Anti-terror Sawab Centre to combat ISIL propaganda online

ABU DHABI // The Sawab Centre in the capital has launched a second online campaign to increase awareness among young people about ISIL propaganda.

Using the hashtag #exposing-Daesh-lies, social media users have been asked to tweet the centre or contribute material to expose the terror group.

Sawab, meaning “doing the right thing” or being on the right path, is a joint initiative by the UAE and the US governments launched in July in Abu Dhabi to counter online propaganda and recruitment drive.

The centre uses online communication and social media to promote moderate voices.

The first part of the Sawab Centre’s campaign showed people disenchanted by ISIL who had left its ranks. The second part focuses on ISIL’s new propaganda through which it is attempting to shore up its image to recruit more followers.

The centre’s mandate is to explain the nature of ISIL and ensure extremist ideologies are shunned. Twitter followers have referred to material produced by Sawab and have mentioned it in online dialogue, Wam said.

Meanwhile, in New York on Wednesday, Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed described the centre’s electronic campaign as a remarkable success.

“We recognise that this long fight requires continuous interaction on the part of our governments and peoples,” said Sheikh Abdullah at a summit chaired by the US president Barack Obama highlighting the international community’s efforts to counter ISIL and address the threat of foreign terrorists. “We believe that tolerance, openness and good governance form the basic common values that underpin all kinds of cultures and religions,” Sheikh Abdullah said.

Sheikh Abdullah expressed the hope that this vision would be transferred via the centre and other initiatives to save a generation that felt abandoned by the international community, were frustrated by a lack of opportunities and liable to fall prey to extremist ideologies.