"I do not want to go back, the past is full of painful memories, I look now to the future," with a tone of regret for what has passed and another marked by optimism for what is to come, the prisoner, Imad, who is convicted in terrorism cases in Morocco, spoke to Al Jazeera Net, about a radical change in his vision of society after he In about 3 and a half months, he benefited from the "reconciliation" program launched by the delegation of prisons in Morocco.

During the 6 years that Imad (30 years) spent with the Islamic State in Syria, the Moroccan young man lived a “difficult experience, punctuated by many events.” After his arrest, he believed that it was impossible to return again to integrate into society, but his participation in the “Reconciliation” program changed him a lot. of those perceptions.

At the conclusion of the ninth edition of the program in the local prison in Salé, where she met him, Imad told Al Jazeera Net that "reconciliation" opens the door for anyone who has sinned against his community or his country to return again.

This young man is one of 15 prisoners who participated in the ninth session of the "Reconciliation", including young Moroccans who were residing in European countries before joining the jihadist organizations in Syria and Iraq.

This new batch raises the number of beneficiaries of the program to 222 prisoners, of whom 156 were released in exchange for a reduced sentence for 15 others, which encouraged other prisoners convicted of terrorism cases to join the initiative.

4 pillars

The reconciliation program is based on 4 pillars: reconciliation with oneself, reconciliation with society, reconciliation with the religious text, and reconciliation with the systems and standards regulating society in its relationship with the individual and with the legitimate institutions that frame public life.

However, changing convictions does not seem easy, as most of the beneficiaries of the program were imbued with the ideology of jihadist organizations, in a way that made a number of them leave their countries and go to fight in the ranks of those organizations.

The head of the Moroccan Observatory for Extremism and Violence, Mustafa Razzazi, one of the supervising members (on framing), says that the program focuses on reconciling these prisoners with the self and advising them.

He told Al Jazeera Net that dealing with this category of prisoners made it possible to find a number of mechanisms, and to employ scientific techniques and psychological tests to ensure that the change occurred, before coming up with conclusions and assessments.

The General Delegate of the Prison Administration, Mohamed Saleh Al-Tamek (Al-Jazeera)

terrorist phenomenon

He added that one of the excluded aspects of the "reconciliation" program is the benefit of former prisoners, knowing that this part is important in the preventive aspect, and he recalled in particular the experience of the fighting group in Libya and other experiences such as the experience of Jordan.

According to the speaker, the specificity of the terrorist phenomenon in Morocco is that it was not associated with internal terrorist organizations, as is the case in other countries, and he explained that the problem was with individuals and cells and not with terrorist organizations, which made the country go beyond the issue of discussing “intellectual reviews” unlike other countries. , in which this topic was vigorously attended.

degrees of strictness

Officials of the program carry out a preliminary classification of prisoners convicted of terrorism cases, according to their intellectual orientation and the degree of their extremism.

According to the statement of the Director of Cultural Action at the Prison Delegate, Moulay Idriss Aklamam, to Al Jazeera Net, this classification identifies those prisoners who aspire to change and then monitors the need to extend a helping hand to them to overcome the intellectual and emotional contradictions they live in, and the "identity crisis" they are looking for that prompted them to Joining extremist ideology.

Based on the previous versions, a radical change occurred among these prisoners, especially in their view of society and the level of their behaviour, according to the spokesman.

Participants benefit from a training that includes a group of themes (Al-Jazeera)

proper deduction

Regarding the religious dimension in the "Reconciliation" program, which includes lectures and discussions, the head of the Association of Moroccan Scholars, Ahmed Abadi, told Al Jazeera Net that "the involvement of those convicted of terrorism charges in the paths they took is due to a lack of understanding of religion," noting that "this shortcoming is remedied in This program, according to a method that shows the religion in its faculties, and re-examines how to put the words in their places, and complete the preparation until the proper deduction is carried out.”

Al-Abadi described "reconciliation" as a humanitarian program that covers dimensions, including personal, psychological and societal, stressing that to cover all these dimensions it was necessary to provide the will and determination of the prisoners.

The "Reconciliation" program includes organizing workshops on law and spreading a culture of human rights, as well as lessons in self-economy and subsequent support in launching income-generating self-projects after the end of their sentences or benefiting from the royal pardon.