You don't need to look to Kosovo in the late 1980s to find examples of hate speech, writes Quentin Fottrell
THESE ROUSING words on unity come from a landmark political speech from the 20th century: "Equal and united people can above all become a part of the civilisation toward which mankind is moving . . . Citizens of different nationalities, religions, and races have been living together more and more frequently and more and more successfully . . . Their national and historical being has been liberational throughout the whole of history and through two world wars."
Here is a 21st century speech, also on unity, but a superior piece of flowery rhetoric: "This city, of all cities, knows the dream of freedom. And you know that the only reason we stand here tonight is because men and women from both of our nations came together to work, and struggle, and sacrifice for that better life . . . The walls between races and tribes; natives and immigrants; Christian and Muslim and Jew cannot stand. These now are the walls we must tear down."
The first speech was given by Slobodan Milosevic to one million people for the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo and was delivered at Gazimestan on June 28th, 1989. The second was Barack Obama at Berlin's Victory Column to 200,000 people on July 24th, 2008.
The former is the late president of Serbia charged with genocide and crimes against humanity. The latter, who could become the future leader of the free world, was pledging a change in US foreign policy and a new era of peace.
Milosevic was into alternative medicine long before Radovan Karadzic, brewing his own violent strain of nationalism. Obama believes in hope, change and patriotism. One piece of rhetoric belongs to a pantheon of hate speech; the other emulates Ronald "Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall" Reagan and John F "Ich bin ein Berliner" Kennedy.
Hate speech does not always wear its heartlessness on its sleeve and, if cleverly done, it can be indistinguishable from real good. In this way, it is like a virulent germ. You may become immune to certain strains, but just when you least expect it, it mutates . . . and tries again. But it nearly always follows that formula used by Milosevic and his wife, Mirjana Mira Markovic, with her dainty hair ribbons and innocent baby doll voice. Present a wholesome image. Become an infallible seeker of truth where moral duty trumps any kind of social responsibility. Stir emotions. Appeal to prejudice. Fill a void.
These kinds of politicians appeal to the basest instinct. They are modern-day medicine men: do-gooders who offer a powerful elixir as a cure-all for society's ills, even though they spread the germ in the first place. It can be intoxicating if you are unhappy in your life.
They come clutching a history book, mixing heroism and selfless morality with fiction and inaccuracies, or a bible, mixing heroism and selfless morality with fiction and inaccuracies. And a heartfelt, reassuring smile.
But first they must find a minority group to target. For hate speech to work, whether it is a political party, think-tank or religious organisation, "they" must be privately perceived to be weaker than the group, yet simultaneously be publicly regarded as a threat to the rest of society and, therefore, provide a common purpose to unite the group against the others.
Milosevic, Ratko Mladic and Karadzic understood this and co-opted the most heinous crime imaginable :child abuse and rape. In the 1980s, it used propaganda to sell the myth of ethnic Albanians raping Serbs in Kosovo. It presented an emasculated Serbia and ethnic Albanians as animalistic and evil creatures. In fact, during the break-up of the former Yugoslavia, ethnic cleansing included the rape of tens of thousands of Bosnian Muslim women by Serb forces.
The Catholic Church for years moved dangerous, paedophile priests from one parish to another. How did it finally deal with its own institutional rot? In 2005, it strengthened the priesthood ban on those "who are actively homosexual, have deep-seated homosexual tendencies or support the so-called gay culture". The nasty implication was clear: use pseudo-scientific language like "objectively disordered" to dehumanise gay people and deflect its own history of child abuse.
And, so, the germ spreads and mutates. Did a politician in Northern Ireland last week really say: "There can be no viler act, apart from homosexuality and sodomy, than sexually abusing innocent children." Or: "Child abuse was worse even than homosexuality and sodomy." Does it matter? The germ is already out of the lab: this form of moral cleansing starts by casually mentioning a minority group and rape/child abuse in the same sentence, slyly attaching one to the other.
Hate speech is not always so easily identifiable from words that truly serve the public good. You must read between the lines, look at the timing, examine the intentions, question the sensation it causes for the perpetrator, watch the damage it does and see how it weakens judgement. It is not just deluded politicians or fundamentalists.
You may hear it in your local shop, on the street corner or down the pub.
The germ is always there, lying dormant, patiently awaiting its time.