In the name of Allah, The Most Gracious, The Most Merciful
Extremism is the Enemy of Life and Challenging It Is a Necessity.
In recent years, the world has witnessed many ideological, cultural, and behavioral transformations. These transformations have created new concepts such as globalization and cultural openness. Moral and material variables have emerged, such as the ICT revolution, which have significantly affected people’s life, their mindset and convictions.
Although these transformations have served humanity, they brought some adverse effects on thought and behavior such as weakening the human and moral values of few people, that led them to turn against their humanity and embrace extremist ideology.
The international community has realized the importance of countering extremism and addressing deviant thoughts irrespective of their sources. It has been active in confronting extremism through spreading the culture of tolerance and coexistence with different cultures and civilizations to stabilize their societies and protect them from lapsing into terrorism.
The fight against extremism has become globally a major part of the overall security for communities and states. Raising awareness against extremism is based on the cooperation of stakeholders within the community and state.
More specifically, it depends on the efficiency of civil society institutions and the skills of those who work to achieve security and counter extremism as well as their capability to instill moderation within the society members.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has made substantial and various efforts in countering extremism, derived from the teachings of Islam, which based on the respect for human beings, and cooperating with them in order to live in peace and establish a meaningful life for the society. It is also committed to international treaties, conventions, spreading security, prosperity and peace all over the world.
The Saudi efforts to counter extremism were at multiple scales, such as developing policies and procedures to regulate efforts to combat extremism and eliminate the factors that fuel the ideological deviations. It has participated actively in establishing international institutions specialized in countering extremism and mobilizing the efforts of governmental and non-governmental institutions in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia – in many fields such as religious, media, cultural, educational, social and sports – to disseminate the culture of tolerance and moderation.
These efforts will make the society coexists and interacts locally and globally in a constructive way while adhering to its Arabic, Islamic culture and national identity.
The Presidency of State Security is one of the main bodies in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia that works to counter extremism, through studying, analyzing its various factors, identifying its forms, parties, sources, and subsequently developing strategies to confront extremism professionally.
One of the priorities for the Presidency of State Security that works on is when people are reassured about themselves, their society, religious and national values, the overall security will be achieved at its best. On the other hand, if the thoughts of some community members are corrupted with deviant ideologies, that would lead to the rise of extremism, threatening the cohesion and stability of the society.
In order to achieve these great tasks, the Presidency of State Security through the General Department for Counter Extremism, has developed multi-sectorial approach (integrating with governmental and non-governmental institutions) for comprehensive strategies and professional programs revolved around methodological and scientific studies and researches to counter extremism, in guidance with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s vision 2030, which is centered on building an excellent productive citizen who serve his country and society.
Director,
The General Department for Counter Extremism at PSS.
Major General/ Khaled Abdul Rahman Al-Ghannam