Winning the ideological battle against radicals

Manama : The twelfth edition of the Manama Dialogue held here yesterday called upon GCC leaders to win the ‘ideological battle’ against extremism in order to  achieve peace in the region.

The meeting termed the fight against extremism as an intellectual,ideological and a military one. Ending the indoctrination of youth should be one of the first goals to be achieved in order to reach peace in the region, it was stated.

“We should not leave the field to the extremists like ISIS nor to the right wing populists to define what religion is and who presumably the enemy is. We should not allow them to spread stereotypes about people by letting them spread their propaganda. We have to tell our own story, and let it be heard that we are the majority,” said Federal Minister of Defence of Germany Ursula von der Leyen.

“Yes we are very different form each other, but we share a common interest in that we do not want to leave this world to extremists or right wing populists. We want to shape this world in a peaceful way, therefore we have to make sure that we are the dominant voice especially in the social media to tell our stories and not let them hijack our religion or our way of life,” she said.

The Minister also stressed the need for a  coalition of education over a coalition of military inorder to win the war against extremism.”