The right path to counter Daesh: Column

For a year now, the terrorist group ISIL, or Daesh, as it is known throughout the Middle East, has seized attention through its rapid growth and expansion. To fuel this growth, Daesh has maliciously twisted and corrupted the peaceful teachings of Islam, using sensationalist brutality to appeal to the most vulnerable members of our societies. Their campaign, however, is doomed to fail. In the face of violent extremism, responsible people around the world have begun moving from affront and outrage to a determined response. We are taking another step in that response today.

Daesh has thrived through its ability to manipulate and exploit the Internet and social media. These globally transformative tools have provided our generation with more information and ways to communicate than any previous generation in history; but terrorists and their online supporters are exploiting these opportunities to spread propaganda, recruit new fighters and raise money. Daesh isn't the first extremist group to channel the power of mass communication. But Daesh's ability to speak to and mobilize a global audience, through its use of graphic violence to shock some and attract others, has been unprecedented.

Together with our partners, our governments are employing a multifaceted strategy to counter Daesh's hateful vision. Better monitoring and reporting and closer cooperation with Internet and media companies are important. But this is not enough — extremists will always find new ways to peddle their wares in the market place of ideas. It is vital that their propaganda not remain unchallenged.

This week, our governments are jointly launching the Sawab Center in Abu Dhabi, serving a notice of rejection to others who try to twist the Internet into a tool for incitement to hatred and violence. The result of months of discussions between allies working to defeat Daesh, the Sawab Center will be staffed by experts from the U.S. and the United Arab Emirates, who will engage online with people in the region and around the world. It will support the efforts of governments, religious leaders and scholars, educators, corporate leaders, public figures and individuals to stand up with pride and dignity.

The center will open a new online community that will provide the people of the region, and the world, an opportunity to launch and share our own content — text, graphics, video clips and animations — that puncture Daesh's grotesque propaganda. The center will monitor and analyze Daesh's communications, respond to Daesh's social media lies and distortion, and most importantly, amplify the voices of those who are abhorred by their terrorist activities.

In Arabic, "Sawab" means "that which is right," as in the "right path." It is clear that Daesh is the wrong path. We may differ about some of the many complex issues and choices our societies face, but all of us agree that Daesh's brutal methods and intolerant ideology have no place in modern societies and deviate from the teachings of all religious traditions.

Daesh may be capable of dramatic acts of violence, but people across the globe and in the Middle East overwhelmingly reject its vision. We want to harness that rejection of Daesh and strengthen popular support for a different path, by giving a platform to those billions that are too often sidelined by Daesh's headline grabbing violence.

As responsible government officials, as members of our communities and as parents, we are launching the Sawab Center to provide a forum for adherents of peace, prosperity and a brighter future. All of us share a responsibility to raise our voices online and in our communities in opposition to Daesh and in support of the right path.

Richard Stengel is the U.S. under secretary of State and Anwar Gargash is the the United Arab Emirates minister of State for foreign affairs.

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