Voices Against Hate – Episode 8: Shahinaz El Hennawi on Preventing Hate Before It Becomes Violence

In Voices Against Hate – Episode 8, Shahinaz El Hennawi—an international peacebuilding educator, conflict transformation specialist, and founder of Light of Peace, Inc.—shares powerful insights on preventing hate before it escalates into violence. Drawing from more than 25 years of global experience, she explores the root causes of hate, the importance of belonging, restorative justice, and the role of education, dialogue, and understanding in building peaceful communities. This inspiring conversation highlights practical ways individuals, educators, faith leaders, and communities can replace fear with compassion and create a culture of peace rooted in dignity, inclusion, and human connection.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

We are living in a time where hate has become louder, where words are fueling divisions, and where fear and violence are entering our streets, schools, homes, and places of worship. Every day, people are being targeted because of their faith, race, culture, or simply because they are different. But we refuse to allow hate to define our future. This series is about more than hate crimes. It is about humanity, healing, understanding, and courageous conversations that bring people together instead of tearing them apart. Featuring faith leaders, community advocates, public officials, survivors, and voices from different backgrounds united in confronting hate and building hope. Because love must speak louder than hate. And our shared humanity must always rise above division. Join us for this powerful new series on the SB Life Institute podcast. Conversations on hate, healing, unity, and hope. Coming soon. Today, as your host, we are honored to welcome someone whose life's work has touched communities across the globe. Joining us is Shehinaz, an international peace building, educator, spiritual peace coach, conflict transformation specialist, and founder of Light of Peace Inc. For over 25 years, she has worked alongside governments, civil societies, organizations, and also women movements, educators, community leaders to advance something that is quite important and vital in the time that we live peace and human dignity. She currently serves as a facilitator with the Peace and Justice Institute in Orlando, chairs diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging for ICF Central Florida, and serves on the Council of Directors of Pathway to Peace. Today, in our conversation, we explore a topic affecting every community in this current time. And we will talk about how do we prevent hate before it becomes violence. Shahinaz, welcome, and I'm very delighted that you take time, I know you're quite busy, uh, to be here on our podcast. Welcome. And I'll start by saying um that this conversation is quite important, right? And um, the conversation that surrounds hate crime and peace building. Um, what comes to mind when you hear the words hate crime to be specific?

SPEAKER_00 3:34

Thank you so much, Safraz. It's really a privilege and honor to be with you here and talking on this very important topic. Um, the first thing that comes to mind is really from my background and my experience is prevention, uh, belonging and restoration. So um, do you want me to say more? Yes, please. Okay. So my background, my I first started my background in public health. My mom is a public health professor, so I grew up hearing all the time prevention is better than cure. So we always, you know, or a lot of the times, not always, wait for a problem to happen and then we think how can we deal with it or how can we um fix it. But we need to go before that and think of even prevent uh a problem before even occurring. So that's the prevention. And then um the belonging again coming from my just very recent background, I've been a chair uh chair of uh diversity, equity and inclusion and international coaching federation for the last six months, and I've learned so much, even though I had so many years in peace and conflict, but diversity and equity is very important, especially here in the United States. Um, my background is from the Middle East, and and coming here and seeing that the United States is a place of diversity. We have so many um people coming from different cultures from all over the world. So it is very important that everybody feels that they are belonging in a big home for that for is here for all of us. And also restoration, because okay, hate crime. I I just uh was a part of a pilot project in Orlando on reporting hate crime, and we talked about why people do not report and what happens when they report, and of course, justice is is important, accountability is important, but also what happens after that, right? It's not just accountability, it's um, for example, if hate crime happened between neighbors, like that, they will go back after uh you know justice takes its its path and they will see each other again. So, how can we restore that? So, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:59

So it's so thank you so much for for sharing, uh sharing that. It's it's it's important for us to have this conversation, as I said, and for us to understand the key point, uh, a key point, and that is um diversity in diversity there is strength, and I think that message has to to uh somehow get spread and and and disseminated in in the various uh facets in society. Uh a quick question, you know, how has your work in DEIB, diversity, equity, inclusion, build-in, transformed the the way that you think? You know, like I I know of your background in coming, you know, originally from Egypt and that you you you're here in the United States and and you interacted with many, many people. How has your work in this particular field um somehow transformed the way you think?

