Yousef Al Otaiba (ambassador of the United Arab Emirates to the United States) has an op-ed piece in Politico magazine, 'ISIL Can’t Be Beat on the Battlefield Alone', February 16, 2015
It should also be emphasized that while ISIL may be the most visible menace, it is not the only threat. Across the region, violent extremists of all stripes have demonstrated their intent to roll back modernity and impose a reign of terror. [...] In one of the most effective approaches in this battle of ideas, Muslim leaders are directly confronting and discrediting the extremists who cloak their radical ideas and violent actions in the language of Islam. While often drowned out in US and European media, influential clerics are forcefully speaking out in the region for moderation and tolerance, developing new religious texts and helping to train a new generation of imams. To be clear, this is not a war between Muslims and non-Muslims or past versus the present, but between very distinct visions of the modern world. Extremists imagine a past that never existed and a future that will never happen.
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