A Prison Aims to Deprogram Young Jihadists

Shia and Sunni students agree on nothing but Harry Potter
By Heather McPherson,  Newser User
Posted Aug 10, 2007 3:25 PM CDT
A Prison Aims to Deprogram Young Jihadists
Iraqi soldiers arrest a man in Baqouba, about 60 kilometers (35 miles) north of Baghdad, Iraq, Tuesday, July 24, 2007. U.S. and Iraqi troops launched an offensive in Baqouba last month to rid the city of Sunni extremists. (AP Photo)   (Associated Press)

The high-security Iraqi prison that once held Saddam Hussein now hosts a pilot program to reeducate jihadist youth. Newsweek visited Camp Cropper, which for the past two months has offered classes and psychological guidance aimed at deprogramming would-be suicide bombers. But the teachers have struggled because the hatred in the mixed Sunni and Shia students runs deep—and it's often aimed at each other.

The program, targeting 10 juveniles in a prison population of around 3,800, hopes to break cycle that sends kids out of prison more radical and violent than they were when they came in.  But detainees from the two sects largely refuse to associate. Sunni and Shia students seem to have only one thing in common: a love for Harry Potter films, dubbed into Arabic. (More prison stories.)

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