MP praises Egyptian Foreign Ministry’s call to combat hate speech

CAIRO – 31 July 2018: During his participation in the meeting of the Global Coalition against Daesh on Thursday, MP Nader Mostafa, secretary general of the Media, Culture and Antiquities Committee, praised Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid’s demand to set a media strategy to combat hate speech.

Mostafa said that there are online websites and satellite channels that are supported by terrorist organizations, adding that some countries secured safe resorts for such groups and supported them logistically and financially. He added that all parliaments should cooperate to set the strategy to combat hate speech.

Cairo has taken part in a working group on the communication and media strategy of the international coalition against Daesh (Islamic State), held in Washington.

Leading Egypt’s delegation, Abu Zeid said he was keen during the speech he delivered to assert the importance of such a critical stage for the US-led coalition after decisive blows struck Daesh terrorist organization.

The coalition members have to be aware of the gravity of this stage, which requires waging a fierce media and intellectual battle against the discourse of extremism, hatred and violence, Abu Zeid stressed.

Abu Zeid noted that there is no way to eliminate Daesh and other similar organizations without confronting this bizarre discourse, whatever its source might be, in all its forms, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

In this regard, the spokesman urged the working group to develop a code of conduct or guiding standards with the aim of combating the hatred discourse that spread on some TV channels and social media websites.

Formed in 2014, the coalition aims to defeat the Islamic State (IS) by tackling its infrastructure and preventing IS fighters from flowing across borders. The coalition is also tasked with combating the group’s propaganda.

The coalition is formed of 77 members. It discusses in its meetings media and intellectual strategies to combat the IS group.

In July 2017, following the boycott of Qatar by four Arab countries including Saudi Arabia and Egypt over accusations of funding terrorism, Abu Zeid called for dropping Qatar’s membership of the coalition, saying that its presence may affect the coalition’s credibility.



In October 2017, Egypt, UAE, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia's ministers of information issued a statement in a meeting in Bahrain in which they stressed the importance of confronting hate speech and extremist rhetoric promoted by Qatar.

The four countries issued a list of demands in order for the ongoing boycott to end. The demands mainly include shutting Qatari Al-Jazeera network. Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir blamed Qatar in July 2017 for advocating “hate speech” through Al-Jazeera.

The Islamic State (IS) group is a jihadist militant group, found in a number of Arab countries, mainly Iraq and Syria, where it was designated a terrorist organization. The IS claims that its supreme purpose is to retrieve the Islamic Caliphate.

The group used to publish professional videos of its members while beheading “disbelievers” and other people the group thinks they deserve to be murdered, including what they call “apostates.”


“A message signed with blood to the nation of the cross” operation – screenshot of a video released by the IS

In 2015, IS published a video dubbed “A message signed with blood to the nation of the cross”, where a number of masked IS members appeared beheading 21 Copts, including 20 Egyptians in Sirte, Libya.