The General Secretariat of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has announced that it will officially set into motion its Center for Dialogue, Peace and Understanding (CDPU) with the start of the new Hegira year 1438 (corresponding to 3 October 2016). 
Placed under the overall supervision of the Directorate for Dialogue and Outreach at the OIC General Secretariat, the Center shall have the primary mission of countering incitement to all forms of terrorism, violence and extremism, particularly through social networking platforms, media and cyberspace channels, while setting up a mechanism to report cases and incidents of incitement against Member States in order to address them firmly. 
Among the most important tasks of the Center will be to debunk terrorist narrative through counter messaging over social media outlets; perform messaging on ideological subjects targeting the Muslim youth; and prepare videos and animations exposing the reality of terrorist groups, OIC Secretary General Iyad Ameen Madani explained. 
Iyad Ameen Madani added, "the CDPU will also be tasked with juxtaposing true interpretations of Quran and Hadith against the misinterpretations disseminated by terrorist groups, in addition to propagating a soft image of the OIC Member States' policies, and serving as a resource bank for regional and local initiatives to prevent and counter violent extremism." Also significant, the Center shall closely cooperate with similar entities, national counter terrorism centers in the Member States, relevant OIC institutions and other regional and UN outfits. 
Further, the Secretary General invited the OIC Member States to engage in enabling the Centre to deliver on its duties and to help with establishing a resource bank for greater cooperation in this vital field.