The global interaction on voluntary or forced displacement of people through migration or political asylum has resulted in mutual responses by host peoples and displaced people. Contempt, hatred and fear of the Other have evolved unprecedentedly. The globalization of this hatred has led the United Nations to harness its full potential to contain its manifestations, especially speech that incites the commission of hate crimes, discrimination, and racism.
In general, most international, regional and local organizations agree that hate speech and hostility to the Other aims at dehumanization of people through contempt, insult, slender, derogation, and direct verbal and physical violence, such as beating and killing. This is all due to a sense of discrimination from others on religious, ethnic, sectarian or other grounds. As a result of the great interest in trying to undermine hate speech at all levels, this article sheds light on important theoretical approaches attempting to dismantle it and curb its tools and causes.
The Great Replacement Theory
The Great Replacement theory is one of the contemporary ideological sources for the prevalence of hate speech and discrimination. It has been adopted by a range of far-right parties in the West, including the Alternative for Germany (AfD), the American Alt-Right, right-wing parties in the Netherlands, Italy, and Scandinavia, as well as identity bloc organizations. French politician Éric Zemmour, known for his hardline stances against immigrants and Muslims, has also influenced the New Zealand serial killer and led to the attack on the Christchurch mosques and the killing of about 50 Muslims in 2019.
The theory goes back to the French writer Renaud Camus, who believes that population growth in Europe will be in favor of immigrants, and thus the white European men will disappear, and that there is a hidden party or world government, seeking to annihilate cultural, religious and ethnic characteristics to create a new world order based on consumerism, where human beings are subject to subjugation and new slavery.
Camus believes that “the French society is threatened by the possibility of immigrants taking over, especially Muslims, and thus the elimination of its Christian and secular culture". There is no doubt that these extremist ideologies incite the rejection of the foreign Other and call for their expulsion, which creates tension in society and undermines social peace. Camus ignores the history of France's old and new colonization of Africa, and that Muslims make up only 7% of French society, as noted by Patrick Simon, Director of the National Institute for Demographic Studies (INED).
It seems that this theory is a statement of the extremist trend adopted by far-right movements, and it aligns with other conspiracy theories, as well as the thesis of the Clash of Civilizations. Thus, hate speech—especially in the West—draws its sources from several intellectual and ideological streams of thought against the existence of the different Other. Ironically, Hindus justify their fear of Muslims on the basis of the Great Replacement theory, given that the majority in India are Hindus.
Alarming Figures
The Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California University and Voice of America revealed a rise in hate crimes in America in mid-2022. These crimes target the Asian race, especially after the Covid-19 pandemic, in addition to the crimes that targeted blacks after the killing of George Floyd. Foresight studies suggest that hate is expected to remain on the rise in American society, as well as in the European Union, despite the adoption of “key legislation".
A 2020 study on “hate speech and crimes in the EU", issued by the European Parliament, also indicated that hate crime indicators have risen and expanded to include the Internet, knowing that a significant number of incidents go unreported. The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) also provided important recommendations, including ECRI General Policy Recommendation No. 15 of 2016, which states in its ninth provision: “withdraw all financial and other forms of support by public bodies from political parties and other organisations that use hate speech or fail to sanction its use by their members and provide, while respecting the right to freedom of association, for the possibility of prohibiting or dissolving such organisations regardless of whether they receive any form of support from public bodies where their use of hate speech is intended or can reasonably be expected to incite acts of violence, intimidation, hostility or discrimination against those targeted by it".
Ideological Approach
For these considerations, there must be multiple theoretical approaches and ways of countering discourses of contempt and hatred of the Other that are easy to implement on the ground, including the ideological approach, as there is a need to break the foundations on which the promoters of racism and ethnic, religious or identity supremacy are based.
Post-colonial studies focused on refuting the arguments of racism and discourses of supremacy, criticizing the centrality of the Western man, concepts of cultural superiority, monopolizing the truth and science, and justifying the colonization of some countries by taking on the burden of transmitting civilization and combatting savagery, barbarism, backwardness and ignorance.
With the multiple premises of this approach, investing some of its views calling for undermining extremist discourses, identity isolationism, hierarchy of cultures and the dictatorship of some minds may contribute to reducing the spread of hate speech that is based on incoherent views.
For the time being, there is an urgent need to develop policies for ideological immunization against this type of discourse, whether by making societal contexts adverse to its spread, or by treating the promoters of racism, rectifying their intellectual and ideological vision, instilling in them the values of peaceful coexistence and moderation in parallel with their rehabilitation and social integration, and deconstructing their radical beliefs.
