Saudi TV Program Televises Terrorists' Confessions, Discusses Recruitment Techniques
By Andrew Cochran
I highlighted the Senate Judiciary Committee's hearing on Saudi Arabia's role in the dissemination of extremist propaganda. And this summer, I posted an interview with French filmmaker Pierre Rehov about his interviews of suicide bombers and their motivations (here is a recent FrontPage column by Mr. Rehov on the subject). So I'm somewhat encouraged by this news report that last night, Saudi TV broadcast the first in a series titled, "Jihad Experiences, the Deceit." According to the news report, the show "featured the testimonies of three repentant terrorists who reveal how al-Qaeda recruits young people and convinces them to blow themselves up in the name of Islam." Moreover, quoting the news report,
Saudi TV also spoke to religious experts who explain how al-Qaeda's reasoning differs from Islamic Sharia law. They also explained the social and emotional situations that lead these young people to fall into the terror group's trap, the fact that the recruiters use their passion and predisposition to extremism, as well as their desire to change the world through quick, radical solutions. The programme highlighted how the recruitment activities and brainwashing of the fundamentalist cells lead the young person to distance themselves from their own families and the world around them.
This is the type of program that the Saudi government must sponsor, inside and outside the Kingdom, to prove that it will no longer allow or tolerate the export of hateful propaganda, and to dissuade suicide bombers from finding an alibi in a twisted form of Islam. I'm wary that this will be a singular event without followthrough, like past Saudi commitments on this issue, but it is a worthy start.
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