Al-Azhar goes online to fight extremism
As terrorist groups mobilize young Muslims in cyberspace, religious institutions in Egypt are reviving religious discourse and recruiting technology to counter extremist ideas.
CAIRO — Al-Azhar is preparing to fight extremism and terrorism in the wake of accusations of negligence in countering extremism and calls for the renewal of religious discourse.
Al-Azhar has created an online observatory to reply to terrorists’ allegations in different languages. In the same context, the Ministry of Religious Endowments held training classes for young imams to familiarize them with online communication tools, empowering them to correct misconceptions about Islam.
Al-Azhar's ability to be effective in cyberspace depends on its acquisition of technical capabilities equal to those of terrorist organizations, especially the Islamic State.
On June 2, Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb inaugurated the Al-Azhar observatory, which aims to monitor the erroneous ideas that terrorist groups promote on their websites in several languages and prepare academic responses to educate the youth about these destructive ideas.
