Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 5, No. 2, 2006, Page 14
at establishing branch offices on every continent, with these offices possibly operating as
specialist academic cult-research centres and maintaining close links to those watch groups
that can play a pivotal role in the timely acquisition of information public policy makers
need. We certainly need you!
Interfaith Rehabilitation and the Prerogative of Mercy
It is occasionally noted in academic books on terrorism that amnesty programs have had
some success in breaking the cycle of violence. For example, in 1990, Jerrold M. Post
observed that
As important as it is to inhibit potential terrorists from joining terrorist
groups, it is equally important to facilitate their leaving those groups …
Amnesty modelled after the highly effective program of the Italian
government can contribute to that goal … In the long run the most effective
way of countering terrorism is to reduce external support, to facilitate
pathways out of terrorism, and, most important, to reduce the attractiveness
of the terrorist path for alienated youth.xxii
With respect to facilitating pathways out of terrorism, it seems to me that governments
need to pursue decisive, circuit-breaking policies that reach out to potential leavers,
facilitate their rehabilitation, and most importantly, send a strong message to others that
they too can come in from the cold. In Australia, the case of Jack Roche is an example, in
my view, in which such an opportunity was not taken, although it is never too late to re-
evaluate policy.
Jack Roche is a convert to Islam who fell in with some unsavoury characters. He
subsequently became indoctrinated into such a deviant stream that he was persuaded that
it was a good idea to case the Israeli Embassy in Canberra and the Israeli Consulate in
Sydney for a proposed terrorist attack under the direction of al Qaeda. Somewhere along
this path, Jack Roche resolved to phone ASIO to ―volunteer information about his travel to
Afghanistan and possible Australian links to al-Qaeda.‖xxiii Apparently he left messages, but
they didn‘t get back to him! Thankfully, the mission was aborted, and he was later arrested,
charged, and sentenced by a state court to nine years in prison with a four-and-a-half-year
nonparole period, despite a letter from the federal authorities attesting to the fact that he
had cooperated with investigations.
While providing a straight amnesty or pardon for an indoctrinated and bewildered follower
such as Roche would be politically unthinkable (a large proportion of the Jewish and wider
community would be understandably outraged), I believe that a creative form of sentencing
and program of inter-faith rehabilitation would be an appropriate path to take. A course of
rehabilitation (re-education, if you like), involving a committee of Imams, Rabbis, and other
faith leaders, cooperating to take Jack Roche into hand and pointing out the error of his
former deviant thinking, as well as educating him into the possibilities of interfaith
tolerance, might well be appropriate. As a follower who had already exhibited serious doubt
about the course he had embarked upon, he would probably be receptive to this approach
and would perhaps provide an important role model for other recanters.
I believe that the federal Minister for Justice has power to offer the prerogative of mercy in
special cases. If mercy could be extended conditional on a program of rehabilitation that
actively involved members of his targeted community, perhaps with a form of continuing
detention commensurate with this objective, I think this approach would be well worth
considering. Religious figures with a thorough understanding of the complexities of cults,
sects, and/or new religious movements would be well placed to take the lead in this sort of
interfaith rehabilitation exercise.
at establishing branch offices on every continent, with these offices possibly operating as
specialist academic cult-research centres and maintaining close links to those watch groups
that can play a pivotal role in the timely acquisition of information public policy makers
need. We certainly need you!
Interfaith Rehabilitation and the Prerogative of Mercy
It is occasionally noted in academic books on terrorism that amnesty programs have had
some success in breaking the cycle of violence. For example, in 1990, Jerrold M. Post
observed that
As important as it is to inhibit potential terrorists from joining terrorist
groups, it is equally important to facilitate their leaving those groups …
Amnesty modelled after the highly effective program of the Italian
government can contribute to that goal … In the long run the most effective
way of countering terrorism is to reduce external support, to facilitate
pathways out of terrorism, and, most important, to reduce the attractiveness
of the terrorist path for alienated youth.xxii
With respect to facilitating pathways out of terrorism, it seems to me that governments
need to pursue decisive, circuit-breaking policies that reach out to potential leavers,
facilitate their rehabilitation, and most importantly, send a strong message to others that
they too can come in from the cold. In Australia, the case of Jack Roche is an example, in
my view, in which such an opportunity was not taken, although it is never too late to re-
evaluate policy.
Jack Roche is a convert to Islam who fell in with some unsavoury characters. He
subsequently became indoctrinated into such a deviant stream that he was persuaded that
it was a good idea to case the Israeli Embassy in Canberra and the Israeli Consulate in
Sydney for a proposed terrorist attack under the direction of al Qaeda. Somewhere along
this path, Jack Roche resolved to phone ASIO to ―volunteer information about his travel to
Afghanistan and possible Australian links to al-Qaeda.‖xxiii Apparently he left messages, but
they didn‘t get back to him! Thankfully, the mission was aborted, and he was later arrested,
charged, and sentenced by a state court to nine years in prison with a four-and-a-half-year
nonparole period, despite a letter from the federal authorities attesting to the fact that he
had cooperated with investigations.
While providing a straight amnesty or pardon for an indoctrinated and bewildered follower
such as Roche would be politically unthinkable (a large proportion of the Jewish and wider
community would be understandably outraged), I believe that a creative form of sentencing
and program of inter-faith rehabilitation would be an appropriate path to take. A course of
rehabilitation (re-education, if you like), involving a committee of Imams, Rabbis, and other
faith leaders, cooperating to take Jack Roche into hand and pointing out the error of his
former deviant thinking, as well as educating him into the possibilities of interfaith
tolerance, might well be appropriate. As a follower who had already exhibited serious doubt
about the course he had embarked upon, he would probably be receptive to this approach
and would perhaps provide an important role model for other recanters.
I believe that the federal Minister for Justice has power to offer the prerogative of mercy in
special cases. If mercy could be extended conditional on a program of rehabilitation that
actively involved members of his targeted community, perhaps with a form of continuing
detention commensurate with this objective, I think this approach would be well worth
considering. Religious figures with a thorough understanding of the complexities of cults,
sects, and/or new religious movements would be well placed to take the lead in this sort of
interfaith rehabilitation exercise.
