‘Jihad Rehab’ takes us inside a rehab center for Islamic terrorists

The fifth of the 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous is to admit “to God, to ourselves, and to other humans the exact nature of our wrongs” – the reason being facing honestly with past mistakes and mistakes being at the heart of any recovery process. However, that kind of open admission is largely absent in the work done by the Mohammed bin Nayef Care and Counseling Center, a Saudi Arabian treatment facility established in its name to help with recovery. Islamic Terror. Sure enough, no one profiled by Jihad Rehab (premiering January 22 at Sundance Film Festival) seem interested in actually confessing their jihadist crimes in front of the camera, and that willful omission is a pressing issue throughout Meg Smaker’s documentary, which is undermined by desire want to regularly purchase stories about their subject and, in doing so, have them create their own self-portrait.

After more than 15 years in Guantanamo Bay for multiple terrorism charges as a member of al Qaeda and the Taliban (and as a bodyguard to Osama bin Laden), Yemeni nationals Nadir, Mohammed and Ali were transferred — through a new agreement approved signed between the United States and Saudi Arabia — for the latter country Center, where they enroll in a 12-month program designed to transform their hearts and minds. Jihad Rehab provides excerpts from some of the classes the trio (and their teammates) are required to take related to law and marriage, but any larger implications of their guiding philosophy This place, or elemental syllabus, is still vague. The motives, however, are clear: to convince former terrorists that extremism is wrong, that the cause for which they are willing to sacrifice their lives is wrong, and that they should strive to create a peaceful and sustainable future for oneself through achieving a job, a wife and a family.

To put it mildly, the Center sounds a lot like a rehab facility for drug abusers, gamblers, or incarcerated prisoners (or gang members) intending to rehabilitate themselves first. when reintegrated into society. What is different is that, before the Center, Nadir, Mohammed and Ali were not just in any prison; they are residents of Guantanamo Bay, where they claim to have been tortured and ill-treated, thereby inciting within them a deep anger towards the United States. At least it has not been directly revealed that the trio were wounded at Guantanamo Bay because of their deep hatred for America — or, at least, their participation in the war started by the al Qaeda brothers, who people feel that way. Such integration is central to Jihad RehabThe desire to evoke sympathy for these terrorists is demonstrated by an early cartoon depicting Ali being pushed out of a window as a child (symbolically, becoming terrorist) and landed directly in a cell at Guantanamo Bay, where horror followed — an image of him being a passive victim of both jihadists and Americans, and directly abandoning through all the evil he committed in the name of al Qaeda.

None of the three men introduced in Jihad Rehab discuss their actual time as jihadists, and the fourth individual — Abu Ghanim, who was detained by the US government for being Osama bin Laden’s security henchman, joined al Qaeda. and the Taliban, with knowledge of chemical weapons, international missile smuggling, and involvement in the USS Cole bombing — repeatedly refused to answer Smaker’s questions about his past before completely cut ties with production. To her credit, the director sometimes presses Ghanim and others about their acts of terror. When she felt empty, however, she went back to detailing their horror stories of their Guantanamo Bay stay, as well as letting them talk about their dire situation, all while the orchestra sadly plays on the soundtrack and the unfortunate slow-motion shots of flocks of pigeons by the sea (which aim to evoke the freedom these men seek) try to capture one’s heart.

The center claims that 85% of those who pass through its doors are successfully rehabilitated, and that number sounds as credulous as Nadir, Mohammed and Ali, who say they want to lead normal lives free of harm. discrimination as prisoners of Guantanamo Bay. , but it is clear that never expressing a new cultural or political ideology would suggest they have changed in any fundamental way. In a retelling scene, Mohammed makes it clear that Smaker couldn’t film his new wife because of bad photography of women, and in a panic after driving to a drug store, he informed director that she should stop. pester him with questions and get married and have kids instead. The portrait by Jihad Rehab not of individuals determined to turn over a new leaf on any psychological or emotional level, but of beaten criminals who are displeased that their murderous actions have caused severe consequences that continued for many years after the conclusion of their battlefield tour.

Ali’s story is that he only attended al Qaeda’s Al Farouq training camp because he was instructed to do so by his brother Qasim al-Raymi, the late founder and leader of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. this at the age of 16. The fact that Ali blames his brother for ruining his life seems accurate. What he doesn’t do, however, is accept any responsibility for his own fate — a scenario repeated over and over in Jihad Rehab, which consumes objects of any organ. The only things that Nadir, Mohammed, and Ali felt comfortable recounting were things that happened to them, and as a result, they not only became unreliable narrators of their own stories, but also inconclusive examples of the resilience of Islamic extremists of this kind .

In its final passages, Jihad Rehab conveys how Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s rise to power in Saudi Arabia — and his definition and approach to dealing with terrorism more harshly — throws these people’s remaining prospects in a straight line and collects them. narrow to chaos. The new challenges posed by this situation (no job or money; cut off loved ones, unable to find a spouse) certainly make it harder to fight back against al Qaeda and ISIS . Even at this late stage, however, Smaker’s documentary focuses on extrinsic hardships as catalysts for terrorism, rather than investigating the nagging idea that recovery can only achieved through a fundamentally altered worldview.