SPEAKER_00 6:53

Thank you so much. So I in Egypt, I mean, uh I most of my life I lived in Egypt, but I also been traveling since a very young age. And I traveled all over the continent. I I studied in Costa Rica and the university for peak for a year and a half. I studied in Austria and Europe. Um, I worked in Asia and Afghanistan. I I traveled to Malaysia. So I traveled a lot and also I worked 10 years in Egypt in the Library of Alexandria. Library of Alexandria is is the you know is a hub for international um uh participants coming. We used to have 3,000 plus conferences for people from all over the world uh on several topics. So throughout all these years, I had a great exposure to meet people from all over the world. And uh yeah, so I always growing up uh, you know, thinking that we're all one, we're all one human soul. And um I I didn't really think of that we need to make an effort to to to feel belonging or to bring equity and diversity. It was I thought it was natural and normal. Uh, but then when I came here to the US and I took this role, I I told them like I always and when I talk to a lot of people, they say the same thing in in um in our application forms for memberships or anywhere else, you know, how they have these categories of ethnicity and race and all of that. And a lot of people leave that empty. And whenever I get into conversation, people would say, uh, we're all human. I don't have to feel this. Um I also felt I didn't feel belonging because I am uh Arab, Egyptian, Middle Eastern, and there's no category for that. It's either uh, you know, white, black, or Hispanic, and I and I didn't know what to say, and I was like, there's no need to all of that. But as I went deeper into that, I understood that yes, we are all human in one aspect, but it's also important to affirm and acknowledge the different culture identities that we bring. We all have different uh, and it's important to get to know each other, to really know each other. And I'm I want to recite from the Quran a verse, um, it's about we've created you uh nations and tribes so that you may know one another. So this is the whole thing. If if God wanted to create it uh to create us all alike, uh, you know, God would have done that. You would have kids who tell me, mommy, why why do we look different? Um and and I tell them it's it's because so that we know one another. This is the whole um you know wisdom behind that is that it's it's different people, different countries, different culture, and the beauty is getting to know each other and understanding more. And that takes me to the prevention, right? Because kids, kids they don't know hate, kids they don't know violence. If you see them in kindergarten, they all play together with kids from different background and ethnicity and culture. It's yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:10

Yeah, yeah, that you're you're you're yeah, I I think it's so it's it's you're you're on point because you look at certain videos and interaction with kids from diverse backgrounds. Um, a matter of fact, there was a research that was done in a social experiment where they put uh various kids from different backgrounds, different colors and shades in a gathering, and you can see that there was no barrier. They will go and hold each other's hand and play with them. And and I uh when I look at this, right, uh get to understand the nature of the humankind that God created us so that we may know each other, that that artificial barriers places uh we did we were not born with it. It was taught actually. And I just uh I find what you say uh quite interesting, you know. Uh social psychologists often distinguish between uh equality and equity, and equity treats everyone um in a particular way identically, while uh equity recognizes people being uh different historically and social experiences belonging goes one step farther, right? And I'll say it asks, does this person genuinely feel welcome?

unknown 11:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:28

Um, and when we look at that particular distinction, um I think you know, being a social act activist and a peace builder and also a peace ambassador, I think uh in helping people to understand this, that uh I don't want to get political in this discourse, but I think uh there is a need for policies, uh policies um from governmental officials uh to to be made to create inclusion. Um and uh I I think that will help as well while we're trying in our platform to uh emphasize on this. Um it's also important for for um policies to be made to accept everyone. Um as you said, that uh you shared uh a few minutes ago about the Quranic verse, um this also reminds me of something very beautiful in the Islamic tradition, where we are told that every human being carry uh carries dignity before they carry an identity, that there is we were created dignified, you know, uh God created us in that way. And so while we try to identify ourselves with a particular from a particular nation, particular religion, politic political, uh, particular uh orientation, that I think uh that seriously, I do believe that um uh our our dignity comes before our identity. And honoring someone's story uh deepens our humanity. And you know, that's that's something I I firmly believe. I just want to ask, you know, as we move forward, what are the root causes of of hate? What do you would the you know, what do you, if you can kindly share that, you know, we'll really appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00 13:23

