Riyadh: The UAE has paid a glowing tribute to the historic initiative of The Custodian of The Two Holy Mosques, King Salman Bin Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia, for convening the Arab Islamic American Summit.

In its official statement on the occasion, the UAE expressed its great appreciation and gratitude and full support for Saudi Arabia for hosting this extraordinary summit.

“This cordial invitation to attend and participate in this historic summit promises an exceptional era that brings a genuine dialogue among civilisations, true engagement among cultures and a serious vision of a peaceful, safe and secured world that enjoys stability and growth for all of us with no exception,” it added.

The UAE reiterated its constant position and firm conviction that there is a close connection between extremism and terrorism. “We should deal with the incubators of extremism through effective approaches that address the root causes leading to extremism and the subsequent accusation of terrorism.”

Full text of the Official Statement (Communique) of the UAE at the Arab Islamic American Summit

“The UAE greatly values the historic initiative of The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia — may God preserve him — for convening the Arab Islamic American Summit. The UAE expresses its great appreciation and gratitude and full support for the brotherly Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for hosting this extraordinary summit.

This cordial invitation to attend and participate in this historic summit promises an exceptional era that brings a genuine dialogue among civilisations, true engagement among cultures and a serious vision of a peaceful, safe and secured world that enjoys stability and growth for all of us with no exception.

The UAE also expresses its sincere thanks to the leadership and people of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia by history and geography for its great sacrifices and ongoing efforts of determination, resolution and hope exerted for a future of global peace and stability for all the peoples of the region and the entire world.

The UAE pays a tribute to the efforts of King Salman to the promotion of moderation, rejection of extremism, correction of religious misperceptions and dissemination of the culture of tolerance and restraint.

The UAE sincerely thanks and welcomes our friend and partner, President Donald Trump of the United States of America, for his decision to take part in the historic Arab Islamic American Summit. The UAE commends Mr. Trump’s deep and exceptional vision brought towards a true partnership among civilisations and positive linkages among cultures.

This historic event inaugurates a new phase of distinguished relations between the United States of American and our states within a framework of strategic cooperation and openness towards other cultures and civilizations and the keen desire to achieve stability and to push further towards addressing all issues of common interest. This new phase will contribute to building bridges among peoples, overcoming the gaps, transcending differences and moving forward towards greater understanding and more alliances at all levels.

Together we hope through the perspective of this strategic partnership to refute the claims regarding the clash of civilizations and the inevitable collision of cultures.

The UAE expresses its great pleasure at being among its fraternal Islamic States attending this Summit in a spirit filled with optimism, high vigour and motivation and historic responsibility to cultivate a culture of tolerance, peace and co-existence.

Today, we urgently need a tolerant, peaceful and coexisting world that is capable of eliminating the scourge of extremism and terrorism and all possible threats posed by them.

The UAE believes that extremism and terrorism are by no means linked to a given culture, religion, society or state. It is a threat and danger faced by all of us with no exception.

The UAE believes that there is no state, community, organizations or individuals can face this imminent danger alone and in isolation from the others.

Now, more than ever, the world needs to move along with collective action, international cooperation, and through partnerships and coalitions in order to defeat extremism and terrorism.

We should not let a small group of extremists hijack the sacred religion of Islam, promote deviant perceptions of the true religion, and disseminate extremist, violent and hateful messages in our societies. This small group of extremists does not represent Islam or even the majority of Muslims.

We praise the invaluable efforts of the Islamic institutions such as “Muslim World League”, “Al Azhar Al-Sharif”, “Muslim Council of Elders”, and “The Forum for Promoting Peace in Muslim Societies”. Also highlighting the creative initiatives of the fraternal Arab and Islamic States, including but not limited to: the efforts of the Arab Republic of Egypt, Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and the Kingdom of Morocco to counter the extremist messages and disseminate moderate narratives.

The UAE adopted a comprehensive and holistic vision to counter extremism and terrorism in its broad and in-depth sense through adopting a multi-dimensional national strategy that is based on promoting long-term approaches and action plans aiming to eradicating the roots of extremism and terrorism in the Emirati society while maintaining a spirit of loyalty and belonging to the state through “preventive approaches” and “proactive interventions”.

The UAE’ experience captures the key features of the “multidimensional” strategy through family institutions considering the “family” as the lead model institution and the real building block in the country’s social fabric, as well as youth, sports and cultural institutions for being the main tributaries to inoculate young people from hateful and intolerant messages that lead to the brink of extremism and violence.

Another key feature is the educational institutions for being the intellectual incubators for mental immunity against the ideas and behaviors of intolerance and hate. Also, the esteemed religious institutions and authorities that ensure that the Islamic principles are deeply entrenched in society and provide moral protection and cultivate values based on virtue, moderation and rejection of intolerance and hate. Furthermore, the Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) provide social support, awareness and voluntary activities.

The UAE has launched a set of practical initiatives within the framework of international cooperation to include hosting Hedayah - the International Center of Excellence for Countering Violent Extremism, through a joint effort including twelve state members. A recent initiative of the UAE was hosting and convening Sawab Centre - a joint UAE-US partnership, within the Global Coalition Against Daesh. The UAE has also launched the “Muslim Council of Elders” – that brings together a distinguished gathering of Muslim scholars.

One of the UAE’ recent initiatives was hosting and convening “The International Conference for the Criminalization of Cyberterrorism (ICCCT)” that aims to adopt a binding international agreement that prohibits the acts of cyberterrorism in all its forms to include: recruitment, incitement and advocacy of terrorism, financing and non-reporting in addition to advocating violence, hatred, ethnic and religious discrimination and defamation of people and religions.

The UAE re-affirms that this is not the time for complacency, inaction or hesitation.

The UAE re-affirms its constant position and firm conviction that there is a close connection between extremism and terrorism. We should deal with the incubators of extremism through effective approaches that address the root causes leading to extremism and the subsequent accusation of terrorism.

In this context, the UAE, considers the organic relation between extremism and terrorism as the crux of the challenge facing the region and the world. The key to combat terrorism is to counter the extremist ideology and the groups adopting it, now leading the list the “Muslim Brotherhood”, an organisation that is dubious and plays a political role, and for being one of the main platforms that support the extremist and terrorist narratives and messages exploited to justify the use of violence against innocent people.

We should all stand united against this imminent threat and we should all work together towards a secured future for our daughters and sons.

In this context, the UAE, would like to commend the “Islamic Alliance”, led by the brotherly Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which establishes a leading model for cooperation and international alliances in order to counter extremism and violence.

We cannot but point out, in this difficult phase of the region’s history our concerns for suffering the threats posed by extremism and terrorism, with regard to the negative role played by Iran that poses a serious challenge through interference causing sectarianism and extremism that is dividing the region.

We call for Iran to cease interference, respect the sovereignty of its neighbors, and communicate on the basis of good-neighborliness and not to interfere with the region’s security and stability.

The UAE is looking forward to the outcomes of this historic Summit and is confident that a crucial phase marked by positivity and hope is ahead of us. The UAE is confident the future is what we want it to be and there is no substitute for cooperation and co-existence.”