Link: Reforming the Radicals [TimesOnline]
Rachel North is a blogger who is a survivor of the 7/7 terrorist attacks in London. Her blog is Rachel from North London and she is both an excellent writer and an inspiration.
In this excellent article published a year ago in the Times, she interviews Musa Ahmet who was imprisoned on suspicion of terrorism in Belmarsh prison in South London but later released. He is the brother of the man dubbed “Hate Preacher Atilla the Scum” by the UK media. In the article Musa discusses how he believes that many terrorists are reformed once they spend time in jail and that only 25-30% still harbour terrorist beliefs once inside. The article touches on the fact that youngsters are often lead astray by people who know little about the Islam religion and use it to turn them into radicals. Apparently, Atilla has reformed whilst in prison and asked Rachel to convey his apologies to the English and American public for what he said in the past. He has begun a proper study of the Koran whilst in prison and understands now “that the words of the prophet should not be used to justify violence against innocents”.
Rachel states that her aim is not to condone nor forgive but to understand extremism in order to prevent such atrocities in the future.
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