“The words of a human being have tremendous power, to build and destroy, to give life and to take life. In Abrahamic religions, an essential part of the creation of the world was the word. It was words that created this world and it is words that will destroy this world,” said Chief Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, Chief Rabbi of Moscow and member of the European Muslim and Jewish Leadership Council (MJLC).
Worldwide, xenophobia, racism, and other forms of intolerance — including antisemitism, misogyny, and islamophobia — are prevalent in public discourse, the media, and political rhetoric.
The global growth of hate speech raises the spectre of how, over the past century, it was a precursor to atrocity crimes, including genocide, from Germany to Rwanda, Cambodia to Bosnia.
“Hate speech is virtually everywhere,” said Goldschmidt, “but we must not tolerate it anywhere.”
With this in mind, the International Dialogue Center (KAICIID) has been employing a range of initiatives to help religious communities and leaders counter hate speech, from producing a guide on how to monitor and analyse hate speech to hosting consultations with experts in the field.
“Religious actors and interreligious leaders,” said Faisal bin Muaammar, Secretary General of KAICIID, “have a role to play in countering hate speech.”
Recently, I learned from KAICIID experts in partnership with the European Council of Religious Leaders/ Religions for Peace- Europe (ECRL/RfP Europe) with the support of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) to develop a guide to IDENTIFYING, MONITORING, and COUNTERING HATE SPEECH.
We all have a role to play in responding to hate speech and it begins with understanding what it is, how it manifests online and in day-to-day life, and why it is resonating and replicating.