Anti-terror coalition is strong and united

A UAE newspaper has said that last Friday’s deadly attack on a mosque on Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula that killed more than 300 worshippers shows the scale of the threat posed by terrorists who will stop at nothing to carry out their murderous deeds.

"Across Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan alone in recent years, more than 200,000 people have been killed by terrorists intent on imposing their vision and evil philosophy on innocent civilian populations, while Muslim nations across the broader region have been impacted by the bloody agendas of extremists," said Gulf News in an editorial on Tuesday.

The paper continued, "On Saturday in Riyadh, the first high-level gathering of a Saudi Arabia-led alliance of Muslim nations to counter terrorism took place under the leadership of Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman bin Abdul Aziz, a meeting that vowed that extremists will no longer be permitted to 'tarnish our beautiful religion'.

"The Islamic Military Counter Terrorism Coalition, IMCTC, now has 41 member states, an increase from the 34 initial nations who joined when the counter-terrorism alliance was created two years ago. All are committed to taking the fight to those who use Islam as a weapon of terror, kill innocent civilians and use violence and acts of intimidation to disrupt peaceful societies and spread chaos, hate and unrest.

"Indeed, the murderous events of Friday in Sinai were high on the mind of the high-level dignitaries and delegations gathered in Riyadh, and the gathering sent condolences to the relatives and families of those murdered as they prayed. 'We will not allow such elements to tarnish the image of Islam,' Crown Prince Salman commented on the attack, speaking for all on the raison d’etre for creating IMCTC in the first instance."

The editorial went on to say that the military coalition was created initially to counter the threat posed by Daesh as it seized towns and cities, murdered thousands of innocent civilians in its evil and ill-fated attempt to carve out a caliphate to impose its perverted theology.

"While the group now is in its death throes, having been routed from most of the territory it claimed across Syria and Iraq, it still remains a potent threat as others from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean follow in its misguided path. The group has been largely defeated by concerted international action and alliances of the very nature that IMCTC now is ready to execute," it said.

"The IMCTC, with its broad membership and common goal of rooting out and exterminating terrorist threats, sends a strong signal to all in and beyond the region that these 41 nations stand together and are united in supporting each other," concluded the Dubai-based daily