Saudi Gazette report RIYADH — Many Iranian and Iraqi Twitter/Facebook accounts operating under the guise of Saudi names have been discovered by the Assakina Campaign for Dialogue (ACD), said ACD President Sheikh Abdul Monem Al-Mashooh. The accounts seek to incite public opinion against the government and encourage people to engage in subversive activities, according to the ACD president. “Most of these accounts are being operated by people on Iraqi and Iranian territories,” said Al-Mashooh. It is difficult to count the number of these accounts because they are plenty, he added. “We tried to engage in discussions and dialogue with them but they turned down our requests.” Al-Mashooh said the Al-Qaeda network is trying to capitalize on the turbulent situation in some Arab countries and protests in some European countries to achieve its goals. There are attempts on the part of Al-Qaeda to link Jihad to what is going on in some Arab and European countries. The ACD has exerted a lot of efforts to combat such ideology and intensified its campaign against it. Al-Qaeda has several Twitter accounts working to achieve this goal. Some of them are “Forsan Al-Balaghah” or “Knights of Rhetoric,” “Ansar Al-Muhahideen” or “Advocates of Jihad,” and “Manasat Al-Qadisiya” “Al-Qadisiya Platform.” “These Twitter accounts are very organized in their work and have many followers,” Al-Mashooh said. He called for establishing a national center focusing on social networking sites and promotion of moderate Islam around the world. He underscored the importance of educating the general public about deviant thoughts and the agenda of extremist organizations that work day and night to influence people and jeopardize the country's security. The ACD, which is supervised by the Ministry of Islamic Affairs and seeks to fight extremist ideologies and represent the moderate image of Islam, cannot, based on its current capabilities, combat these ideologies effectively, he said. The organization is currently focusing on its website and trying to build a repository of material and articles that combat terrorism and deviant thoughts.
