Racism directed against someone of a different race, based on the belief that one’s own race is superior, has throughout history led to miseries, exploitations, and violence. Our Western societies have been facing this troubling social disease, which exposes itself in different forms—and sometimes aggressively.
One of the main manifestation of racism is racial profiling, an exercise which has been witnessed often on the streets of our cities and that civic organizations have expressed strong objections to. Many victims or their families have come forward to raise official complaints to authorities in order to illustrate prejudices and stereotyping in the hopes that justice will be served.
Recently, there has been a sharp escalation of hate speech directed against certain citizens based on their religious and cultural backgrounds. Hate speech has become the platform of many of the political parties and some elected officials prior to and during general elections. The unfortunate reality is that the scapegoat of this bigotry has always been the same citizens that continue to experience moral onslaughts that turn increasingly vicious.
Bigotry is not an opinion but a crime, just as hate speech is not freedom of expression but evil.
Samer Majzoub
As a matter of fact, hate speech, which tends to be practiced by the right and far right groups and individuals, is not limited to this crowd only. We have heard statements by many politicians and officials, who appear to represent moderate mainstream political and social spectrums, compete with their peers by using forms of hate speech against a segment of their citizens based on their culture and faith. Hate speech has become an election tool.
The ultimate concern is that as time goes on, the general societal conscious becomes more tolerant to racial intolerance. This will lead to social tension and the absence of security and harmony within the population.
It is clear that there is a lack of political will to deeply address and tackle xenophobia at its root cause.
Samer Majzoub
It is clear that there is a lack of political will to deeply address and tackle xenophobia at its root cause. There is a very real need for elected officials, governmental agencies and the civic society to work hand in hand and come up with a clear vision, objectives and an action plan to confront this destructive philosophy. The necessity, for all democratic constitutions, is to place restraints and illuminate the danger of the misuse of freedom of speech, behind which xenophobes practice their animosity.
Hate speech should not be allowed to incite moral or physical violence against other people based on their ideological, political, religious, racial and sexual orientation backgrounds. Bigotry is not an opinion but a crime, just as hate speech is not freedom of expression but evil.
We are witnessing a world “on the loose”; a world that is losing order; a world that is losing its humanity and dignity.
One does not need to go far back in time to observe the collapse of the world’s structure after World War II. Following millions of casualties and the total destruction of cities and towns during the massive conflict, the victors at that time came together with a new social concept called “human rights”, trying to convince everyone that this concept is the most important.
What we are seeing now is that the prevailing languages amongst the “super powers”, the “civilized” nations, and the developing nations are violence and viciousness!
What is more alarming is the general acceptance by the majority of the world population that hostilities and conflicts ending in bloody consequences are normal courses of action. The moral standard of the human species seems to be declining as time passes. The selfish concept of “us versus them” creates this double “measurement” standard. As long “harm and misery” are being inflicted on “the others”—who may be from a different culture, religions or race—then it becomes tolerated, sometimes with carelessness and negligence.
For example, Syria’s human tragedy has been overlooked for years. Here in the West, we count the number of refugees trying to reach our land and all we do is condemn and denounce. The bloodshed knows no boundaries. The Middle East is in hot water with instability from one location to next. Regional and international powers fight through proxies. No one seems to care about the despair, loss of loved ones, devastation, poverty and frustration being inflicted. What do we expect after all these miseries?
Adding insult to injury, we rush, within what we believe to be the free world, to elect bigots into office. From North America to Europe, all that we see are people competing on clearly bigoted platforms to be legislators and rulers of these nations. This trend is becoming clearer by the day. Discrimination, stereotyping, bullying, and harassment is the content seen in many public speeches of potential office winners, openly applauded by so many. Slogans of human rights, civil liberties, women equality, justice, and fairness are all ignored in the face of this new political tendency.
It’s scary how things could turn. It’s time for people with ethics, intellect, principles, faiths, and universal values to unite as one voice and join the efforts to stand up for peace, unity, humanity against the violence of all sorts, and discrimination of all forms. It’s said that tyrants do not only rule due to the support and backing of a number of powerful interest groups but also due to the silence, inaction and passiveness of the equally powerful majority.
*Samer Majzoub, Canadian Muslim Forum (FMC-CMF) president.
samermajzoub 