The
bloodthirsty killers of Islamic State are trying to ‘hijack’ the Arab
world and ‘drag us back to the Dark Ages’ through social media, Queen
Rania of Jordan believes.
During
a powerful address to the Abu Dhabi Media Summit in the United Arab
Emirates (UAE), the 44-year-old monarch spoke out against the horror
videos of decapitated prisoners being promoted by ISIS on Twitter and
Facebook.
'A
minority of irreligious extremists is using social media to rewrite our
narrative and hijack our identity,' Queen Rania said. 'That's what ISIS
is doing to the Arab world and all of us'.
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Powerful: Queen Rania told the Abu
Dhabi Media Summit that 'a minority of irreligious extremists is using
social media to rewrite our narrative and hijack our identity'
Anger: The monarch, 44, said that the
images that ISIS promote on social media should make every Arab 'seethe'
and warned moderates who are silent on the issue are complicit in ISIS'
success
Hatred: Rania said that beating ISIS
with 'a bullet' was not enough. She explained how Osama Bin Laden was
killed, but supporters of his ideology fight on
Referring
specifically to the videos of beheadings, the Queen said: 'These images
don't represent me anymore than they represent you.
'They’re
alien and abhorrent to the vast majority of Arabs – Muslims and
Christians. And they should make every Arab across this region seethe.
'Because
they're an attack on our values as a people and on our collective
story. This is their version of the Arab world’s story, their plot,
their narrative, their heroes, and the rest of the world is listening
and watching.'
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Queen
Rania also said the 'silence' of moderate Arabs made them complicit in
ISIS' success, adding: ‘At the heart of the assault is an ideology.‘And
if you think you can defeat an ideology with a bullet, think of what
happened when Osama Bin Laden was killed.'
Queen Rania explained: ‘Sure he died, but his legacy is an even stronger, more twisted extremist movement.’
'We
must create a new narrative and broadcast it to the world. Because if
we don’t decide what our identity is and what our legacy will be, the
extremists will do it for us.'
Queen Rania urged people in the region to post their own positive 'profile picture of our Arab world' on social media sites.
Primitive: Images such as these, which
shows the mass beheading of Syrian soldiers by Jihadi John and his
execution squad throw the image of the Arab world 'back to the Dark
Ages'
She also highlighted education and job creation as being the key to thwarting the extremists.
Islamic
State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) now controls large swathes of those two
countries as Britain and the US leads a coalition of countries carrying
out airstrikes to slow the terrorist advance.
Hundreds
of photos and videos have been posted on social media, showing the
atrocities committed by the terrorist group, including mass executions,
crucifixions and the beheadings of kidnapped British and American
journalists and aid workers.
Queen
Rania concluded: ‘We either develop our region, or we let others
dismantle it – find solutions to the challenges, or watch the challenges
avalanche; harness the tools to drive the Arab world forward in the
21st century, or let others use those tools to drag us back to the Dark
Ages.’
More
than 600 people are attending the 5th edition of the Abu Dhabi Media
Summit to discuss the future of the media in the Arab world and beyond.
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