Abu Dhabi: A new counter-terrorism centre was launched in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday to fight Daesh’s (the so-called Islamic State militant group) online propaganda and recruitment.
Co-founded by the UAE and the United States, the Sawab Centre will work with governments in the region and around the world, including from the 63-country coalition that is confronting Daesh.
The Sawab Centre will also work with religious leaders, organisations, businesses, and youth to amplify their voices, challenge Daesh’s doctrine of hate and intolerance, and highlight and demonstrate the true values and diversity of Islam.
Dr Anwar Mohammad Gargash, UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, and Richard Stengel, US Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy, launched the Abu Dhabi-based Sawab Centre, a joint online engagement initiative, in support of the global coalition against Daesh.
Sawab, Arabic for “doing the right thing” or being on the “right path”, seeks to do just that by giving a voice to the millions of Muslims and others around the world that stand united against the terrorism and falsehood propagated by Daesh.
Dr Gargash said, “By tackling the problem of online radicalisation, the Sawab Centre will make an important contribution to the stability and security of the region and will make a start in reclaiming the online space from the extremists.” Stengel added that the US truly appreciates its partnership with the UAE when it comes to countering violent extremism.
He further underlined that “by creating the Sawab Centre, we are sending a clear message to Daesh and other extremists that moderate Muslims everywhere reject their hateful ideology and sensational brutality and are united with their partners around the world in support of a stable and prosperous Middle East that is free from the scourge of extremism.”
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 get 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 builds on and links into 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.
Dr Theodore Karasik, a UAE-based analyst of regional geopolitical affairs, said Sawab will be able to counter Daesh’s online propaganda through real-time narratives based on the expertise of its staff who understand Daesh thinking and are able to anticipate Daesh campaigns.
“Taking advantage of Daesh’s losses and mistakes, combined with a thorough knowledge of the group’s illegitimate use of Islamic thinking, Sawab Centre can work with local and regional experts to communicate narratives that mitigate, tear down, dissect and refute Daesh’s arguments. This effort moves countering violent extremism to a new level and platform that will arrest Daesh recruitment and trash the cultlike pull of the Islamic State [Daesh] through innovative means and methods for denial and deception tactics in cyberspace, specifically social media platforms,” Dr Karasik said.
Dr Karasik added Sawab Centre is different and more agile than the Centre for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications (CSCC), set up by the US state department in 2011, to fight Daesh online via social media platforms.
“The CSCC is seen as a failure because of a lack of strategy towards content and understanding Daesh’s narratives and sophisticated approach to social media. CSCC also was disjointed in the sense that literally geography and time zones played a role given the real-time need for countering Islamic State [Daesh] messaging. In addition, bureaucracy hurt CSCC’s mission,” Dr Karasik said.
Dr Karasik suggested that the strategy to be adopted by the Abu Dhabi-based centre is extremely vital. “The Caliphate is actually seen as a viable model by Daesh and is attractive to recruits. Daesh provides salary, housing, health care, the right to arm oneself, a wife and one or more sex slaves. In countries where dowries are required, Daesh helps to negotiate lower prices. Sawab Centre is taking into account this viewpoint with seriousness while highlighting the macabre nature of the group. The approach is to counter Daesh’s economic model and to influence the ground root level of the Caliphate and its appendages about moral rights and obligations,” Dr Karasik said.
On whether moderate voices aired on social media are likely to have any impact on potential Daesh recruits, Dr Karasik said moderate voices are necessary but many Daesh recruits see moderate voices as government voices. “This is especially true in Saudi Arabia where Daeshites see Saudi clerics as part of the state apparatus. What is more important is to tug at geo-spatial identity issues, that is defined as localism, and engage these voices in debate that helps guide youth away from the attractiveness of Daesh,” Dr Karasik added.
