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Zeena Qureshi’s dream is to ensure that extremists “have no place to hide”. The 26-year-old is the chief executive of Ananas, a new platform that is fighting radicalisation by “mapping ideologies”, providing a compass to navigate belief systems and using cryptocurrency to reward contributors.

Ananas, which is also a charitable foundation, uses a similar approach to Google and Facebook in terms of mapping how people think, except rather than using that to push ads, the idea is to help people to understand each other better. Its first mission is to create a “living Koran”, to combat both jihadist terrorism and Islamophobia.

“There’s this question: ‘Is Islamic State Islamic?’ There’s no authoritative source to answer that,” says Qureshi. “A living Koran will make it easy to see what Islam actually is.”

Currently there are a number of Koran apps with different translations of the text. The Ananas platform, in contrast, will give information on each verse, explaining what different denominations believe, showcasing research and allowing users to search by a theme or word to see every mention of it in the Koran.

“It will expand and collapse — you’ll be able to dive in with as much depth as you want and see it from different schools of thought and in different translations,” explains Qureshi. “You can even see it from a Sufi or non-Muslim perspective. We’re trying to build a platform that provides context to subjective information.”

How will this help tackle extremism? “Information without context isn’t knowledge. Extremists have so many people marketing for them online. They target vulnerable, isolated individuals. If these people are looking for answers, they need to come to a place where this information is outlined. Things like Charlottesville are happening because people don’t have the information or understanding. Information feeds empathy.”

What about the more contentious Koranic passages? “You mean like ‘slay them wherever you find them?’ The context isn’t there. Right now you’ll see lots of Muslims and they’re not killing anyone. The reason extremists use [verses] out of context is that there’s nowhere that gives [their extremist ideology] in one place. We will give all the information for those contentious verses so people can see how it was applicable historically, and how it is applicable today.”

And does she think IS is Islamic? “IS takes translations out of context for political gains. It’s altruistic evil — they think what they’re doing is right but they’re twisting things. But I don’t have the authority to state whether they’re Muslim or not.”

The Koran is just the beginning. Ananas will expand to include more belief systems, including political ideologies. “This digital mapping could work for anything — philosophy, art. This way, everyone has a voice, and their voice has value.”

Ananas uses artificial intelligence to organise the data, and knowledge graphs to explore the relationships between different groups’ beliefs, but the most innovative part is the cryptocurrency. Qureshi calls the Ananas token — the “Anacoin” — a “cryptocurrency for peace”.

“We want to give people a reward,” she explains. “If the value of the information goes up, the token will go up. You can use the cryptocurrency to sponsor a verse, gain rewards by moderating or adding information, and you can trade it. Whenever someone trades it, if it’s gone up in value, half the proceeds go to the foundation, the other half goes into someone’s pocket. People should be rewarded for the good things they do.”

The platform was the idea of Emad Mostaque, co-chief investment officer at the hedge fund Capricorn Fund Managers, who is also Qureshi’s brother-in-law.

The Ananas team — three full-time, but 30 including advisers and volunteers — embodies the dialogue between different groups they are trying to encourage. The chief technology officer is Sikh, and the chairman Anglican. Qureshi, who is American but came to the UK to study history of art and material studies at UCL and has lived in London for the past eight years, calls herself a “hybrid”: “My Mum is Shia, my father is Sunni and I was raised in the Bible Belt. If I had a sleepover on Saturday I’d go to church with friends on Sunday. I wasn’t a Christian but they hoped they could evangelise me! My friends are agnostic, Catholic, Jewish.”

But why is it called Ananas? “Pineapples were historically a sign of welcome for gatherings,” says Qureshi. “The word ‘ananas’ is derived from ‘nanas’, meaning ‘excellent fruit’. We usually don’t take sides — we’re about people coming to their own conclusions — but we do have a view on which is the most excellent fruit.”

anacoin.io