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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Chess, Smokes, Therapy for Ex-Jihadists at Syria Rehab Center
2017-12-13
[AnNahar] In a rehabilitation centre in northern Syria, young men huddle over an innocuous game of chess and some cigarettes -- activities they once brutally suppressed as Islamic State group jihadists. Based in the rebel-held town of Marea, the Syrian Centre for Countering Extremist Ideology is home to around 100 one-time IS fighters from Syria, the Middle East and even Europe.

"I used to dream of establishing an Islamic state... but now, we take courses that clear up what's wrong with what we once believed," 23-year-old Mohammad Haj Ahmad says.

Ahmad hails from Raqa, the northern city that served as the de facto capital of a now-collapsed jihadist "caliphate" sprawling across Syria and Iraq. He joined IS in 2014 and took part in one of its most gruesome battles at Tabqa airport near Raqa, where jihadists executed more than 200 army troops.
Posted by:trailing wife

#6  No midnight basketball?
Posted by: swksvolFF   2017-12-13 16:30  

#5  "I'm an essential part of society -- I didn't come from under a rock or from Mars, even though I joined Daesh," he says

I'm willing to test that theory with his permanent absence
Posted by: Frank G   2017-12-13 09:03  

#4  So, no virgins?


Posted by: AlanC   2017-12-13 07:39  

#3  but now, we take courses that clear up what's wrong with what we once believed

Posting executions on YouTube?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2017-12-13 07:26  

#2  >but now, we take courses that clear up what's wrong with what we once believed," 23-year-old Mohammad Haj Ahmad says.

You'd have to change your name in disgust to really do that
Posted by: Bright Pebbles   2017-12-13 07:22  

#1  Why isn't every one of these people dead or in real jails? Easy prediction - this will come back to bite them in the ass, hard.
Posted by: Raj   2017-12-13 00:53  

00:00