ABU DHABI // Queen Rania of Jordan yesterday urged the moderate majority to counter the message of “irreligious” Islamist extremists.
“A minority … is using social media to rewrite our narrative, hijack our identity and rebrand us,” Queen Rania said.
“This is their version of the Arab world story – their narrative, their plot, their heroes. And the rest of the world is listening and watching.”
The silence of the moderate majority compared with the use of social media by extremists such as ISIL “speaks volumes”, she told the Abu Dhabi Media Summit, and moderates were “complicit in their success”.
If the Arab world had a profile picture such as those used on social media, she said, to many it would be an image of extremists or the famous photograph of Syrian refugees waiting for food in Yarmouk.
Queen Rania called on people in the region to post “your own profile picture of our Arab world”. Photos she would choose would represent the Arab world, children, women in the workplace and an interfaith society.
She called on Arab governments to counter the root causes of extremism and recruits’ feelings of disaffection and disenfranchisement.
Promoting high-quality, modern education and job creation were two ways to do so, she said, and gave as an example one of her own initiatives, Edraak, which provides free high-level online courses translated into Arabic.
The education of girls was also essential, as educated girls strengthened their nations’ economies and prioritised the health and education of their own children to build stable societies, Queen Rania said.
“Why else would the Taliban, Boko Haram and ISIL be so afraid of them?”
She said the potential for change existed. “We have the values, the money, the minds, the youth, the technology, the market, the networks and, God knows, the motivation like never before to tap into these reserves and create lasting change.”
A more broad coalition must be formed to “conquer the philosophical battleground” that moderates share with extremists, Queen Rania said.
“It is a fight for the future of Islam and the Arab world, so it is a fight we have to win.
“We must create a new narrative and broadcast it to the world. If we don’t decide what our identity is and what our legacy will be, the extremists will do it for us.”
The chief executive of Mubadala and chairman of Abu Dhabi’s Executive Affairs Authority, Khaldoon Al Mubarak, who is chairing the summit, said the regional media sector was becoming increasingly far-reaching and relevant amid “relentless” connectivity.
“We must also be ever cognisant that a child born today will have more access to information from a greater number of sources than one born at any other time in history,” he said.
“Twenty-five years ago, we had access to three or four TV channels in the UAE. Today, there is 100 hours of searchable video uploaded on YouTube every minute.”
But not all of that information will be positive, accurate or instructive, he cautioned.
The summit continues today and tomorrow.
lcarroll@thenational.ae