Moscow, SANA – The two-day forum of “Journalists of the Muslim Countries against Extremism” wrapped up in Moscow on Wednesday, issuing a concluding statement that highly valued Russia’s role in combating terrorism and working for stability in the Middle East.
Russia and the Muslim countries were deemed strategic partners according to the statement, which also touched upon the issue of media coverage of the crisis in Syria, whose participation in the forum was represented by the Director General of the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) Ahmad Dawa.
The statement said the forum was held in Russia’s appreciation of the role of journalists in the fight against international terrorism and the ideology of extremism.
In this light, a special website was created in the Russian and English languages- and later in Arabic-whose objective is to introduce the Russian people to the culture and spiritual diversity of the Islamic countries.
People in the Muslim world will have the same chance to get acquainted with the various aspects of the Russian people through this website.
Throughout the course of the forum, the participants stressed that Islam has nothing to do with terrorism and extremism, referring also to the Turkish government’s repressive policy against journalists who would dare to expose this government’s overt support to the terrorist organizations in Syria.
There was a variety of suggestions made at the forum that focused on setting up a unified media strategy against terrorism and employing the Russian media and its relations with the media in the Muslim countries to help deliver the message to the broadest public opinion worldwide.
H. Said