Promoting Extremism Online More Dangerous Than Cyber Warfare: Al-Kaabi
The secretary-general of the al-Nujaba Islamic Resistance Movement, spoke via Skype at the opening ceremony of the “Religion and the World: Dialogue of Religions and Cultures in the New World” conference held by Russia’s World Christian Union.
Hujjat al-Islam al-Kaabi warned referring to the impact of social environment on the structure of culture and ideas, “Today, the spread of technology, along with the apparent attack on traditional values in various societies, has even led to a change in fixed principles and has penetrated as a deadly weapon in the field of culture and thought.”
He referred to the threat as “communication ideology” and added, “This ideology is used by some movements to promote extremism and propagate deviant and dubious approaches. It is a more dangerous phenomenon than cyber warfare and aims at capturing minds.”
The secretary-general of al-Nujaba called the strategy of reviving culture and beliefs “raising awareness” and noted, “We are facing a full-blown cultural-intellectual onslaught that seeks to paint an obscene ideology that is alien to our beliefs.”
Hujjat al-Islam al-Kaabi called for the security of cultural and academic arenas against the threat of infiltration and stated, “Our presence and participation in the denial of extremism and unilateralism is the only sign of true hope for human motives and goals for rapprochement, peace and tranquillity.”
He concluded by emphasizing that we can no longer consider the Internet as unneeded but also gave the following five recommendations to control the negative consequences of this technology – especially in the family institution:
1) Focus on the value dimension, such that we do not see our culture defeated in the face of extremism and unilateralism. The extremist front undermines human principles in the conscience of the people under the pretext of religion and race.
2) Helping to create productive awareness that prevents the tendency to become extremist. This is possible through tools acceptable to the community and the target group (the youth).
3) Not distancing oneself from “human identity,” which is inseparable from the intellectual structures that stabilize coexistence and unity.
4) Creating mutual qualitative capabilities in the field of thought; Creating an arsenal to maintain the cohesion of society, preventing the destruction of the culture of coexistence, as well as introducing extremist subversive projects.
5) Weaken the extremist opposition by raising awareness in the media campaign.
Source: The Communication and Media Affairs Centre of al-Nujaba in Iran
