUSANDS
OF VIOLENT 'MUSLIMS' NEED REHABILITATION.
Even if religious prisons can be established
to
receive the violent prisoners at Guantanamo,
the world still has thousands of other young men devoted to violent
'Islam'.
They will continue to make trouble in many different places on the
Earth.
And some of them will be captured and imprisoned.
Instead of treating them as prisoners-of-war or common criminals,
we should find religious
methods
to help them recover from their
foolish religious ideology.
And compassionate treatment of former 'Muslim' terrorists
will not make them
martyrs for recruiting more terrorists.
Islam is a religion of peace.
When all followers of Islam believe that once again,
there will be no further need for Islamic Religious Prisons.
AUTHOR:
James Leonard Park writes at home in Minneapolis,
Minnesota, USA.
He has no connections with any partisans in these conflicts.
Much more about him can be learned from his website: James
Leonard Park—Free
Library More
thoughts along similar lines will be found below.
Please suggest Internet links describing
religious prisons for violent 'Muslims'.
Send suggestions to James Park, e-mail: parkx032(CAPS2)umn.edu
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