Mind Over Martyr How to Deradicalize Islamist Extremists

Deradicalization Terrorism Rehabilitation and Recidivism

Is it possible to deradicalize terrorists and their potential recruits? Saudi Arabia, a pioneer in rehabilitation eaorts, claims that it is. Since 2004, more than 4,000 militants have gone through Saudi Arabia’s programs, and the graduates have been reintegrated into mainstream society much more successfully than ordinary criminals. Governments elsewhere in the Middle East and throughout Europe and Southeast Asia have launched similar programs for neo-Nazis, far-right militants, narcoterrorists, and Islamist terrorists, encouraging them to abandon their radical ideology or renounce their violent means or both.