The co-chair of the Yazidi House in Jazeerah region, Farouk Tozo, said that hate speech has a fatal effect on society, as it leads to disastrous results and civil war, and it is one of the most dangerous types of wars, where everyone is a loser.
Tozo's speech came during the third dialogue session held by Ezdina Organization, yesterday, Thursday, under the title "Discussing Hate Speech and Anti-Extremism", within the "Hope" project, in the presence of Muslim, Christian and Yazidi clerics and representatives of religious institutions, at the Ezdina's office in the city of Qamishlo/Qamishli.
Tozo added that neglecting to search for a solution to stop hate speech or limit its continuation will have a disastrous impact on society, because hate speech develops itself through the confrontation with the other who adopts the same discourse.
Tozo explained that confronting such rhetoric is through knowing its seriousness, realizing its disastrous consequences, and searching for ways to mitigate that risk.
Tozo stressed that the authorities must support every action that limits hate speech through intellectual seminars and targeted information, in addition to focusing on the role of educational curricula in planting the values of tolerance and acceptance of others.
Tozo pointed out that the role of clerics is essential and important in confronting hate speech, especially in a society that is still closely related to this group, and therefore a cleric can be passive and push his religious people to adopt hate speech, exclude others and use violence, as a cleric can make his followers -they are not a few- to adopt the discourse of acceptance of the other and their participation in the decision.
With regard to the role of the media, Tozo explained that the media is a tool for the clerics and writers, and that recent experiences have demonstrated the seriousness of the role of the media in dismantling countries and destroying their infrastructure -for example, the Qatari tv channel AlJazeera- as well as in concealing events in other countries that may genocide against human beings took place, and what Erdogan did in the Kurdish regions without concern for all media outlets in recent years is an example of this.
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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