Morocco’s Prison Deradicalization Program Offers Path to Freedom for Terrorism Detainees

Saleh, 50, is one of the beneficiaries of the Moussalaha program. Accused of terrorism, he has been in prison for 19 years and hopes to be released soon. This former radicalized person had a different perception of the Muslim religion. "I believed that Muslims had a duty to fight oppressive leaders who do not apply Islamic law and to attack states that fight Muslims," he told AFP in the library of the Kenitra prison.

Saleh became radicalized in Italy in the 1990s after meeting an imam in a Turin mosque who belonged to the Egyptian jihadist group Jamaa Islamiya, which assassinated President Anwar Sadat in 1981. He then settled with his family in Afghanistan under the Taliban regime. But the 9/11 attacks in the United States forced him to change his plans. At the time, the United States threatened to overthrow the Taliban, which they had succeeded in doing. Saleh then fled to Morocco where he was arrested. He claims to have no blood on his hands, but he has been incarcerated for 19 years.

Mohamed Damir, 47, another beneficiary of the program, regained his freedom in 2017. In 2003, he had been sentenced to death. In 2011, his sentence was commuted to 30 years in prison. Part of his rehabilitation consisted of reading the works of philosophers Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Voltaire, some of whose ideas "are not far from the spirit of Islam." "I discovered the concept of the social contract, which allows everyone to live in peace, because we are obviously all different," he said. According to him, many radicalized people "only realize that they must abandon their extremist ideas once they find themselves alone" in a prison cell.

Since his release from prison, Mohamed participates in the animation of an association of Islamic scholars in the city of Mohammedia which oversees the religious aspect of Moussalaha. His work is to guide the detainees throughout the program. "It’s not always easy. [...] Most of them don’t know much about the Islamic religion," he said, adding that he uses religious texts to change their point of view. "I try to convince them that they will not gain God’s favor by following the (violent) path," adds this former inmate.