Iftaa Egypt Warns Against Media Weaponized by Extremist Groups

Arab World

September 25th, 6:20am

Cairo- Walid Abdulrahman

Grand Imam of al-Azhar Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb speaks during an inter-religious meeting with Pope Francis at the Founder's Memorial in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, February 4, 2019. REUTERS/Tony Gentile

Egypt’s Al Azhar warned against fake social media accounts that claim they are linked to its Grand Imam Ahmed Al-Tayeb, saying they are actively engaged in misinformation. “Many fake social media accounts claiming the name of Tayeb have been spotted, and they are spreading false news and controversial information,” a source from Al-Azhar told Asharq Al-Awsat. Al Azhar Media Center, on its official Facebook page, posted a confirmation that Tayeb only ran two accounts on social media, one on Facebook and another on Twitter. It also pointed out that verified Azhar-linked accounts can be found on its official social media pages. In other news, Dar al Ifta, an Egyptian Islamic advisory, justiciary, and governmental body, issued a statement in which it said that paid propaganda is one of the most dangerous weapons used by extremist groups. It said that extremists use propaganda to distort the truth and incite sedition. Last August, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi accused propagandist channels of seeking to damage and destroy peoples. Sisi chided the channels as “Always seeking to question what we do, and claiming that we are demolishing mosques. I tell them that you are sabotaging and destroying people, but we are building and reconstructing.” Grand Mufti Shawki Allam warned that Egypt is fighting a fierce battle against media which is funded to serve certain agendas. He said that those platforms were the most destructive weapons used by misleading groups seeking to ruin Egypt. Allam underlined the importance of having strong national media to defend national issues and state institutions, hailing the patriotic efforts exerted by national media. He added that more efforts should be exerted by audio, visual, and printed media as well as social media to ensure that people get righteous information, not fake news purported by some media.

from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/2527981/iftaa-egypt-warns-against-media-weaponized-extremist-groups