A Conference to Sound the Alarm on Hate Speech

Professor Michel Abs

The Secretary General of the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC)

A delegation from the Middle East Council of Churches is heading to Egypt to hold a conference on hate speech, in coordination with the Coptic Evangelical Organization for Social Services (CEOSS) and other Arab and international organizations.

As part of its strategic orientations, the MECC has considered addressing this scourge—by drawing attention to it and developing practical plans to confront it—among its primary responsibilities: first, as an ecumenical institution, and second, as an institution founded upon dialogue and justice, both of which lead to social peace, the indispensable condition for all progress and development.

Since we launched, five years ago, our programs for the preservation of human dignity and the rehabilitation of social capital, we have been monitoring the fault lines of fragmentation that threaten the unity of our societies and that, if left untreated, could lead them toward disastrous consequences.

As part of this effort to identify the forces of social disintegration and division, and following a series of seminars and discussions with experts and researchers, we concluded that priority should be given to convening a regional Arab gathering around this frightening and: Hate Speech. The conference will bring together around 35 distinguished researchers specializing in social unity and cohesion. We decided to begin in Egypt, where the experience of unity in daily life offers a valuable model worthy of consideration and emulation.

Demonization is the underlying element of Hate Speech. It means stripping the other of his or her humanity and clothing that person in the image of the devil. When I disagree with you, I no longer see you as a human being with whom I differ, but as absolute evil, as a threat that must be eliminated. If hate speech says, “I do not accept you,” demonization goes further and says, “You are a danger, and your very existence is a threat.” Once we reach this stage, violence becomes easier to justify.

This is one of the gravest challenges facing our East today. We suffer not only from wars, but also from wars of narratives and words. Some religious, media, and political platforms have become arenas for accusations of treason and incitement. Even more troubling is that we are not always merely victims. At times, perhaps unknowingly, we ourselves participate in producing demonization when we raise our children to fear those who are different, or when we divide people into categories of “good” and “evil” according to their identities and affiliations.

Demonization begins with generalization: the mistake of one individual becomes a characteristic attributed to an entire group, while the crime of one person becomes an accusation against a whole religious community, group, or social class. Dehumanization then follows, and the other is transformed in public discourse into a “traitor” or an “enemy.” Knowledge is replaced by fear, argument by condemnation, and difference by hostility.

Hate speech is directly connected to this process. It begins in thought, develops into attitude and expression, and may ultimately lead to violent behavior. Its triggers are numerous: religious, sectarian, ethnic, social, class-based, economic, and political. Its political exploitation is especially dangerous when an enemy or scapegoat is manufactured to explain failure or to mobilize communities through fear.

The media and social networks play a particularly powerful role. Words that once remained confined to a small gathering can now reach millions within hours. Incitement is not spread only through outright lies, but also through selective presentation, sensational headlines, statements taken out of context, and the repetition of stereotypes. Anger can thus become a media commodity.

Ignorance, meanwhile, provides fertile ground for hatred. People fear what they do not know, and the less they know about others, the more receptive they become to rumors and stereotypes. Education, knowledge, and direct human encounter are therefore essential lines of defense.

Religions provide strong ethical foundations for confronting these phenomena. Despite their different traditions and teachings, they converge around the protection of human dignity and the rejection of demonizing and hating the other.

Yet confrontation also requires a national plan. Such a plan should include education for diversity and critical thinking within school curricula; stronger media and digital literacy; the establishment of an independent observatory for hate speech; the adoption of an ethical charter for the media; the engagement of religious and political leaders in exercising responsibility over their discourse; the development of a legal framework that protects society from incitement without suppressing freedom of expression; and the participation of universities and civil society in research, monitoring, and analysis.

The role of the Middle East Council of Churches in this field is an extension of its mission of dialogue, social cohesion, humanitarian relief, and development. This mission is expressed through programs on shared religious and cultural spaces, initiatives to combat demonization and hate speech, and programs promoting human fraternity.

Hatred is not destiny. It is a process that is produced, and what is produced can also be dismantled. What we seek is not a society without differences, but a society that knows how to differ without hatred, how to criticize without demonizing, and how to remain faithful to its beliefs without insulting the beliefs of others. When we safeguard the humanity of those who are different from us, we lay the true foundations for civil peace and for a society of greater stability and dignity.

It is against this background that this conference is being held in beloved Egypt, the Gift of the Nile. Through it, we aspire to launch an educational and cultural charter that can contribute to forming balanced and responsible human beings throughout our Arab world.

We hope that this charter will be embraced by our countries, whose concerns and aspirations we carry within our churches and within the Middle East Council of Churches, so that we may have life—and have a better and fuller life—as willed for us by the Lord who gave Himself for our salvation.