Peer-to-Peer Activity: Practicing Positive Speech
Overview
Participants consider how they can replace speech motivated by a negative stereotype with positive speech that promotes dignity and equality.
Competencies
- Participants identify speech that can incite anger.
- Participants then consider positive responses they can make to minimize conflict.
INTRODUCTION
- Provide participants with an example of speech that mischaracterizes another group and spreads anger. The example of a Nigerian Christian pastor in Sierra Leone that incited hatred for Islam is included below, with a link to the full article also under the Resources tab.
(Since this example was used in the Threshold Test, a previous activity in Learning Path 2, participants may benefit from working with this familiar example to practice positive speech.)
ACTIVITY
Share an example of speech that discriminates against another group. For example, the Nigerian Christian pastor reportedly said to a congregation in Sierra Leone, “The Muslims are responsible for every terrorist act.”
Explain that faith actors could respond to this discriminatory statement with positive speech. For instance, a positive response to the Nigerian Christian pastor could be, “The Muslims and Christians can work together to ensure a peaceful community.”
Provide participants time to think of other positive responses to this example or to similar personal situations.
- Consider using the questions under the Discussion Questions tab to guide participants’ practice.
Invite participants to share their positive speech phrases with the group.
CONCLUSION
- Participants may consider how to share these positive messages with members of their faith-based communities (such as within worship services or through social media or advertising).
- Participants could write their responses in their Faith for Rights notebooks, if provided, to recall positive responses for use in future situations.
Scenario: “Christian Pastor in Sierra Leone Blames Muslims”
A popular Nigerian Christian pastor was arrested in Sierra Leone for a sermon that incited hatred for Muslims. The pastor told his large Evangelical congregation that Islam is “a violent religion of lies and deceit” and claimed that Muslims are responsible for “every terrorist act in the history of the world.”
Video recordings of his sermon were posted online and quickly went viral. Both Muslim and Christian communities in Sierra Leone condemned the pastor’s comments. The head of Sierra Leone’s criminal investigations department replied that citizens of Sierra Leone are tolerant of other religions and live peaceably. “No one wants that disrupted,” he explained.
Although Sierra Leone has no specific anti-hate speech laws, incitement is prohibited under the common law. During the investigations, all six branches of the pastor’s church were shut down. A director of a local civil rights group spoke out, claiming that a person’s right to worship should not be limited and that the government should not shut down the church just because of hateful comments made by one person.
A Muslim member of an inter-faith council urged his followers to forgive the pastor and extend peace to their Christian neighbors. Some people on social media have demanded that the pastor apologize while others have insisted he be deported back to Nigeria.
These questions may guide participants as they practice positive speech:
- What might be the effect of a statement that discriminates against another group or that blames another group for conflict?
- What might be the effect of responding to a discriminatory or accusatory statement with a positive statement?
- What are some things a faith actor might consider before responding to a discriminatory or accusatory statement with a like-minded statement?
- What are some strategies a faith actor might use to avoid reacting to a discriminatory or accusatory statement in a like-minded way?
- News Article: Nigerian Pastor in Sierra Leone Blames Muslims
While facilitators have flexibility in choosing peer-to-peer activities for Faith for Rights sessions depending on the needs and interests of the group, some activities complement or build on another activity within the suggested Learning Paths.
In Learning Path 2, the Threshold Test activity provides a scenario to analyze speech. This scenario also can be used in the Practicing Positive Speech activity. Facilitators may choose to do these two activities in tandem although it is not required. Learning Paths are suggestions and can be adapted as a Faith for Rights group sees fit.
Additional Tips for All Peer-to-Peer Activities
- The #Faith4Rights modules are flexible and require adaptation by the facilitators before their use. Case studies related to peer-to-peer exercises in the 18 modules need to be selected by the facilitators from within the environment where the learning takes place. The #Faith4Rights toolkit is a prototype methodology that requires contextualization, based on the text of the 18 commitments, context, and additional supporting documents.
- Not all issues raised need to be resolved. This would be an impossible and even a counterproductive target. The aim is rather to enhance critical thinking and communication skills, admitting that some questions could receive many answers, depending on numerous factors.
- Tensions may occur during discussions related to “faith” and “rights.” Most of these tensions are due to human interpretations. Learning sessions are spaces for constructive dialogue in a dynamic process where tensions can be reduced with the help of clear methodologies, including pre-emptive situation analysis and evidence of positive results in areas of intersectionality between faith and rights.
- When preparing the sessions, facilitators need to factor in the profile, age, and backgrounds of participants. Focused attention on the learning objectives can transform tensions into constructive exploration of new ideas.
- Meaningful engagement requires democratically pre-established rules. Facilitators should dedicate time with participants to elaborate these rules together at the outset and act all along the training as their custodians.
- The time frames suggested in this #Faith4Rights toolkit are merely indicative. Facilitators may adapt them freely to suit the needs of their group of participants. The key balance is between respecting the overall time frame while not cutting short a positive exchange momentum.
- To ensure optimal and sustainable benefit, facilitators may create a “training notebook” for participants during their peer-to-peer learning sessions. It would contain a compilation of templates to help participants keep track of what they have learned throughout the program and eventually use this notebook as their personalized follow-up tool.
- When technically feasible, facilitators are also advised to project the module under discussion on screen in order to alternate between discussions thereon and showing the audio-visual materials listed in each module or any other items selected by the facilitator.
- “Now this is the command: Do to the doer to make him do.” (Ancient Egyptian Middle Kingdom)
- “Repay injury with justice and kindness with kindness.” (Confucius)
- “What is hateful to you, don’t do to your friend.” (Talmud, Shabat, 31,a)
- “Whatever words we utter should be chosen with care for people will hear them and be influenced by them for good or ill.” (Buddha)
- “By self-control and by making dharma (right conduct) your main focus, treat others as you treat yourself.” (Mahābhārata)
- “You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against your kinsfolk. Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Leviticus 19:18)
- “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.” (Matthew 7:12)
- “Ascribe not to any soul that which thou wouldst not have ascribed to thee, and say not that which thou doest not.” (Baha’u’llah)