No employment and with primary studies, after the war broke out in Syria in 2011 he traveled to join. Arrested upon his return to Spain and sentenced for terrorism, in prison he disconnected from jihadism. “It’s hard to get rid of this ideology when you’re involved […] Being a believer is difficult, but … to take off the ideology without feeling … without feeling bad, ”said this thirty -year – Madrid in which the factors that lead to a to disconnect from this ideology are analyzed or, on the contrary, stay faithful. The work analyzes its career and that of another 23 jihadists convicted and held in Spanish prisons. At present, there are 88 prisoners for Islamist terrorism, 26 of them with firm condemn inside.
For the study, led by researcher Álvaro Vicente, between January 20 and July 2021 – that “offered sufficient and coherent information about violent radicalization.” Of these, five inmates (all of them male and with an average age of 43 years) were “loyal” to terrorist postulates; another 10 (seven men and three women, with an average of 35 years) to those who classify as “disconnected” expressed a strict vision of Islamist doctrine although they do not consider jihadist violence in the West justified; and the last nine (six men and three women, with an average age of 29 years) ,. Vicente has pointed out in the presentation “a combination of various personal, social and context factors” to explain that a prisoner is decided by any of these paths. Specifically, five: how they see themselves, their emotions, with whom they relate, how they interpret their past and what expectations they have of the future.
Regarding the renegades, the monograph points out that in some cases the “discrepancy” between the values in which they were educated and those adopted after radicalization had allowed “the lack of a genuine adhesion to the principles of jihadist Salafism.” This is the case of the interviewee 12, the thirty -year -old who traveled to Syria: “But I have become? I am not so, you know? It never went, never. Puff, [solo] After having … having changed a lot. (…) I have never been able to hate people for … for having another origin than mine, ”he said. In others, it is the search for autonomy that favors change. “I have gotten into a world that is not mine, a war that is not mine,” said the interviewee 16, which was intercepted before arriving in Syria and was imprisoned in Spain twice for terrorism.
The Royal Institute researcher Elcano has insisted that “the abandonment of jihadism is a very convulsive process.” In fact, it is full of obstacles. From the pressures, humiliations and repudiation imposed by radical groups themselves to fear of being marginalized in prison. “It’s also difficult because when you’re in jail with this label [yihadista]only people who relate well with you are people who also have it or who are, ”said the interviewee 12. The number 9, a Spaniard with higher studies that was integrated into that anguish:“ (…) I I didn’t know how to get out of there. (…) I had no one, but anyone. I had cut with all the friends, had cut with my mother. I was alone. ”
The study of the Royal Institute Elcano emphasizes that in this reintegration process it also influences “a combination of emotions, often based on moral principles that awareness of the execrable character of their past and connect them with an alternative life to militancy”. The feelings of shame and guilt arise. “There are things that maybe at that time because it was radicalized justified it, such as violence and such; And now it’s like you don’t find justification and you say: ‘And I have been complicit. Ok, I have not been there [en Siria]but we are accomplices of what has happened, ”said the interviewee 16.
The passage through prison
Álvaro Vicente points out that relations with people outside the jihadism have contributed to these prisoners to take the step. “When passing through prison at the beginning it was confusing (…). I just wanted to keep my family (…) ”details the interviewee 31, a young student keeps Islam who was arrested when he tried to reach Syria. For him, the change occurred with the visits of his relatives to jail. “I started seeing things differently and better,” he added. In the case of the interviewee 12, they were the letters that exchanged from prison with a magnet away from radicalism. “I have written to the magnet that I knew my countryman by letter, yes. He has told me that … well, he has motivated me to continue like this, to continue regret. ”
Another of the elements that led to that step to these prisoners were the contradictions between the initial expectations – they agreed to use violence as a form of defense – with reality, which included indiscriminate attacks in Europe. For the interviewee 2, which was part of a radicalization cell, which initially was a fair fight “of the oppressed against oppressors” became a “very murky” movement. “Something was broken inside. I turned away, ”he stressed. In the same vein, the interviewee 31 described his disappointment after knowing a massacre: “I was not part, I did not want to know anything, and there is already (…) made no sense to me.”
For most “renegade” prisoners, their passage through jail was decisive in this process. The interviewee 9 comes to state: “Although I am in prison, I, in many ways, I consider myself much freer than when I was out.” Also contact with other prisoners that have nothing to do with jihadism – and that at the time rejected for infidels – or with prison officials – pointed out by jihadism as enemies – helped that change: “Here [en la cárcel] It is where you see it better, right?, because they are supposed to be the enemy. They paint it to you like that … you have an enemy who, which, which one (…) vice versa, there is a very normal treatment, like everyone else. ” In this sense, Álvaro Vicente stressed that, against what is usually thought, “” prison is not a land paid for radicalization “but, on the contrary,” produces favorable situations for change. ” However, almost all renegade prisoners showed a complaint to the prison and judicial system that, in their opinion, was not flexible enough to adapt to their personal evolution or the differences between prisoners.
