Canadian Mosque Sets Up ‘Detox’ Program for Would-Be Terrorists
TORONTO — A Canadian mosque is taking a page from the Alcoholics Anonymous guidebook and applying it to its fight against terrorism.
Leaders at the Masjid el Noor Mosque in Toronto say Muslims who get sucked in to an extremist interpretation of Islam become addicted to faith, just as an alcoholic is addicted to alcohol. So the mosque has set up a 12-step program to “detox” budding radicals before it’s too late.
“The Specialized De-Radicalization Intervention Program” was created by the mosque’s director, Mohammed Shaikh, who says the program is the first of its kind. Shaikh, who used to work as a police chaplain, says the 12 steps are geared toward young people who have fallen in with the “wrong crowd,” often through connections made on the Internet.