Hate Speech and Social Development

Dr. Michel E. Abs

Secretary General of the Middle East Council of Churches

Much of what is published on social networking pages, and in the media in general, shows how widespread and increasingly dominant hate speech is in people's minds.

We read, hear, and see in the media words, pictures, and graphic scenes that offend racial, ethnic, religious, national, political, or other form of belonging and identity, as an attempt is made to focus on the characteristics of a given target group with hate speech, trying to demonize it, and present it to the viewer or reader in the most horrible way.

The United Nations defines hate speech as “any kind of communication, verbal, written or behavior, that attacks a person or a group or uses derogatory or discriminatory language with on the basis of identity, in other words, on the basis of religion, ethnicity or nationality, race, color, ancestry, gender, or any other determinant of identity.”

The United Nations considers hate speech to be "broader than" incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence, and it is prohibited under international laws that protect human rights.

The UN also considers that hate speech has three basic characteristics. The first is that it can be transmitted through any form of expression, including images, drawings, gestures and symbols, and the Internet helps spread these forms at maximum speed and with the widest possible reach.

As for the second characteristic of hate speech, according to the United Nations, it refers to any discriminatory feature, that is one which is based intolerant, derogatory, insulting, as well as humiliating to the targeted individual or group.

The third characteristic of hate speech is that it affects the determinants of the "real and perceived" identity of an individual or group, including religion, ethnicity, nationality, race, color, or descent as well as other characteristics such as language, economic or social background, disability or health impairment , or sexual orientation, among many others.

This is, in brief, some of what the United Nations reported on its hate speech page.

What interests us in this article is to discover the forms and spread of hate speech in our Levantine and Middle Eastern societies, in relation to the work of operating humanitarian agencies through programs and projects that they implement in various countries of the region.

A reminder to be noted is the fact that the Middle Eastern society has witnessed, as of the end of World War I until today, demons, the names of which are interchangeable, and that designate the various groups that make up the region. Wars, occupations and internal conflicts have created negative feelings among the constituent groups of society for many reasons, some of which are related to the components of identity and others related to the distribution of economic resources.

Humanitarian bodies working in different regions and with different groups, for decades until today, feel and witness the spread of hate speech among people, especially with regards to the fact that various groups are at enmity with each other and do not always understand the standards of work of humanitarian institutions, with regards to the human social condition of a group and its needs be they physical or psychological.

Many are humanitarian institutions that have been exposed to criticism from various segments of society that use hate speech, whereas on the other hand these same institutions have used derogatory terms to designate groups other than the beneficiaries of their own livelihood resources, including humanitarian aid.

This much on the human level, but on the political level, the matter becomes worse, as many variables overlap that may lead to social conflicts with undesirable consequences, especially if groups, which mutually demean each other, exist in areas where housing and livelihood resources overlap. These areas are usually areas of displacement, poverty and deprivation, and witness social unrest from time to time.

Raising awareness and spreading the culture of dialogue and the values of acceptance of difference are very important matters, but it remains that improving the economic and social conditions of these areas is an essential item for spreading civil peace and social cohesion.

“ Poverty begets dissention” says the popular proverb in Lebanon, this is more so if need combines with a decline in awareness and poor housing and living conditions?

The process of social development and upgrading is a material and spiritual process at the same time and working on alleviating one dimension of need only makes such a dimension, which has witnessed progress, threatens such a dimension to collapse when pressured by other dimensions.

What development institutions are doing today does not go beyond healing a few wounds and giving a few painkillers, armed with the logic of buying time while waiting for better days.

We must stress again the role of the state in the project of social advancement, in all its dimensions, within a comprehensive and integrated national plan, with clear objectives, implemented diligently and in well-programmed stages.

The basic condition for achieving all that which we have this far mentioned is a stable political as well as basically peaceful situation a thing which this region has been deprived of for decades as it has been the prey of imposed unrest and upheavals for the last centuries . Such a drawback has concurred to blotting out all achievements bringing the whole area back time and again to square zero.

Should select people of honor not be able to achieve a decision-making status in it then the time to reach a resurrection still lies far away for it.