Cihangir Isbilir, General Coordinator of the Union of NGOs of the Islamic World (UNIW), said Muslim world's embracing of Rabia sign meant Muslim world is telling whole world: "From now on I have something to say, as well."
"Rabia sign is spreading in the world and being embraced fastly, as well as being shared in social media by 100 million people."
Isbilir stated that the Muslim world has been in process of "rediscovering itself" in the last 20 years, and said, "Extraordinary resistance by Egyptians turned into an unexpected movement with peoples and societies' magnificent awareness and revival."
"Rabia generation"
Isbilir also highlighted that Rabia sign incited the resistance and revival spirit in Raba'a al Adawiya, and continued:
"Rabia sign could be seen as simple but it is the beginning of Muslim world's saying to whole world: 'From now on I have something to say, as well".
Isbilir added, owning the sign so deeply and 100 million people's sharing it in social media show a stance by the Muslim world that should be read well.
"It means the Muslim world can gain legitimacy, as well as changing its own world."
Rabia sign
"Rabaa (Rabia) sign”, made by raising four fingers which has become the symbol of the massacre in Egypt and Rabaa al-Adawiya Square where the anti-coup protests take place, dominates the whole world's agenda.
“Rabaa” meaning four or the fourth in Arabic has become the sign of anti-coup protests in Egypt. Just a few hours before the massacre on August 14, anti-coup protesters in Egypt tried to voice their demands to the world by raising their four fingers.
Firstly, a website called "R4bia.com" was founded within the scope of a campaign which is led by the activists in Turkey who were anti-coup, and later a hashtag of ‘Whatisr4bia’ was composed in Twitter, an online social networking service.
The hashtag has ranked among Trend Topics (TT) in a high increase in Turkey, and then took place among the world lists. It has become a global TT in which users from all parts in the world showed interest from Asia to Europe and from Africa to the USA.
Thousands of users notably in Pakistan, Iraq, Egypt, Bosnia Herzegovina, Malaysia and Indonesia, and then in Europe and America shared both written messages and photographs under the hashtag of "Whatisr4bia".
"Rabaa sign", which is used as a freedom symbol spreading from Egypt to whole world, has been highly used as a profile picture on social media as well. Number of those using "Rabaa sign" as a profile picture is reported to be over 100 million.
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