Knowledge Approach
The “school of liberation of knowledge" can be adopted to deconstruct hate speech. Western knowledge is constructed to be the standard of human knowledge, which negates the right of other peoples and cultures to establish knowledge that is independent, different, and distinct from hegemonic Western ideology. This “knowledge practice" feeds into the discourses of cultural superiority of Western-based religious and identity groups that claim supremacy and superiority over other world cultures.
This knowledge approach extends bridges of communication between cultures and promotes respect between adherents of religions and members of multi-ethnic groups, since political marginalization and exclusion today is based on the claim of the exclusive knowledge representation. However, building an equitable world of respect, cooperation and solidarity, without freeing hegemonic knowledge from its intellectual, ethical, legal, and political arms, is not possible and is in vain.
Some writings have contributed to the liberation of knowledge and the critique of racism, including the book Decolonizing Politics and Theories from the Abya Yala by a group of Latin American writers, published in 2022, which, among others, aims at the decolonization of knowledge. Through his book Ciencia propia y colonialismo intelectual, Colombian sociologist Orlando Fals Borda indeed contributed to the spread of new academic approaches in African and Asian universities, to the liberation of knowledge, and thus further criticism of racism, xenophobia, intolerance, and identity isolationism, and the categorization of peoples as uncivilized, “barbaric", “savage", “black", and “Other", as well as other forms of marginalization, contempt, and condescension.
Legislative Approach
The legislative approach is one of the most important UN approaches to urge governments to counter hatred. The Rabat Plan of Action on the prohibition of promoting national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence, adopted in the West on October 5, 2012, pointed to a legislative flaw in national legal systems.
Discussions at various workshops have highlighted the absence of any legal prohibition of incitement to hatred in many legal frameworks around the world. Moreover, legislation prohibiting incitement to hatred uses varying terminology and is often inconsistent with article 20 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The broader the definition of incitement to hatred in national laws, the more likely it is that arbitrary application is used.
Other observations were made regarding the gap between countries in the terms used to refer to incitement to hatred, leading to a misinterpretation of article 20 of ICCPR. The 2012 Rabat Plan of Action noted that some countries do not criminalize incitement to hatred, except in matters of racism and ethnicity. Thus, there are contrasting national approaches to affirming the criminalization of incitement to hatred. While there is a prohibition of incitement to hatred in the international human-rights system, as confirmed by Article 4 of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), the Rabat Plan of Action, in order to avoid restricting freedoms, recommended in principle the importance of distinguishing between three types of expression: expression that constitutes a crime, expression that does not deserve criminal punishment, and expression that does not warrant any criminal, civil or administrative sanctions while being alarming in terms of tolerance and respect for the rights of others. The Rabat Plan of Action therefore called for the adoption of comprehensive legislation including preventive and punitive measures in order to successfully combat incitement to hatred. The plan also adopted six criteria to identify criminally prohibited forms of expression: context, speaker, intent, content or form, extent of speech and preponderance. These are standards that help judicial bodies assess and criminalize hatred and how serious it is.
Pedagogical Approach
It is evident that the ECRI has addressed in its recommendations various aspects, including the educational and pedagogical aspect as an effective tool for countering hate speech. In recent months, however, some European countries have continued to adopt policies against immigrants and patterns that condemn them under the pretext of protecting secular values, such as considering religious symbols unacceptable in schools, which perpetuates more hatred.
Therefore, there is an urgent need to adopt educational and pedagogical policies in Europe and North America that are truly keen to respect religious and cultural diversity. The Venice Commission report (officially European Commission for Democracy through Law) focused on the issue of incitement to religious hatred. Having examined the various European legislation related to abuse, it warned of the need to combat religious hatred. Therefore, educational policies must provide for the recognition of religions and respect for norms and differences to avoid the scourge of offending religious feelings.
Media Approach
The media, by all means, can contribute to creating a space for dialogue and acquaintance, free of confusion, misinformation, provoking people and stirring up sectarian and ethnic strife. There are several studies by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and other organizations on the misuse of the Internet and social media to promote anti-Other discourse, whether Muslim, African or Arab, or whomever is different from the culture of the promoter of hate speech. Therefore, there is a call to ban immoral content that offends others without discrimination.
It is imperative for media organizations and other relevant actors to raise awareness of the impact of hate speech on societies, and to reinforce the professionalism of media and media organizations to analyze hate speech and report criminal acts committed in this context.
Conclusion
The recommendations of the Manama Path 2018 are an important reference for ways to counter hate speech and a milestone for activating joint Islamic cultural action to combat extremism, sectarianism and terrorism through various approaches, including: pedagogical, legislative, media, ideological approaches, etc. It shall create a culture of human acquaintance, and consolidate the values of cooperation and solidarity between family members in particular and society in general.