Secretary General of the Global Center for Combating Extremist Ideology (Etidal) Dr. Mansour Al-Shammari stressed that extremism and terrorism are the main enemy of the development and stability of any society in the world, where the success of development plans depends on countries' ability to protect their assets and citizens from the risks of this ideology. Dr. Al-Shammari, during a joint press conference held here yesterday with Director of the UN Counter-Terrorism Centre (UNCCT) Dr. Jehangir Khan, referred to the remarkable UN and international efforts in combating violent extremism and terrorism, stressing Etidal's keenness to exchange expertise in a way that serves joint goals and strategies between the two centers. He pointed out that Etidal seeks to expose the methods of extremist organizations in targeting the youth, raising their awareness against the threats of this ideology, and refuting suspicions that such organizations use in attracting and recruiting the youth, noting that terrorist organizations took advantage of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and tried to increase their spread and sought to undermine messages that aimed at protecting the safety of mankind against the pandemic. He added: We at Etidal are fully aware of the dangers of this ideology and its organizations that utilize all possible means to spread it, which required us to draw specialized plans and strategies to refute and foil this ideology, in addition to launching several specialized initiatives aimed at increasing community interaction with the center goals, such as: Moderate, Tafneed (refuting), Research Collaboration, University Training, and 2Gather, which is specialized to raise the awareness of people with hearing disability, where all these initiatives work in parallel to protect and develop societies in facing the extremist ideology. For his part, Dr. Khan commended the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's efforts in combating extremist ideology as well as the Saudi government's financial and moral support, in addition to the establishment of Etidal. He also noted that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has offered a support with 71% to UNCCT, saying: "We have important partnerships with the State Security, Organization of Islamic Cooperation, Etidal, and King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz International Centre for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue". He also added: "We face a global challenge; extremism has no religion, race or culture, warning from the new methods that extremists follow in spreading their ideologies, such as using videogames".
