Saleh has been languishing in Moroccan jails for 19 years on terrorism charges, but he hopes to be freed soon thanks to a deradicalization program.
The former hard-line Islamist, today a bearded prisoner in his 50s, said he once held beliefs that justified violence.
“I believed Muslims had a duty to fight oppressive rulers who don’t apply Islamic law, and to attack states that fight Muslims,” he said in the library of Kenitra Prison, near Rabat.
However, those ideas were based on a literal reading of the Koran and sayings of the Prophet Mohammed “that I wasn’t qualified to understand,” he said.
Today, after
RABAT: Saleh has been languishing in Moroccan jails for 19 years on terrorism charges, but he hopes to be freed soon thanks to a de-radicalization program. The former hard-line militant, today a bearded prisoner in his 50s, said he once held beliefs that justified violence. “I believed Muslims had a duty to fight oppressive rulers who don’t apply Islamic law, and to attack