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Abu Dhabi /Â WAM
The Abu Dhabi-based Sawab Centre, a joint UAE-US initiative to combat Daesh’s online propaganda and promote positive alternatives to extremism, on Tuesday announced the launch of a social media campaign to celebrate the shared heritage as well as the unique characteristics of countries of the Arab world.
The three-day campaign will be conducted in Arabic on Sawab Centre’s Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram platforms and will employ an Arabic hashtag meaning “National Pride”, the centre said.
The Sawab Centre campaign will highlight aspects of the countries of the Arab World- from culture, archaeology, and ethnic and religious diversity – that distinguish them and bring richness and texture to the region as a whole. The motivation behind this campaign is to challenge Daesh’s aim of obliterating national identities. In actuality, Daesh discriminates among its fighters according to their citizenship.
One of the first questions asked of any Daesh newcomer is his or her citizenship. Fighters are often divided between nationalities, even if they speak the same language, and preferential treatment is shown to certain nationalities over others through unequal pay and treatment.
In reaffirming the positive message of pride in one’s national identity, the Sawab Centre is supporting the efforts of the Global Coalition Against Daesh to limit the terrorist group’s ability to recruit new fighters into its ranks.
Whereas Daesh was recruiting up to 1,000 new foreign fighters per month in 2014, that inflow had dropped to 500 by 2015, and today the number is negligible.
The Sawab Centre campaign will help to further dim whatever allure Daesh once held for vulnerable individuals and increase their attachment to their home countries, making it increasingly difficult for the terrorist group to find new recruits.