Yesterday on Thursday, Ezdina Organization held its third dialogue session as part of the Hope project entitled "Discussing hate speech and combating extremism", in the presence of Muslim, Christian and Yazidi clerics, and representatives of religious institutions, at Ezdina's office in the city of Qamishlo/Qamishli.
Among the prticipants:
- The member of the Shura Council in the Islamic Democratic Conference, Sheikh Muhammad Ubayd Allah Al-Qadri.
- Head of the Department of the Faculty of Religious Sciences at the University of Rojava, Hanna Somi.
- The co-chair of the Yazidi House in Al-Jazeerah region, Farouk Tozo.
- The co-chair of the Democratic Islamic Society Conference, Dalal Khalil.
- The psychological counselor Gulistan Abdullah.
- The activist in religious affairs Suzdar Mohammed.
- The co-chair of the Conference of the Democratic Society of Islam and a lecturer at the Islamic Academy Abdul Rahman Badrakhan.
The dialogue session was moderated by the journalist Sardar Malla Darwish, via the "Zoom" program, and the Yazidi journalist, Jaber Jindo.
The director of the Ezdina Organization, Ali Isso, said in his intervention via the "Zoom" program at the beginning of the session, that the topic of talking about hate speech and discussing how to develop solutions for it is part of the "Hope" project in the Ezdina, which aims in its activities of seminars and dialogue sessions to achieve cohesion between religious components.
The dialogue session, which lasted for about 6 hours, dealt with several topics, namely the concept of hate speech, extremism and incitement to violence, and a discussion of how it appeared in the local Syrian community during the first topics of the session.
In the second axis, the stereotypes prevailing in society and their impact were dealt with, and examples of calls for hate speech, violence and extremism directed against individuals and groups, such as Yazidis.
In the third axis, the lecturers talked about the basic causes of the phenomenon of extremism and hate speech, where an explanation was presented on prevailing models in society calling for extremism and other models calling for hate speech, in addition to models that incite peace and reject hate speech and extremism.
The attendees also discussed the effects of extremism and hate speech and the challenges facing societies, identifying those responsible for hate speech, in addition to discussing solutions and proposals to reduce extremism and hate speech.
The lecturers of the session, the Yazidi journalist, Jaber Jindo, explained during the dialogue session that extremism and hate speech is not directed at a specific religion, but is present for everyone and directed against all religions, pointing out that there has been no agreement on a definition of hate speech so far, as everyone has a special vision about this speech.
The moderator of the session, Sardar Malla Darwish, said during his speech at the session that the topic of hate speech is a sensitive and urgent topic that appears in periods of war, and that hate speech and incitement to violence and extremism are clear topics on the global stage and generate an unnatural state of violence on society, adding that the subject of hate speech It has a relationship and a link to the religious side.
The co-chair of the Yazidi House in the Jazeerah region, Farouk Tozo, explained that the phenomenon of hate speech is a topic that concerns every person living in the region, pointing out that the lack of respect for the different other leads in the result to hatred between the components and generates permanent hatred, indicating that talking about the subject needs a long discussion, because hate speech divides society and cuts ties between everyone.
For his part, the head of the Department of Christian Religious Sciences at the University of Rojava Hanna Somi, confirmed that hatred reflects evil and is the product of the chauvinist, nationalistic, religious, political, and racist ideology to reach a goal.
Somi added that hatred, ego and monolithic thought generate hatred, pointing to the role of clerics, politicians and the media in generating hatred that was the cause of the devastation that occurred in Europe and the East.
Somi indicated that there is hate speech prevalent in the Middle East, but on the other hand there is an anti-hate speech in northeastern Syria by clerics who are working to spread the concept of fraternity.
In turn, the member of the Shura Council in the Islamic Democratic Conference, Sheikh Mohammed UbaydAllah Al-Qadri, said that the hate speech broadcasts discrimination between peoples, tribes, and members of societies, religions, sects, sects and different races.
Al-Qadri added that adherence to and advocating hate speech and denying the speech of the other causes extremism and thus calls for the end of the other, whether it is through direct war with weapons or through media war.
The co-chair of the Democratic Islamic Society Conference, Dalal Khalil, indicated that hate speech has increased in the recent period in particular between societies and minorities.
Khalil added that the presence of extremist groups working to undermine the culture of tolerance between religions has led to the emergence of hate speech, and that the emergence of "ISIS" is the result of the work of some bodies and institutions in spreading hatred between societies.
In turn, activist in religious affairs Suzdar Mohammed said that political forces in the Middle East are using religion for political ends and exploiting religious discourse for political goals, which causes the spread of hate speech, hatred and violence, as ISIS did with the Yazidis.
For his part, the Vice-Presidency of the Democratic Society of Islam Conference and the lecturer at the Islamic Academy, Abdul Rahman Badrakhan, confirmed that hate speech actually comes from religious platforms, whether they are places of worship or religious media outlets.
Badrakhan explained that the hate speech is the character of a person who is far from religion, because religion came to bring peace and love. A person who deviates from the teachings of his religion is extremist in his thought, as religion calls for love, moderation and brotherhood.
Badrakhan added that the hatred points are summarized in violence due to the non-acceptance of others, exclusion due to selfishness, and the atonement that is based on religious media platforms.
In turn, the psychological counselor, Gulistan Abdullah, pointed out that the hate speech is not generated in the moment, but rather because of accumulations. Incitement to violence and extremism often comes from the subconscious.
Abdullah added that hate speech leads to the disintegration of society, and therefore more light should be shed on this phenomenon.
For his part, Dr. Aladdin Al-Rashi, head of the Education Center for Human Rights in Germany, said that the roots of the causes of terrorism and extremism must be searched, pointing to the problem of making arbitrary sweeping rulings where the actions of some people cannot be put as representing the teachings of religion.
Al-Rashi pointed to the importance of defining the components together, and the importance of giving religions an equal space to express their rituals, worship and symbols, because religion leads to extremism if it is prevented from expressing itself.
Al-Rashi stressed that all reasonable people of all religions must be one hand, because extremism is devouring one side now and their means to the other side in the future, noting the importance of achieving moderation, reviving the discourse of interfaith convergence and searching for commonalities.
At the conclusion of the dialogue session, the participants proposed a set of solutions to counter hate speech.
Ezdina Organization held its second dialogue session under the title “Women are the core of the development of society” on September 28, in the presence of a group of actors in society, while the first dialogue session entitled "Discussing hate speech and countering extremism",was held on 21 September. In the presence of a group of representatives from media institutions and civil society organizations, in addition to influential and effective personalities in society.
It is worth noting that Ezdina Organization opened its headquarters on the first of last August in the city of Qamishlo/Qamishli, and launched the "Hope" project in the region as part of an academic and professional work program aimed at increasing the awareness of the local community about the Yazidi identity and strengthening rapprochement between the religious components in northeastern Syria by respecting pluralism, accepting the other, and rejecting hate speech and violence.
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