A central part of the conference involved participants sharing examples of best practices from their work on combatting hate speech from across the world. The below includes a selection of these.
Building understanding and respect through social media
- FoRB related work can be done through social media influencers. ‘Creator Space: This Youth Can’ is one example of this where social media influencers were trained to develop campaigns promoting FoRB [6].
- Some organisations are already running digital campaigns and have had good levels of engagement and statistically significant success in changing attitudes.
- ‘Gamification’. Online games can be an effective way of building mutual respect and growing community. One organisation had developed a game that refuted myths about various religions or beliefs and another to help people question what they were reading in media reporting. There are benefits to phone games as opposed to a more standard teaching space, as people can participate in their own time and dip in and out. Barriers are reduced when people are having fun![7]
- Campaigns such as ‘I don’t forward hate’, which involves taking a photo holding a sign and posting it online can create a buzz around an issue area. Campaigns like this can be particularly important around election campaigns and during elections.
- Developing short videos that enact real life incidents can foster learning and mutual understanding. When done correctly, short videos (e.g. on TikTok) can change the mindset of those who previously would have shared hateful messages.
- An attitude of empathy can make it easier to understand nuances of expressed hate towards a religious minority community. This calls for robust analysis and deploying customised digital products that provide people with the space to share their voice and opinion, in an open and transparent way.
Promoting FoRB through local radio stations
- Community radio stations have the capacity to reach people who are not online. Local activists and civil society groups can work with them to design programming that combats hateful messages.
- Flexibility and adaption are required according to local needs and the connection that the trainer is able to develop with the communities is essential for this to be effective and for relationships of trust to be built. These relationships can then be strengthened in the future as once a programme has ended the ecosystem of trainers and volunteers still exist.
Supporting existing religious networks as peacemakers
- Programmes have successfully helped religious and ethnic minorities to establish mediation committees and provided training in dispute resolution and advocacy.
- Pre-existing networks of religious groups can often act as both a preventative and corrective tool when tensions arise and should be engaged with more effectively. [8]
- For example, the invitation to Muslims to attend Catholic mass the day after a Catholic priest had been murdered in France in 2016 by perpetrators pledging allegiance to ISIS likely prevented tensions from escalating further.
- Likewise, the pre-existence of interreligious dialogue in Sri Lanka likely prevented further intensifications of violence after the Easter Sunday attacks.
Sharing sacred texts and visiting sacred sites of worship
- There are numerous examples of how the sharing of sacred texts and discussing them together can aid mutual understanding, education and respect. Mobilising faith communities to engage with one another through curiosity and mutual learning using sacred texts has been effective. It is important to recognise that the different communities do not have to agree with each other, but it is a big win if they are able to discuss things together and recognise the humanity of the other.
- In one instance, educational curriculum gives young people from different religious communities in Israel/Palestine who normally live segregated lives, the opportunity to learn about each other’s religions. Youth tour of places of worship and training in mediation and dialogue that provide them with tools for productive and respectful dialogue exchanges which they then use in joint meetings productively. In one place a neighbourhood watch was created which helped to nip potential tensions in the bud.
[6] CFCG, 2023. Youth Content Creators Promoting FoRB. https://cnxus.org/credible-content-creators/?swcfpc=1 [accessed 24 June 2024]
[7] Digital Public Square. https://www.digitalpublicsquare.org/our-work/tolerance-and-diversity-in-burma / [accessed 24 June 2024]
[8] F Petito, M Driessen (2023) Religion and Peacebuilding in Contemporary Global Crises, ISPI Policy report https://www.ispionline.it/en/publication/religion-and-peacebuilding-in-contemporary-global-crises-135793 [accessed 24 June 2024].