Australia may ask a former member of the regional terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) to help "deprogram" Muslim militants while they are in custody.
Nasir bin Abbas, a former JI operative, said yesterday that he would accept an invitation to visit Australia and teach others his methods of rehabilitating militants serving jail terms.
Nasir was responding to a proposal from Police Commissioner Mick Keelty that Australia could join Indonesia, the UK, Pakistan and Sri Lanka and put on re-education courses for captured militants.
"If they need me to go to Australia to help them, I will do that," Nasir told Australia's ABC Radio in an interview from Jakarta.
"I give my advice to the police that I want to re-educate some of my friends, especially the new arrests," he said.
"I want to tell them that they misunderstand the Islamic struggle, and they also misunderstand the meaning of jihad," Nasir said.
Nasir, recruited by Indonesian authorities to run re-education classes, was a senior member of Jemaah Islamiyah.
"People can change if we talk to them, and if we give them a reasonable argument or logical argument, I think people can change," Nasir said.
Keelty said that moderate Muslims could be recruited to "deradicalize" those held in Australia under 12-month control orders, which were established to constrain militants who could not be prosecuted under other laws.
No suspects have been detained yet under the control orders. It would require a person to report regularly to police and perhaps wear an electronic tracking device.
Keelty praised the work of Nasir with Indonesia's counter-terrorism force.
"He has not only given them a significant picture of how JI was operating and the training camps in Afghanistan and also in the Philippines but he has been used to talk to other people who had been converted, to deprogram their teachings," Keelty said.
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