This website is part of a project and campaign to combat discrimination and intolerance based on religious grounds in Europe. Led by the Media Diversity Institute (MDI) with the support of seven partners spread throughout Europe (see partner’s section) the campaign will harness the power of social media to disseminate innovative media outputs and generate dialogue in order to deliver a powerful counter-narrative against diverse forms of hate speech, including antisemitism, Islamophobia, anti-Christian sentiment.
FAQ
Are you against criticising religions?
No. We believe respectful criticism of religion is a vital part of any thriving democracy. We are specifically focused on the rights and safety of people practising religion. When criticism of religion overflows into assumptions of intellectual or moral inferiority of people practising a religion, this is not just hurtful, but also potentially dangerous and harmful.
What about inter-religious conflicts?
We do not believe anyone’s right to practice religion extends to harming other people. If a conflict arises with religious intolerance at its core, we believe that it should be reported on and it should be reported accurately, carefully and without unnecessary generalisation. Sometimes people do harm saying it is in the name of their religion – it is vital to remember that terrorists, fanatics, and other radicals never speak for an entire group.
Are you pro-censorship?
No. We are pro-monitoring and pro-accountability. We will call out hateful and inflammatory reporting. But our goal isn’t to have some undetermined higher power censor the media; it is for the media to make sure they report in a responsible manner about issues of diversity.
What are you trying to do with this website?
We’re trying to encourage people to consume media in a critical manner and speak up when they notice speech that is trying to limit people’s rights to live their religion in a respectful manner. We do this in multiple ways, trying to draw attention to inflammatory reporting, teaching people.
But trolls are just harmless people having fun!
Well, that’s one way to interpret that term. But even when it’s done to “just have some fun”, abusing and harassing people based on their identity is wrong and harmful. Also, we could hardly call the project “Get various-individuals-who-might-be-violent-or-might-be-just-having-fun-or-might-have-a-political-agenda out”.
Project objectives
Reducing and degrading hate speech, discrimination and intolerance based on religious grounds in the European media space.
Empowering civil society organizations across Europe to identify and highlight intolerance and xenophobia targeting religious groups including Jewish, Muslim, and Christian communities.
Challenging stereotypes, debunking extremist mythology and shaping public opinion by developing inclusive content and leveraging traditional and new media platforms.
Consolidating and extending the network of human rights defenders and young activists committed to stemming the rise of intolerance and discrimination in Europe.
Key activities
Media monitoring: the basis of the campaign will be monitoring of anti-religious speech and discourse by public and other figures in traditional and new media. Reports will be produced and summarized in monthly video digests.
Complaints: when the project’s monitoring efforts detect anti-religious speech and discourse in the media, project partners will expose and counter them using the most appropriate mechanisms, such as articles, videos, blog posts, letters to and meetings with editors and heads of policy, as well as reporting hate speech to social media platforms.
Video production: videos will be produced and shared on social media to rigorously debunk anti-religious stereotypes and give voice to personal testimonies and experiences, contributing to a wider awareness and understanding of hate speech and its impact.
Social media campaign: this website and its associated social media platforms are the key component of the campaign, and will be used to disseminate media and other campaign products and launch discussion about combating anti-religious hate.
Memes: the immediacy and irony of memes will be used to counter hateful messages which have continued to plague this medium.
