Many Western states, including that of the United Kingdom, have set great store in the idea that radical Islamists can be deradicalised either through secular means or by presenting the radicals with a more moderate version of Islam. It’s a nice idea. It appeals to those who want to save others from themselves and who believe that a religious or political radical can be reformed in the same or similar way to how an armed robber can sometimes be reformed.

Unfortunately although this policy might work with the occasional ‘over the pavement’ merchant or some previously incorrigible burglar, it doesn’t seem to be working with Islamic radicals. We should not forget that the second London Bridge terror attack was carried out by a man whom the prison service and those concerned with rehabilitation had judged to have reformed. Two innocent people died because of that mistake.

Now there has emerged another case where the attempted reform and deradicalisation of an Islamist has failed dismally. This latest case involved an Islamist who was part way through a deradicalisation programme carrying out a fake suicide bomb attack at HMP Whitemoor.

The Wolverhampton Express and Star said:

A convicted terrorist was eight months into a year-long jail deradicalisation programme when he tried to murder a prison guard.

Brusthom Ziamani, 25, was on Thursday jailed for life after he and Baz Hockton, 26, armed with makeshift weapons and wearing fake suicide vests, attacked prison officer Neil Trundle at maximum security HMP Whitemoor in Cambridgeshire on January 9.

The terror attack is believed to be the first of its kind inside a UK jail, although a homemade IRA bomb was exploded inside Crumlin Road Prison in Belfast in 1991.

The judge, Mrs Justice May said Ziamani must serve a minimum 21 years, while Hockton will serve at least 23 years before he is eligible for parole.

She told Ziamani: “Your adherence to extremist ideology plainly persists, despite the best efforts of the prison psychologist and, no doubt, the prison imam.

“You were eight months into a year-long programme designed to address such beliefs when you committed these offences.

Whilst these two savages need to bear the bulk of the responsibility for this crime, we should not let those who believed, probably sincerely but naively, that an Islamist was no different from a burglar when it came to rehabilitation, be free of blame. Someone somewhere with authority thought that those pumped up on religious mania could have that mania diverted into something more positive and the result has been that on two occasions this belief has failed. What should scare people is that there are probably hundreds of radical Islamists in our prisons who are going through or have gone through deradicalisation programmes. A lot of these Islamists are going to be serving determinate sentences, which means that one day, maybe very soon, they will be released onto the streets. As the record for success for deradicalisation doesn’t seem to be that good, that could mean that Britons face an additional Islamist terror threat from released Islamists as well as the great number of radical Muslims who exist and who are active at present.

Whilst it is not impossible for Islamists to deradicalise, this is something that has to come from within, as with the case of Majid Nawaaz. It does not look likely, based on what the results are so far, that deradicalisation is something that can be imposed from without.