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NEWS AND VIEWS THAT IMPACT LIMITED CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT

"There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with
power to endanger the public liberty." - - - - John Adams

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Saudi Arabia opens luxury rehab center for al Qaeda militants




We can't make this shit up
Saudi Arabia is building "counselling", spa centers and other facilities to rehabilitate Al-Qaeda prisoners



Saudi Arabia is hoping to wean jailed Al-Qaeda militants off religious extremism with counselling, spa treatments and plenty of exercise at a luxury rehabilitation centre in Riyadh.

In between sessions with counsellors and talks on religion, prisoners will be able to relax in the centre’s facilities which include an Olympic-size indoor swimming pool, a sauna, gym and a television hall.

The new complex is the work of the Prince Mohammed bin Nayef Centre for Counselling and Care, a body set up seven years ago to rehabilitate extremists jailed during a Saudi crackdown on the local branch of Al-Qaeda reports AFP News.




“Just under 3,000 (Islamist prisoners) will have to go through one of these centres before they can be released,” interior ministry spokesman General Mansur al-Turki told AFP during a tour of the new centre.

Another centre has already opened in the western port city of Jeddah, and three more are planned for the north, east and south of the desert kingdom.

The new facility in Riyadh, however, is the first to offer inmates a taste of luxury as an incentive to moderate their beliefs.

The centres bear the name of the current interior minister, who spearheaded the government’s crackdown on Al-Qaeda following deadly attacks by the group between 2003 and 2006 in which more than 150 Saudis and foreigners were killed.

Al-Qaeda jihadists, many of them trained in Afghanistan, had targeted Saudi Arabia for allowing US troops to set up bases in the kingdom during the Gulf War and to stay on afterwards, until they eventually withdrew in 2003.

(Washington Times)





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Morocco’s Official Islamic Authority Issues Death Fatwa For Muslims Who Leave Islam…



A fatwa published this week by Morocco’s higher council of religious scholars (CSO) calling for the death penalty for Muslims who renounce their faith has sparked fierce controversy in the country.

The scholars, who represent official Islam in Morocco, said in their edict, published in Tuesday’s edition of Arabic-language daily Akhbar al-Youm, that Muslims who reject their faith “should be condemned to death.”

The fatwa, which has provoked strong reactions, dates back to April 2012 when a legal report was being prepared by the government, but it was not published at the time, according to local media reports AFP News.

Mahjoub El Hiba, a senior human rights official in the government, denied in a statement to the official MAP news agency having requested any such fatwa from the council of Islamic scholars, as Akhbar al-Youm had claimed.

“What was published in the document attributed to the CSO does not concern our government and commits us to nothing,” Hiba told AFP.

The ministry of Islamic affairs declined to comment on the issue.

Morocco's penal code does not explicitly prohibit apostasy, which is illegal in most Muslim countries, and punishable by death in some states such as Saudi Arabia, although in practice people are rarely executed for renouncing their faith.

But Moroccan law states that "anyone attempting to undermine the faith of a Muslim or convert him to another religion" risks six months to three years in prison.

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