Hate speech has negatively infiltrated our communities and significantly deepened divisions, contributed to intolerance, and discrimination, and fueled various forms of violence.
URI has been and is committed to ending religiously motivated violence for over 25 years and is conscious of the role of hate speech in violence.
Over a couple of weeks, youth within and outside the URI network have been taking part in the URI Youth Month Challenge where they have been asked to complete a task by taking action towards one of URI’s core visions, the latest being countering hate speech.
With this challenge we are drawing on URI Principle 9 - “We practice healing and reconciliation to resolve conflict without resorting to violence.”
Participants worldwide actively participated in this challenge by creating posters and messages to counter hate speech and raise awareness of different forms of violence in their local communities. Here are some of their responses:
Haia Shaban from Jordan shared a poster that calls for unity, love, and respect.
Sanelma Rautionmaa from Finland described hate speech as an infestation that can be exterminated by spreading love and protecting oneself.
"This is my illustration against hate speech! I wanted to portray hate as an 'infestation' that can be 'exterminated' by spreading love but that it's also important to protect yourself from it."
Antonia Folashade from Nigeria shared an educational and reflective post on six (6) ways young people can counter hate speech. She encouraged youth to stop spreading hate and hate speech, embrace diversity, be empathetic, and religious education.
My Role, Your Role, Our Role to Combat Hate Speech
Even though this ugly menace is not new to/in our community, you and I have our roles to play to minimise it and possibly put an end to it. Are you still wondering what to do to end hate speech?
Stop itStop spreading hate and hate speech in all its form. It’s understandable that hate speech is spreading like wildfire, both offline and online; all thanks to the new communications technologies, I need you to know that if you keep on spreading this harmful narratives, then the peace of your community and the globe will be continually threatened. It’s also understandable that everywhere you find diverse groups of people and even those that belong to the same group, violence is not something that is inevitable among them, as such, you can reduce religiously motivated violence hate speech by doing the following:
Embrace diversity: By embracing diversity and celebrating it, you are doing a good job to mother Earth.
Be empathetic: Show empathy/sympathy towards other people’s religions and traditional views.
Religious education: Religious leaders, religious groups, stakeholders, and even individuals should ensure to learn more about other adherents religious views (especially their neighbours’ and people within their immediate community), this way, we will be able to combat religiously motivated violence, and build a safer, more peaceful and tolerant world.
Respect: Drawing inspiration from the popular maxim: “Respect is reciprocal”. The truth is, when we respect others’ religion, they will respect ours too; that way we are building a community where instead of violence, we have peace, tranquillity, understanding, and love spread among all and sundry.
Together, let us join hands to prevent violence in all its forms!
#WePreventViolence
Mangesh from India focused his campaign on justice for rape victims.
"In India some of the states facing big issues regarding rape. Due to that organized rally and gave a speech about Justice for rape victims. It was so powerful and healing." Mangesh, India.
Amb. Jibrin Muhammad Binji from Frontier For Peace and Advocate Foundation Nigeria Cooperation Circle organized an awareness campaign in the Magajin Rafi A Community together with Tradition Rules, Security agencies, Youths, and Religious leaders.
"Connecting with communities about the dangers of hate speech, Misinformation, disinformation, Religious intolerance, and discussion of the ongoing attack in Sokoto."
Deepak Kumar from Smiles for Millions CC in India shared
"Children are the worst victims of any form of violence they get traumatized if communal violence happens, they also come from so-called untouchable communities, hence no basic facility to grow ..if we do not prevent the abuse of children, we can not secure justice for the society, and neither we can prevent violence. Let's give them the feeling of love, equality for freedom, and quality Education." Deepak Kumar.
Angie Parameswari from Indonesia shares:
"I shared this on Instagram a few days ago when Jakarta was full of demonstrations and riots over the constitutional court’s ruling. Hate speeches infiltrated the real work of resistance, targeting the people’s physical attributes and characters instead of the facts of the political situation."
Romina Bello from Argentina shares:
Cuando las palabras matan, el odio en redes sociales alimenta la violencia en la calle. Cuántos segundos tarda una persona de pasar de violencia verbal a violencia física?
El discurso de odio se puede materializar de cualquier forma de expresión, incluidas imágenes, dibujos animados o ilustraciones, memes, gestos y símbolos. Puede difundirse tanto en Internet como personalmente, este se centra en factores de identidad reales o percibidos de un individuo o grupo, incluye religión, físico, etnia, nacionalidad, raza, color, ascendencia o género.
Debemos hacer frente a la intolerancia trabajando para atajar el odio que se extiende por Internet. Quizás desde el sillón de nuestras casas mientras pensamos que no estamos haciendo nada, compartiendo información le podemos salvar la vida a alguien!
Nelly Minja reflects;
"Do you know that our words influence our lives and our realities?, each word spoken is a seed that comes into existence, that germinates and will eventually produce effects.
(Law of nature: cause and effect)
The time has come when we must regain consciousness and act for a better future.
Nature counts on us because within us resides a creative power that offers us the possibility of changing our lives, by opting for a harmonious lifestyle, filled with love, mutual respect, gentleness, compassion, listening, patience, empathy and peace. (Mystery of who you are)
Good communication offers us the means to build and maintain good relationships. Through it, we understand each other better and develop more sustainable solutions.
"With me, let's say No to hate speech and opt for good speech"
Bwambale Emmy from Uganda used the end of month meeting to discuss hate speech. He shared;
"As youth we discussed how hate may affect our lives and future, we talked about how this my be addressed one youth said fire can not put off fire only water can do. We came to one point that if we serve love first for each other then the rest will sort themselves.
So let's serve love to each other." Bwambale Emmy.
Musoki Rusia from Uganda reminds us that our words can be harmful or healing and calls upon us to choose kindness.
"Words can heal or harm, let us choose kindness." Musoki Rusia.
Ahmed Nazif Kirfi from Nigeria shared;
"Hate cannot drive out hate: Love can do."
Thank you all who participated in this challenge!