Islam's Oldest n Most Influential Universities To Counter IS

Over a millennium Al Azhar in Cairo, Egypt has attracted scholars, students and worshippers from around the world. Now it faces a serious challenge combating the ideology of the IS group.

It has led to a change in strategy. For the first time, dedicated teams have been assigned to monitor extremist works online and a new 'observer centre' has been set up. For months they have been sifting through dozens of IS publications - and other radical material - in eight different languages.

Ibrahim Negm said new initiatives by Al Azhar, one of Islam's oldest and most influential universities, are succeeding in countering IS propaganda and stopping young Muslims from being recruited. 

The aim is to pick holes in the propaganda and explain to Muslims how these extremist groups have misinterpreted Islamic texts and writings. But even those leading the project accept its limitations given the fact that tens of thousands of young Muslims have already joined IS.

Reham Abdullah heads the Urdu unit at the centre, and told the aim is not to try and change the minds of those who have already joined the group and are convinced of their ideology, but to stop IS recruiting more young Muslims.

"Maybe they (IS members) will never read our books or visit our website but there are many others who haven't (joined) but are thinking to do so and we are trying to save these guys," she said.

While many Muslims including Mr Negm believe more could have been done sooner to prevent the spread of IS ideology, Al Azhar senior clerics stress that Western states and their media share a burden of responsibility.

Mr Negm is hopeful these new initiatives will work in the long term to defeat IS.

"There's a cancer spreading in the body of the world and we have to realise that this cancer is not going to spread only on the Middle East but everywhere," he said.

Reham Abdullah heads the Urdu unit at the centre, said the aim is not to try and change the minds of those who have already joined the group and are convinced of their ideology, but to stop IS recruiting more young Muslims.