Sakina program to combat extremist and terrorist ideology through the internet has been overwhelmed with responses to its recruitment drive, with offers coming from across the world and a wide variety of sources, Al-Hayat Arabic daily reported Tuesday. Abdul Mun'im Al-Mushawwah, the supervisor of Al-Sakeena – “Tranquility” – told Al-Hayat that hundreds of offers had come in since recruitment was announced just over a week ago. “We had to set up teams to handle the unexpected number of requests and assign each person to their most suitable roles,” he said. The program has selected dozens of volunteers with qualifications that officials believe will enable them to play positive roles in family environments, on internet websites, at schools and universities, and in other areas. “One of the volunteers offered to promote moderation in tribal communities,” Al-Mushawwah said. “Some offered to do the same among expatriates in Saudi Arabia, while others said they would work in female circles.” According to Al-Mushawwah, offers arrived from males and females in Saudi Arabia, Europe, North Africa and the Arabian Gulf. “One came from a television presenter who offered to use his status among his work colleagues to promote moderation,” he said. Last week Saudi Gazette reported Al-Mushawaah as saying that 80 percent of terrorist recruitment is conducted through the worldwide web and that the medium represents a “particular threat” to women, although he noted that “50 percent have rejected the ideology through internet advice, which is double the rate for men”. The Al-Sakeena program, he said, was looking to enlist “anyone capable of carrying out its work” to “widen the circle of moderation and ostracize extremism”. “We are seeking to recruit male and female volunteers from various facets to transfer the issue of intellectual security from the elite to the ordinary people. We are extremely keen to enlist qualified women given the rise in female extremism on the internet,” he said. The Al-Sakeena internet program, which is part of the wider Al-Munasaha terrorist advisory and rehabilitation campaign, has a 13-member department of women qualified in Shariah and other academic subjects.
