JEDDAH: The Prince Mohammed bin Naif Counseling and Care Center has successfully treated nearly 92 percent of those who underwent counseling, according to the latest statistics.

More than 3,000 people have benefited from the center’s comprehensive programs, which focus on providing guidance and support on Shariah issues, education, clarification of political and historical issues, as well as interviews with people who have turned back from extremism.

Since its founding in 2006, the center has been working on counseling prisoners with extremist thoughts or associations with extremist groups through open dialogue and information sessions in order to restore and facilitate their assimilation back into society to rebuild their lives once again. The center has earned international recognition as a successful and comprehensive model for combating extremism.

Programs include lectures and seminars by religious, legal and psychosocial scholars and experts, and advice to individuals through short two-hour therapeutic counseling sessions.

The center also offers preventative counseling sessions in mosques, universities, boys and girls schools, sports and literary clubs, and public centers, as well as deals directly with households which find one or more members turning to extremism.


These programs, among others, make the center one of the most important in combating extremism by dealing with people associated with extremist organizations, particularly Al-Qaeda, and returning them to their normal lives and true Islamic path.