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Column. Is rational dialogue with a terrorist possible? More significantly, can the mind of a person committed to terrorism be changed? (Back to Articles.)

Changing Tough Hearts and Minds
by Charles Strohmer

Is rational dialogue with a terrorist possible? More importantly, could the mindset of a terrorist be defused? While researching the new book I'm writing, I concluded, especially after reading Paul Berman's Terror and Liberalism and Barry Cooper's New Political Religions, that terrorists are adamantly opposed to conversations other than those that reinforce their own totalitarian ideologies. But I may be having my mind changed about this.

While rummaging through stacks of research papers in my office, I discovered James Brandon's article "Koranic duels ease terror," which tells the amazing story of Judge Hamoud al-Hitar, who began a dangerous experiment two years ago. He and four other Islamic scholars challenged five captured al Qaeda operatives in Yemen: "If you can convince us that your ideas are justified by the Koran, then we will join you in your struggle. But if we succeed in convincing you of our ideas, then you must agree to renounce violence." The prisoners agreed.

Two years later, those five prisoners, and 359 others who have gone through these "theological dialogues," have so renounced violence that they have been released. An unconventional strategy, certainly. But according to one European diplomat, it is helping to change Yemen from "being a potential enemy to becoming an indispensable allay in the war on terror."      

Hitar's system is simple, if risky. Instead of lecturing or threatening the operatives, he listens to them and tries to win their trust. The process takes weeks. He begins by inviting militants to use the Qur'an to justify attacks on innocent civilians, and when they cannot, "he shows them numerous passages commanding Muslims not to attack civilians, to respect other religions, and fight only in self-defense." Only after winning the militants' trust does Hitar begin to help them correct their beliefs.

I realize that this leaves unanswered a host of questions, but in the meantime some tough hearts and minds are being changed. Hitar has discovered a way to fight terrorism other than with cruise missiles and Abrams tanks. And the judge's model—he relates to them via their common humanity, noting that most militants are ordinary men who got led astray—is now being called on by anti-terrorism experts at New Scotland Yard, and US diplomats in Iraq have begun turning to Hitar for help. (From Openings 21, Jul-Oct, 05. Edited for the Web. Original story at: www.cs.monitor.com/2005/0204/p01s04-wome.html.)

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