DUBAI (AlArabiya.net)
Iraqi prisoners will have to take intensive Islamic courses as a condition for their release as part of a program to be launched by the U.S. forces, America in Arabic news agency reported.
Already, preachers hired by the American army teach detainees about the "sacredness of life" and "love of humanity," a Pentagon statement said, adding that moderate education creates a balanced mentality and prevents detainees from falling prey to extremism.
U.S. forces have "siphoned" thousands of detainees who are considered "fanatic" to special units away from the moderate ones, it added.
“[The curriculum] is embedded in its religion, so it needs to put things in the context of the Muslim faith, and that's how they do it,” the Pentagon statement quoted Deputy Commanding General of the Multinational Force, Iraq Detainee Operations Major General Douglas Stone as saying.
“Each one includes in there a Quranic sort of reference to give these guys some reason why it has a lynchpin.”
American forces also organize religious debates between Sunni and Shiite detainees under the supervision of hired imams to establish a mutual dialogue.
“They are genuinely engaged in a conversation – a Socratic conversation—without our presence in there, about the Quran,” Stone said of the compulsory religious course.
“They come out understanding the difference between what the extremists have said, or what the extremists have made them memorize, versus what's actually in the Quran.”
So far more than 1,000 detainees have taken part in the discussions, it said.
Stone said the new religious curriculum resulted in the release of 3,305 detainees since July 2007, none of whom has engaged in extremist insurgencies since.
The U.S. is holding between 20,500 Iraqi Sunni detainees and 4,500 Shiites. The average number of detentions per day dropped from 61 to 40 in the past five weeks, Stone added.
(Translated from Arabic by Sonia Farid). |
