Saudi Arabia's Counterterrorism Strategy (Research Paper Sample)

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Saudi Arabia’s Counterterrorism Strategy
Introduction
Following the series of terrorist attacks that occurred in 2003, Saudi government initiated a strategy that aimed at using soft measures to combat ideologies of violent extremists. The strategy mainly focused on countering extremists’ claims that the Saudi government interprets Islam in a corrupt and deviant manner. The adoption of this soft approach came as a result of the realization that extremism among terrorists cannot be countered effectively with traditional security measures alone. At the core of this strategy were three interconnected programs, which included prevention, rehabilitation, and post-release care (PRAC).
Within the first four years of operation, the Saudi strategy was able realize remarkable outcomes, particularly the rehabilitation and the counter radicalization programs. For instance, cases of re-arrest and recidivist have dropped to approximately 1-to-2%. Following this remarkable results of Saudi’s strategy, other countries such as Egypt, Algeria, Yemen, Jordan, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore have launched rehabilitation programs as way of countering violent Islamist extremists. As a result, many people across the globe are now seeing the relevance of Saudi strategy in the fight against terrorism.
Saudi’s PRAC Strategy
The Saudi strategy for handling radicalization and extremism is summarized in a plan known as the PRAC (Prevention, Rehabilitation, and Aftercare) strategy. This strategy provides a comprehensive outline of the goals and the challenges that might be faced by Saudi authorities, as well as identifying ways of combating the spread of extremist ideologies. This strategy is an integration of three distinct programs that aim at preventing people from engaging in extremism, enhancing rehabilitation of violent extremists, and providing post-release care to extremists to facilitate their reunion with their families.
Structure and Strategy Organization
Before discussing the components of the PRAC strategy against extremism, it is important to first explore briefly how the Saudi government organizes its policies. The Ministry of Interior is the main government agency tasked with ensuring public security in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It also responsible for other security/safety-related tasks such as civil defense, prison administration, domestic security and counterterrorism, criminal investigations and counterespionage, infrastructure protection, and passports/border security. Currently, it is led by Prince Nayef bin Abdul-Aziz.
Background on Strategy Components
The counseling program is based on various Saudi traditions such as the use of religious leaders in the prison system, notions of co-optation/persuasion, and the tradition of designing rehabilitation/reintegration programs for criminal offenders in the society. The counseling program traces its history in one of the public engagement campaigns initiated by the Ministry of Interior several years ago to address issues related to prisoners’ welfare in the nation’s prisons. According to some of the assertions of Price Mohammad, the religious leaders (sheikhs) chosen to take part in rehabilitation programs at the country’s prisons were relatively distant and critical to the prison systems. The sheikhs reassured the prisoners’ families of their well-being, and as a result, helped to set aside allegations of torture in the prisons. In other words, sheikhs bridged the gap between the Ministry of Interior and the prisoners’ families by notifying them that their loved ones were treated well by the state.
The rehabilitation strategy
At the core of the Saudi’s rehabilitation approach is the counseling program, which reeducates violent extremists and their sympathizers through psychological counseling and by coordinating intensive religious debates. The program’s main objective is to encourage violent extremists to abdicate the ideologies associated with terrorists, particularly the takfir doctrine. Apart from the violent extremists or the radicalized youths, the program also targets detained security offenders without taking into consideration their individual offenses. Upon the completion of the rehabilitation process, the individuals who have renounced extremism ideologies are released from custody to join their families. However, according to the Ministry of Interior, those who were charged with murder should not be released immediately after the completion of the rehabilitation process.
The counseling process is not based on retribution or punishment of the offenders, but on an assumption of benevolence. In other words, Saudi’s government does not intend to avenge through the rehabilitation program. The program starts with the assumption that the suspected parties were misled by violent extremists without their knowledge into deviating from the true Islam. According to the nation’s security officers, violent extremists target individuals who are eager to get detailed explanations about various aspects of the Islam faith, and then mislead them by exposing them to their ideologies. In addition, the Saudi government often tells the detainees’ families that it only aims at inculcating the true doctrine to their loved ones. Consequently, counseling in Saudi Arabia is presented as assistance for the victims of extremism, not as a punishment for the offenders.
How successful is the Program?
According to Prince Muhammad, since the launch of Saudi’s demobilization and rehabilitation campaign after the terrorist attacks that took place in the country in 2003, approximately 3,000 offenders have participated in the rehabilitation process, and roughly 1400 have renounced their former ideologies and have been released. In addition, he asserted that although it not easy to come up with the exact figures, about 1,000 prisoners are still under custody. This number includes the prisoners who have completed the process but failed, those who are still serving their sentences, those who have refused to take part in the process, and those who have not yet completed the process. Officials in the prisons have contended that some prisoners are actively working against the rehabilitation process within the nation’s prisons. Most of these prisoners include individuals who committed serious crimes and know that they cannot be released. As a result, they oppose the program in order to frustrate the concerned security agencies. By working against the program, it shows that they have the perception that the program has been successful.
All the prisoners who have been released upon completion of the rehabilitation process while serving their sentence in prison are men. According to a report released in July 2008, a number of female security suspects have completed the counseling program, and the rehabilitation process was conducted at their homes, rather than in the prison as it is the case with most male suspects. Although many security officials argue that no female extremists who are held in the country’s prisons, it is alleged that several women have been incarcerated because of engaging in terrorism-related acts. Most of the incarcerated women were captured together with their male relatives or spouses.
Thus, the program can be said to have been effective, with the nation’s security agencies asserting that the program, has achieved a success rate of 80-to-90%. The 10-to-20% failure includes prisoners who have failed as well as those who refused to participate. It is not easy to estimate the effectiveness of the counseling program, given the number of years that have lapsed since it was launched. However, within a span of five years, it will be possible to properly estimate the rate of recidivist. Despite this, on November 1, 20...