Short-lived or long-lasting, hatred is one of the human emotions that, while having a valid place in the human panoply of feelings, has most often a corrosive impact. Taking different forms, and being often fuelled by our increasingly diverse means of communications, hatred turns entire groups of people to be viewed as the “others”, making them perceived as less than human and, by doing this, justifying prejudice.

This being said, we are proud to be a development partner of Project Someone and the UNESCO Chair for the Prevention of Radicalisation and Violent Extremism in launching a new initiative to counter hate. This is in the form of a free, five-week online course titled From Hate to Hope: Building Understanding and Resilience.

This course offers both conceptual and actionable elements to anyone interested in learning about hate and how to make a move towards a more sustainable emotion such as hope.

Designed with different community stakeholders in mind, this MOOC addresses current issues surrounding hate and radicalization head-on. Starting with an exploration of the distinction between hate speech and free speech, the content moves on to look at how social media can be used to both traffic and challenge hateful messages. This MOOC is distinguished by its integration of multiple voices and perspectives on these issues.

In this course, you will explore the dynamics of hate, including some of its causes. There will be an exploration of who is targeted or vulnerable to hate and how people are manipulated to feel and express hate. The course will also offer you strategies to build resilience to hate, the most important of which is dialogue. As much as social media can be platforms to express hate, they can also be a powerful ally in moving from hate to hope. This course discusses best practices to use social media for advocacy against hate speech. Finally, the course will support you in analyzing and developing strategies to use social media in different sectors.

Registration is open now, and you can enrol here. The course is entirely online, can be completed at your convenience. It is tri-lingual and can be taken in English, French, or Arabic.

The course aims for conversations between a variety of people and the sharing of multiple views on the difficult topic of hate. Your participation will add richness to this dialogue, and you may potentially expand your perspectives about Hate – what underlies it, and what it means to be resilient in the face of hate.