UN General Assembly
2017

Fourthly, we must promote compassion, tolerance and inclusion, because today more than ever the Arab region needs those values in order to counter the misleading messages and ideologies spread by extremists and terrorist groups, especially through social media. My country is working with regional and international partners to establish mechanisms that can remind our young people of our shared human values and counter the rhetoric of terrorism. Specifically, the United Arab Emirates has established and hosts specialized institutions such as the Sawab Centre, the Hedayah International Centre of Excellence for Countering Violent Extremism and the Muslim Council of Elders, whose purpose is to demonstrate the peaceful nature of our Islamic religion and constitute a forum for promoting peace in Muslim societies. We have learned from experience that we must expose extremism and terrorism and the rhetoric surrounding them in order to defeat them intellectually and provide an alternative narrative based on the principle of peaceful coexistence and tolerance. At the same time, such institutions promote a culture of peaceful coexistence and tolerance. It is regrettable, however, that some countries are funding media platforms that encourage violence, incite hatred and sectarianism and provide a forum for the murderous ideologies of terrorism. History has repeatedly shown that catastrophic consequences await those who follow such paths.