By Eissa Al-Shamani
Okaz/Saudi Gazette
JEDDAH — Dhahban Central Jail, north of Jeddah, is one of the largest prisons in the Kingdom where many terror suspects are held.
Yousuf, 40, who allegedly attempted to smuggle missiles into the Kingdom through Yemen borders was one of them.
The man, who sympathized with Al-Qaeda terrorist group, was arrested and sentenced to 20 years.
Today, he has a totally different role.
He works as a counselor to change the mindset of his former inmates who were following an ideology of takfir or branding opponents as infidels.
Yousuf is not the counselor’s real name. He said the new generation of terrorists who belonged to Daesh terror group, has adopted a new strategy to weaken the important position of Islamic scholars and remove the respect they have in the community.
Yousuf said his jail term gave him an opportunity to correct his wrong views. “I have realized that I had deviated from the true path of Islam after joining Daesh,” he added.
“The main problem with terrorists is ego as they believe that their radical views are always correct and they think that Allah has selected them to emancipate the humanity.”
He added: “But when we talk to these people we can understand the enormity of ignorance they have about Islam and its teachings and the absurdity of some wrong concepts, which they learned from Twitter or extremists who had already deviated from the true path of Islam.”
Yousuf was talking to Okaz/Saudi Gazette while sitting at Prince Mohammed bin Naif Counseling Center with 14 prisoners who wore a blue uniform. A security official said they were volunteering their services to correct their wrong and dangerous thoughts of militants.
One of the prisoners said he was a strong follower of the Daesh ideology and he used to promote it through the social media networks. “I was able to get rid of those un-Islamic thoughts and ideas as a result of the efforts of Yousuf and his colleagues,” he told Okaz/Saudi Gazette.
Another terror suspect, who was previously working as an imam and khateeb of a mosque in Taif, said many of the Daesh sympathizers whom he met at the jail had no deep knowledge of Islam.
It was easy for a terror suspect to advise another suspect as both of them know the reasons for their extremist views. “In most cases, such counseling efforts were effective and successful. “I was successful in convincing a number of prisoners held for terrorism charges,” Yousuf said.
There are more than 1,000 prisoners in Dhahran Jail and a substantial number of them were arrested for being involved in terrorism after joining Al-Qaeda terror group. By the beginning of 2011, many young militants joined Daesh terror group in Syria and Iraq.
At the entrance of the prison, there are names and photos of security officers who fell martyr fighting terrorists.
A security official at the prison said there are at least 10 women who were arrested for their involvement in terror operations in the Kingdom. “One of them tried to run away to Syria but was brought back about a year ago,” he explained. Located about 19 km north of downtown Jeddah, Dhahban Jail is provided with top-class security.
