Mideast Youth Committed to Fighting Extremism

by Charles Lenchner · 2009-03-06 04:26:00 UTC
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Last week we asked our readers you to help find pro-peace websites. And you responded! One of the entries is www.mideastyouth.com. This is an exceptional site for a number of reasons, and we're happy to let more people read about them.

Mideastyouth.com is run by students from all over the Middle East, addressing both local and regional concerns. While there is somewhat of a focus on youth issues, much of the content is relevant to every age group. From serious matters such as migrant rights or minorities to more casual categories like "culture and society" or "fun and recreation", Mideast Youth provides an informative tour of Middle East issues, written from the perspective of open minded young people.

It is impressive to see how this site is unafraid to touch controversial issues: antisemitism in the Muslim world, the rights of religious minorities like the Baha'i, sex, atheism and gay rights are all discussed.

Esra'a Al Shafei founded Mideast Youth two years ago as an independent network dedicated to eliminating extremism and ignorance from the Middle East and North Africa. The group defines itself as a "cyberdemocracy". They see the internet as an instrument through which they can bring people together despite the social, political, and physical barriers. Understanding the potential of this medium, they use it to empower people and cause them to act in unity for peace and tolerance, instead of acting out of hate.

Mideast Youth also runs different projects such as The Muslim Network for Baha'i Rights, the first and only website of its kind and a leading source for news on Baha'is across the Muslim world, The Free Kareem Campaign, an international coalition aimed to free a young Egyptian blogger who was sentenced to 4 years for his controversial posts online, and Afghan Press, a digital network empowering independent journalism within Afghanistan, amongst many others.

It seems that this website is very much committed to idea of overcoming the many difficulties that stand in the way of such a project. They put great emphasis on free speech and employ latest technology for emerging individuals and non-profits, free of charge, knowing the strict financial limits of most regional activists. The website is also available in Arabic.

We checked in with the founder of Mideastyouth.com, and this is part of what he wrote to us:

In our recognition of the Internet as a powerful platform to reshape our societies, Mideast Youth offers free hosting services to organizations or individuals who share the network’s vision and values. Our mission is to help such organizations and individuals attain their fullest potential through encouraging involvement in media-related activities, and helping them join the ever-growing chorus calling for social change in the region. We place utmost importance on security, and have a dedicated team to oversee that no breaches occur. Our commitment is to employ the latest technology and design standards for emerging individuals and non-profits, free of charge, knowing the strict financial limits of most regional activists. In our experience we have witnessed this lack of crucial resources limiting the growth, professionalism and visibility of some of the best activities in the region and we wish to effectively change that.

MideastYouth.com is completely grassroots, indigenous, and organically created, fueled to date by nothing more than our hope for our own future.

PS: We'd also truly appreciate it if you can take a look at and spread the word on our three main videos that we worked really hard on:

A lot of our efforts go towards producing creative media, to make a more engaging, "fun" way of attracting as much awareness as possible in order to inspire people to take action. The internet is a huge place and we have to compete for attention, and by far, this is the best way to do it and it has proved very succesful. Some of our comics have appeared in regional magazines and papers. We also do podcasts, some of which have appeared on CNN and BBC radio.

Thanks again for taking interested in our work. Hope you found this information useful.

Best,
Esra'a

We'd be happy to review other pro-peace websites with such rich content. Know of another one? Write a comment.

Thank you Gregory!

Charles Lenchner
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