Britain plans to copy Saudi programme

Riyadh: Britain is making efforts to emulate Saudi Arabia's experiment by persuading detained militants to abandon their 'deviant' ideologies through an intensive counselling programme.

British Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, William Patey said that his country is seriously considering emulating the Saudi Arabian method of tackling terrorism.

The ambassador's comments came less than a year after the UN Security Council sought comprehensive information from Saudi Arabia regarding its counselling programme, in order to explore the prospect of combating terror worldwide.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, William Patey disclosed that there have been some consultations between the government of Britain and Saudi Arabia with the hope of exchanging expertise for the programme.

Meanwhile, a Saudi security official told Gulf News that the government of Saudi Arabia had received a message in August 2007 from Richard Parrit, an official at the UN Security Council General Secretariat, seeking a comprehensive report about the counselling programme.

It is noteworthy that the programme won accolades from the US administration. The last annual report of the US State Department commended the programme and lauded the efforts being made by Saudi Arabia's Grand Mufti and the Ministry of Islamic Affairs in their role to combat terror.

Saudi Arabia has been successfully implementing a programme that enabled many of the detained terror suspects to get rid of their deviant ideologies and start leading a normal life.

Repentance

A panel of experts, including about 100 Islamic scholars, psychologists and sociologists, have been engaged in continuous counselling programmes after making visits to the prisons where the terror suspects were being held up. As a result of this, a large number of militants repented and vowed to lead an ordinary life.

The counselling committee, formally launched by the Assistant Interior Minister Prince Mohammad Bin Naif in 2003, has so far conducted 5,000 sittings with terror suspects.

As many as 3,200 youths have abandoned their deviant ideologies as a result of the programme, for which the Ministry of Interior has spent nearly 10 million Saudi riyals [about Dh9.79 million].