'Sawab': UAE at heart of digital campaign against Daesh [video]

Sawab Centre, a joint UAE-US initiative to counter extremism of Daesh terrorist organisation on internet, launched a campaign to expose crimes committed by terrorists against women and the deviant organisation's methods of exploiting them to achieve its despicable goals.

The word 'Sawab' in Arabic means ‘doing the right thing’ or being on the ‘right path’.

The Centre, in a statement on Tuesday, said the campaign coincides with the ‘International Day for Elimination of Violence Against Women’ organised by the UN on November 25 every year and will continue for five days.

The campaign would shed light on organised crimes and inhuman exercises meted out to women, the Centre said, and added that the campaign comes in line with the framework of the Centre's activities to expose Daesh propaganda and its malicious methods to deceive youth.

The Centre noted that women are strategic targets for terrorists, especially those from the Daesh organisation, who launch organised campaigns to lure them. It added that the terrorist organisation has succeeded in beginning to recruit women and girls who only later discover they have been deceived. Some of them managed to escape and have miraculously survived, while others succumbed to the torture and sexual exploitation.

It noted that Daesh deliberately employed women in several different roles, with an objective to serve its interests, adding that the terrorist organisation set up slavery markets that attracted a number of vulnerable young people. The Daesh's impulsive discourse achieved in the beginnings some success by recruiting some young people, whose dreams subsequently collided with the rocks of death and destruction.

The Centre said that in the beginning the terrorist organisation showed women as commodities to entertain its mercenaries. It also exploited the captive girls as a source of financial revenue through establishing public auctions in which women, girls and children were sold.

The campaign is working to provide a number of illustrations, creative designs and visual expressive sections that aim to clarify Daesh practises that do not comply with the principles and teachings of Islam, especially those related to the brutal treatment of women. It will also publish infographic cartoons and images that illustrate the work mechanism of the organisation regarding the attraction of new recruits, patterns of recruitment and stages, which end up with disastrous consequences for the new recruits.

The Centre called for solidarity among Arab and Muslim youth to counter the terrorist organisation online, calling on activists against the extremism to republish the message of the Centre to fight the terrorist under the theme 'United Against Extremism’.

Launched in July to create a forum for the silent majority, the Centre's viewers have so far exceeded 150 million. It is an interactive, credible and transparent platform that brings together intellectual and moderate voices.

The Sawab Centre in Abu Dhabi aims to counter online messages, propaganda and recruitment by Daesh. The centre is a joint online engagement initiative, in support of ‘Global Coalition Against Daesh’. It seeks to give a voice to the millions of Muslims and others around the world that stand united against the terrorism and falsehood propagated by Daesh.

To do so, the Sawab Centre will use online communication and social media tools to put things in the right perspective and to amplify those moderate voices that regularly are drowned by the noise of the extremists. Through its online engagement, the Sawab Centre will counter the false claims and religious misinterpretations that are being propagated by Daesh and will seek to engage with those vulnerable online communities that are an easy prey for Daesh recruiters.

The Sawab Centre will also work with religious leaders, organisations, businesses and youth in order to amplify their voices, challenge Daesh's doctrine of hate and intolerance, and to highlight and demonstrate the true values and diversity of Islam.

The Centre builds on and links the various other Counter-Extremism initiatives that have been initiated in the UAE in recent years, including the Hedayah Centre to Counter Violent Extremism and the Forum for Promoting Peace in Muslim Societies. These initiatives demonstrate the UAE's strong and enduring commitment to a moderate and tolerant society that is deeply rooted in the UAE's history and traditions, where extremism has no place and no future.

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