What’s sure to be one of Daesh’s worst nightmares is coming true: A woman is blunting the terrorists’ online messaging and recruiting efforts.
Miss Jordan 2010, Lara Abdallat, decided to combat Daesh online after seeing the terror group hurt and kill daily.
“It got really sick for me to open the news every day in the morning and see thousands of people killed and it was getting frustrating. I told my dad I would love to open the TV and see something cheerful,” Abdallat says in an interview.
Abdallat works with Ghost Security, a hacktivist group that combats Daesh by destroying its social media accounts and websites to disrupt communications and reduce its ability to recruit members. The group says it has terminated over 100 websites and 57,000 social media accounts used by Daesh.
“It’s about saving lives,” Abdallat says. “I don’t care if they are Muslim, Christian, Jewish, Buddhist. I don’t care. I don’t care what skin color you are. It’s about protecting people.”
Along with citizen efforts like those of Abdallat, governments are working to halt Daesh online.
In July, the United States and the United Arab Emirates launched The Sawab Center, the first multinational online messaging and engagement program, in support of the Global Coalition Against Daesh.
“As President Obama said, ideologies will not be defeated with guns; they’re defeated by better ideas — a more attractive and more compelling vision,” Under Secretary of State Richard Stengel told Al Arabiya News after the center’s opening.
The U.S. and the U.A.E. established the center to support “the millions of people in the region and around the world that oppose Daesh.”