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Saudi’d Straight

Saudi program pays radical youth to stay on the straight and narrow:   

The Saudi daily Al-Watan reported, citing an anonymous security source, that the Saudi interior ministry has spent over 115 million riyals over the last three years in financial aid for eligible prisoners and their families. The source stated that the aid given to the prisoners goes towards payment of debts, assisting family members in housing and health care, financing prisoners’ weddings, and purchasing cars after they complete the program and are released. He added that prisoners’ families that are needy receive monthly payments of 2,000-3,000 riyals.

Dr. Muhammad Al-Najimi, member of the counseling committee and of the Islamic Fiqh Academy (IFA) told Al-Watan that over 1,000 youths have already been released from prison after completing the counseling program, titled “Confronting the Youths, Discussing Their Extremist Views with Them and Convincing Them to Renounce Them.” Addressing the topic of the financial incentives, he said that “80%- 90% or even more [of the prisoners who participated in the program] have given up their extremist views thanks to the financial support provided to their families by the state. This support,” he added, “has a significant positive effect on the prisoners themselves, as evident from the fact that most of them join the counseling program of their own volition, and some have asked to rejoin it after their family members visited them and informed them that the Interior Ministry was looking after all [the family's] needs.” [2]

Al-Najimi told the Saudi daily Al-Madina that some of the program participants were returned to prison after their release when it became apparent that they were still holding extremist views. He specified that “nine people belonging to the misguided group were brought back to prison [about] a year or eighteen months after their release, since it was proved that they had returned to their misguided views and had not relinquished them.” 

So they’re claiming 80-90 percent success rate.  That’s if none of the participants have their fingers crossed. Be interesting to know that their real re-Islamist rate is. Sounds like a great program. But I’d be happier if they’d just stop paying them to be terrorists in the first place.  You know, stop the flow of $$$ to radical imams and mosques, madrassas, Iraqi car bomb factories, that kind of thing.

Topics: al qaeda, saudi arabia

  Posted by Jules Crittenden at 6:59 am on Sunday, April 29, 2007

6 Responses to “Saudi’d Straight”

1. RebeccaH Says:
   April 29th, 2007 at 9:27 am

   They don’t really want to get rid of the radicals. They’re quite content to pay protection money, as long as the radicals direct their attention away from the kingdom.

   But the House of Saud is a house of rotten sticks. If we don’t get serious about ending our dependence on their oil, then we deserve what happens to us when they finally come crashing down.

2. Money Talks « Michael P.F. van der Galiën Says:
   April 29th, 2007 at 12:20 pm

   [...] by mvdg It seems that Saudi Arabia has learned one important lesson the last couple of years: money talks. The Saudi daily Al-Watan reported, citing an anonymous security source, that the Saudi interior [...]

3. Don Surber » Blog Archive » Saudi prison ain’t so bad Says:
   April 29th, 2007 at 2:01 pm

   [...] Crittenden of the best newspaper in Boston has the headline of the day: “Saudi’d straight.” Life in prison has its benefits. Good [...]

4. Money Talks | The Moderate Voice Says:
   April 29th, 2007 at 3:33 pm

   [...] seems that Saudi Arabia has learned one important lesson the last couple of years: money talks. The Saudi daily Al-Watan reported, citing an anonymous security source, that the Saudi interior [...]

5. Old War Dogs Says:
   April 29th, 2007 at 5:38 pm

   2007.04.29 Dem Perfidy // Islamism Delenda Est Roundup

   See previous: 2007.04.28 Dem Perfidy // Islamism Delenda Est RoundupDeadlocked War Funding Bill May Halt Troop Carriers CAMP FALLUJAH, Iraq — The armored carrier has a grim black slash across its side, burn marks on the door and a web

6. Michael Lonie Says:
   April 29th, 2007 at 7:55 pm

   Abandoning their extremist views eh? Mainstream views in the Wahhabist Entity are pretty extreme by the standards of sane people. This is the place, for example, where PhD’s writing in major newspapers assert new versions of the Medieval blood libel about the Jews.

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