Screening and discussion: Jihadi Rehab Saudi Style

Screening Monday 4th February, 2008

This extended news feature, for the CBC and More 4 News gives us rare look inside a unique rehabilitation programme for ex-jihadis. The film shows the work being done at a halfway house near Riyadh run by the Saudi Ministry of the Interior where ex-jihadis are taught to channel their aggression into art, rather than holy war.

Don’t be fooled by the sight of grown men with oversized pastel crayons painting pretty pictures; the centre’s inmates have all served time in prison, typically for joining the insurgency in Iraq or Afghanistan.  The programme is their last stop on the way to freedom, and, the Saudi government hopes, their reintegration into society. 

This is an extraordinary look at a scheme for combating terrorism, which is now being copied around the world.  The British government is also looking at the approach.

Length: 15 mins
Reporter/Camera: Nancy Durham, Video Journalist, CBC TV
Producer/Camera: Seamus Mirodan, Insight News Television



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Past Event, Screenings