Sawab means the right path, ISIL the wrong one

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, ISIL 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.

ISIL 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.

ISIL isn’t the first extremist group to channel the power of mass communication. But its ability to speak to and mobilise 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 ISIL’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 marketplace of ideas. It’s vital that their propaganda not remain unchallenged.

This week, our governments jointly launched the Sawab Centre 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 ISIL, the Sawab Centre will be staffed by experts from the US and the UAE, 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.

Starting this week, the Centre 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 ISIL’s grotesque propaganda.

The Centre will monitor and analyse ISIL’s communications, respond to ISIL’s social media lies and distortion, and most importantly, leverage and amplify the voices of those who are repulsed by their terrorist activities.

In Arabic, “Sawab” means “that which is right”, as in the “right path”. It is clear that ISIL 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 ISIL’s brutal methods and intolerant ideology have no place in modern societies and deviate from the teachings of all religious traditions.

ISIL 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 ISIL and strengthen popular support for a different path, by giving a platform to those billions that are too often sidelined by ISIL’s headline grabbing violence.

As responsible government officials, as members of our communities and as parents, we are launching the Sawab Centre 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 ISIL and in support of the right path.

Dr Anwar Gargash is the UAE’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs

Richard Stengel is US under secretary of state

The Sawab Centre’s Twitter handle is @SawabCenter #DefeatDaesh #NotoDaesh

Company profile

Date started: January, 2014

Founders: Mike Dawson, Varuna Singh, and Benita Rowe

Based: Dubai

Sector: Education technology

Size: Five employees

Investment: $100,000 from the ExpoLive Innovation Grant programme in 2018 and an initial $30,000 pre-seed investment from the Turn8 Accelerator in 2014. Most of the projects are government funded.

Partners/incubators: Turn8 Accelerator; In5 Innovation Centre; Expo Live Innovation Impact Grant Programme; Dubai Future Accelerators; FHI 360; VSO and Consult and Coach for a Cause (C3)

The smuggler

Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.

Khouli conviction

Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.

For sale

A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.

- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico

- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000

- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950

The White Lotus: Season three

Creator: Mike White

Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell

Rating: 4.5/5

Milestones on the road to union

1970

October 26: Bahrain withdraws from a proposal to create a federation of nine with the seven Trucial States and Qatar.

December: Ahmed Al Suwaidi visits New York to discuss potential UN membership.

1971

March 1: Alex Douglas Hume, Conservative foreign secretary confirms that Britain will leave the Gulf and “strongly supports” the creation of a Union of Arab Emirates.

July 12: Historic meeting at which Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Rashid make a binding agreement to create what will become the UAE.

July 18: It is announced that the UAE will be formed from six emirates, with a proposed constitution signed. RAK is not yet part of the agreement.

August 6: The fifth anniversary of Sheikh Zayed becoming Ruler of Abu Dhabi, with official celebrations deferred until later in the year.

August 15: Bahrain becomes independent.

September 3: Qatar becomes independent.

November 23-25: Meeting with Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Rashid and senior British officials to fix December 2 as date of creation of the UAE.

November 29: At 5.30pm Iranian forces seize the Greater and Lesser Tunbs by force.

November 30: Despite a power sharing agreement, Tehran takes full control of Abu Musa.

November 31: UK officials visit all six participating Emirates to formally end the Trucial States treaties

December 2: 11am, Dubai. New Supreme Council formally elects Sheikh Zayed as President. Treaty of Friendship signed with the UK. 11.30am. Flag raising ceremony at Union House and Al Manhal Palace in Abu Dhabi witnessed by Sheikh Khalifa, then Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi.

December 6: Arab League formally admits the UAE. The first British Ambassador presents his credentials to Sheikh Zayed.

December 9: UAE joins the United Nations.

COMPANY%20PROFILE

%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%20name%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Revibe%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202022%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounders%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Hamza%20Iraqui%20and%20Abdessamad%20Ben%20Zakour%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20UAE%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EIndustry%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Refurbished%20electronics%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFunds%20raised%20so%20far%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20%2410m%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EFlat6Labs%2C%20Resonance%20and%20various%20others%0D%3C%2Fp%3E%0A