4 ms·

Saudi Arabia has apparently had considerable success deprogramming militants by engaging them in religious discussions.

• realo 13y ago
  Oh? I thought that militants in that region of the planet were programmed by religious discussions in the first place. Maybe we do not share the same definition of what a "militant" is, in Saudi Arabia?
  • twic 13y ago
    Perhaps if you can program militants using religious discussion, then you can deprogram them using religious discussion. Militants aren't EPROMs, they don't need UV light. Articles on the Saudi deprogramming effort: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2007/06/get-out-of-jihad-free/305883/?single_page=true http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2007/06/get-out-... http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/09/magazine/09jihadis-t.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/09/magazine/09jihadis-t.html?... And a more recent (PDF) review about why deprogramming mostly doesn't work: http://sites.duke.edu/ihss/files/2011/12/Morris_Research_Brief_Final.pdf http://sites.duke.edu/ihss/files/2011/12/Morris_Research_Bri... Although Saudi Arabia's may be more effective. The reason is basically that terrorists aren't actually programmed using religious discussion, terrorists are programmed using monkeybrain ties to other terrorists. ObGwern: http://www.gwern.net/Terrorism%20is%20not%20about%20Terror http://www.gwern.net/Terrorism%20is%20not%20about%20Terror A clever person might therefore attempt to use stronger monkeybrain ties to deprogram terrorists. Like the PLO did: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2001/12/all-you-need-is-love/302351/ http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2001/12/all-you-...