MOSCOW, December 3 (Sputnik), Daria Chernyshova – The expediency of the so-called de-radicalization programs of Muslim nationals of European countries, who often go to fight in the Middle East, has sparked a debate among the experts, with some calling it a waste of money and time, and others praising its efficiency.
Over the past months, the world found out that a lot of Western nationals have joined the Islamic State in its fight to seize Syria and Iraq. In Europe, Belgium and Denmark happened to be the largest exporters of foreign fighters for the terrorist organizations. Opinions differ and many do not want to see these people return from the Middle East.
Denmark's second largest city of Aarhus has launched the so-called de-radicalization program to help those, who come back from fighting along radical Islamists, return to their normal life, find jobs and continue education.
Tarek Fatah, a Canadian writer and an activist discounts the concept of de-radicalization as "an attempt by certain academics and so called security consultants to benefit from the hundreds of millions, invested in fighting Islamic terrorism and to supposedly rehabilitate Gitmo prisoners."
"I feel it's a scam that has only benefited segments of western security agencies in playing psychology experts without having a clue what inspires a Muslim man to commit mass murder of non-Muslims or other Muslims considered apostates," he told Sputnik Wednesday.
He stressed that Islamism and political Islam is a sincere and deeply held view of the world in which life on earth is a mere transit lounge, where we await our connection flight to paradise for eternal life. So, that it is highly unlikely to change the minds of those radicalized people.
"Those, who commit terror in the name of Islam, will only change their minds if they see a catastrophic defeat of their ideology in say the wiping out of ISIS or a coup and breakup of Saudi Arabia or a surrender ceremony of El-Baghdadi and Zawahiri in humiliation," Tarek Fatah stressed. "Without that happening, de-radicalization is only an income source to its private sector practitioners."
We all know the sickening single-finger #ISIS victory salute. Now, it comes to #Toronto at a 'Deradicalization' event pic.twitter.com/OFjFLaGT6L
— Tarek Fatah ਤਾਰਿਕ (@TarekFatah) November 29, 2014
He also underlined that the entire idea of conducting such programs is merely useless and wastes the taxpayers" money.
"This fraud should be stopped. It's a waste of money. Charge the terrorists and inflict harsh sentences on them or deportation to Islamic lands," Fatah told Sputnik.
On the other side of the ocean, Hamed El Said, Professor with Manchester Metropolitan University notes that de-radicalization programs proved efficient.
"Such programs can definitely help, and they have been proven to help such individuals to de-radicalize them and to go back to their societies after they spend certain time in detention centers," El Said told Sputnik.
However, he noted that such programs in the United Kingdom are much different from the efforts undertaken in Denmark.
"The UK government has been very secretive about what the are doing and they have just launched something very recently that few people even about. It took a very long time in the UK to do something like that. What they are doing at the moment is something much simpler than what the Danish government is doing. It is more like a pilot project," he said.
At the same time, it would be wrong to say all Muslims are radicalizes in Europe. In fact, this is not the norm – most Muslims remain non-radical, oppose violence, and a small number of individuals are becoming radicalized. Bit is also wrong to undertake counter-radicalization efforts while ignoring the reasons that stand behind it.
"There are some radicalizing factors, locally, nationally and internationally. Unfortunately, studies show very clearly that Muslims inside European Union, are at disadvantage in education, labor market, they are economically disadvantaged. That tends to create conditions conducive to radicalization. These are not the main reasons, but it creates an environment," El Said told Sputnik.
Tarek Fatah suggests that instead of de-radicalization, it would be wiser to prevent radicalization in the first place. He suggests that schools and universities should not permit any religious activity in the public sphere of education.
"Had Bush, Blair, Obama and the lot openly attacked the doctrine of Islamism and Jihad and said there is no place for mixing religion and politics in the affairs of the state, we would have drawn the red line in the sand, instead they declared that Islam was a religion of peace, which every Muslim knew was wrong," Fatah told Sputnik.
The fact that the Western countries have to arrest their citizens, suspected of being radicalized, and thus posing threat to national security, means there are radicalizing factors within societies.
"You need to go to the society itself, you need to try and deal with the factors that lead toward radicalization within your own society," Professor El Said underlined.
