Hate Speech and Violence, Embers Under the Ashes

Advocacy of racial or religious hatred constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence against an individual or a group of people (of particular religious or ethnic affiliations or identity).

Incitement to violence takes various forms against the targeted group, including sermons, leaflets, media articles, books, social media messages and the products of the visual and audio arts such as music and songs, or films, or television programmes that host professional manufacturers of hatred.

Intolerance and violence based on hatred of followers of religions and of minorities around the world draw their roots from feelings of fanaticism and ignorance and belief in dark fatwas and sayings that call for publicly declaring others unbelievers through the use of certain words and linguistic meanings unknown to the general public, which makes the other an enemy who must be killed in the eyes of the religious fanatics.

Hate speech and racism constitute a coup against the sublime religious values that call for tolerance, brotherhood, inclusion and diversity, and against human and social values and good morals. This speech is like a devil whose main goal is to threaten society, undermine social cohesion and damage shared values.

The increase in hate speech targeting communities or individuals on a religious basis also makes it easier for fanatics and terrorists to commit or prepare brutal crimes, and it can be a launching point for violence that threatens the peace, stability and sustainable development of society.

Hatred, incitement to violence and non-acceptance of the other target the Arab region above all; this targeting comes from the great powers that planned, prepared, trained and provided financial and logistical support to the terrorist groups charged with implementing the plans of chaos whose events we lived through in 2011, as White House officials admitted.

The history of Great Britain is also full of conspiracies: it issued the Balfour Declaration to establish a homeland for the Jews in Palestine, founded the terrorist Brotherhood organization and promoted the ideology of violence and religious fanaticism to tear down states, and used tools to falsify national awareness, weaken the spirit of belonging and loyalty and promote the concepts and ideas of violent extremism in order to tear down societies and dismantle states; and it still provides a safe haven for terrorists, investing and laundering their money and financing their terrorist operations.

Hate speech and calls for violence, racism and discrimination remain rooted in the hearts and minds of fanatics and have become (embers under the ashes); we see their effects in the demonstrations and protests accompanied by riots and violence over racist practices and the violence practised against Black people, Native Americans and minorities by whites in American society, and the signs of a sharp division between Republicans and Democrats and their orientations and policies are clear, which has negatively affected the lives, livelihoods and incomes of the members of their societies.

We also see the effects of this speech in the killing of Hegumen Arsanios in Alexandria because he was a Christian clergyman, and other incidents of violence and killing to which some individuals are exposed as a result of hatred, fanaticism and incitement to use violence against the other.

This calls on us to confront the acts of the devil and the attempts to stir up strife among Egyptians, which will not end as long as Egypt achieves its strategy of becoming a great power in its economy and its policies, making its own decisions, providing a decent life for the members of the people and entrenching the spirit of belonging and loyalty to the homeland.

Commitment to the spirit of tolerance, not being dragged or sliding into violence, and social solidarity and cohesion in the face of the spirit of hatred, discrimination and violence on the basis of religion, race, colour or any other discriminatory reason require a strenuous effort from Muslim and Christian religious scholars and clerics, the purging of school and university curricula and programmes, and art and media products free of any references calling for division and discrimination

in keeping with tolerant religious values, human rights and true creativity; and this can only come about through commitment to applying the principle of the rule of law to all, as a main and basic requirement for building a civil state as the Constitution provides and in line with the values of the New Republic.

The people, the army, the police and the proud Egyptian judiciary are the ones who draw the landmarks of the right road to preserve values, morals, gains and the future of the coming generations in Egyptian society.

Our article in Al-Fagr newspaper, Thursday issue 202