I love this question very much. And I would like here to really acknowledge uh Marshall Rosenberg, the founder of nonviolent communication, because through my studies, uh I've studied the culture of peace, and um and and also we studied a lot of Marshall Rosenberg work because it's very impractical. Um, and I I I did a whole program on the difference between culture of peace and culture of violence. So again, I like to quote Marshall Rosenberg because um when he was a young kid, he was discriminated against, he was bullied because of his identity, and in his neighborhood that there was a hate crime and killing, and he had to be um he had to stay in his room for three nights, and as a young kid growing up, he was confused. Why? Why do I have to be imprisoned in my room? Because some people there killed each other, and all his life, he was asking two questions what makes people violent, and what um, and the other way, like there are some people that no matter what happens, they stay peaceful. Um, so he studied clinical psychology and everything, but then at the end he came up with this non-violent communication. Um, and he says it's not new, it's some it's just a reminder, it's just a formula to remind you because we all are born on the compassion, like this is our nature, as we talked before about kids. But what happens as um we grow up and we we go through you know the life and culture and everything is that we all have needs, and and this is the notion of nonviolent communication, is that everyone who does anything, they do it because of a need. If we go beyond the action and see why they did that. So, for example, if someone hits someone, right? It's yeah, they don't do it just to do it. They're they're not they don't wake up in the morning and say, Oh, I want to hit this person. They they have a prestigious thought that this person might be a threat to them, right? Or they that they're if they don't hit this person, they will hit them. So there is an underlying reason beyond that. And this is how the the thoughts are shaped, um, and they come speaking again about children from the parents. When an incidence happen, like if uh if someone um uh you know say a bad word to me because of my identity, I build that in my mind, and it it I I grow up with it. No, this kind of person or this kind of culture, they hate me. So I grow with that. I grow up with that, and then I I tell my kids, don't talk to these people because there is an incident that happened to me. But again, what made this incident happen, going back to the nonviolent communication, is that our our judgments, it's mainly judgments, and we live with judgments all the time. Um, and we don't we don't question these judgments. It's something that we take. Like if again, growing up, my parent told me all the this people coming from this religion or this um because she had she went through an incident, she gives me that, and I take it from my parents or my culture, and it's ingrained in me that I don't question later on. So unvaid communication helps us to question everything, to question our judgments, where is it coming from and why? And looking at the person as a human trying to fulfill a need, yes, it can be in a distorted way, we're not justifying violence, but what happened to them in the first place that made them become that violent? Like, what's going on for them? Probably they were subjected to violence before from someone from this culture, so it became a rule to them that all people coming from this culture are like that. Um, this is why you talked about policies. Again, policies are good for prevention or for for justice afterwards, but I want to bring in a way and education, which is a huge part, and it's part of the work that we do for pathways to peace, educating um culture of peace. And and there there are some programs in the school, but I will always say do it to the parents. The kids don't need that, the kids already have it. We need to reach we need to to have a big movement on all levels by teaching the culture of peace, you know, like in schools, in in corporates, in um in in uh you know, religious uh communities, interfaiths, everything, because there's a lot of fear um of people expressing who they are, right? Because of the hate crimes or judgments, or so how can we um overcome this fear by getting to know each other? Because a lot of the times we have misconceptions or judgments, but then when we sit in a setting and talk with this person, um, we're like, you know, we question ourselves like why was I afraid or why was I having this a perception? It it it it dissolves, right? When when we really have these settings when we get to know each other.

SPEAKER_01 19:01

So I what I'm hearing basically from what you were saying and listening keenly to what you were saying is that our past experiences, um, you know, past experiences can impact a person's um current action. And I've seen uh let's take, for example, the um African American um past experiences sometimes impact uh the current situation that they're in. Um my country, or a country of origin, Guyana, they had there was a political unrest. And I'm just sharing this not to bring up politics again, but to look at the dynamics of societies, right? Um there was a political unrest. Uh, and you know, the Indians in our country often look back at that time when they were oppressed by a particular sect of people, and they carry on, uh they remember that. The older folks remember that that incident, they pass it on to their children, to the grandchildren, and years have passed, and you have learned that this particular group in our country, the Afro-Gaynese, I'll say it openly, that you know, you have to be cautious with them. And I I think uh we have to correct that thought process, that your past basically, um, while we are highlighting um your your key points that we also want to share, that that we have to correct that thought process, that you should not allow the you learn from the past, but do not allow your past to to impact your current. Get to know the person and you know remove that barrier. If you had bad experiences from a particular religious background, uh uh gender, um it's amazing that we are talking about it. I saw a clip of of an uh uh African uh old person from Rwanda. He's living in a remote village and he's he has locked himself out because he has a negative feeling towards women. He doesn't want to see women, period. And so what he did, he built this huge fence. And I'm looking at this thing, uh, just he doesn't want to see from a very young age or from 1920, and now he's an older man that could hardly walk. And the amazing thing is the women in the village are actually providing him with meals and with food, they're putting it over the fence and he's eating. And and when he was asked, he he mentioned of a past experience that he had, an aggressive experience with a woman, and from since then he placed that wall and that barrier basically, and he he isolated himself. And um I literally teared teared. When I saw him and the state, the physical state that he was in, and the state that he was in. But I just wanted to share because that definitely resonates. And I think many question about the root cause. What is the root cause of this hate that we're seeing? Because I know for a fact that hate is learned. No child, as I said before, is actually born hating another child. You know, children first learn fear, right? And then they learn stereotypes and then suspicion. And eventually what happens is that they inherit prejudice. So this social conditioning, as psychologists may say. Maybe I would be glad if you can, you know, uh elaborate how peace building seeks to somehow interrupt this conditioning that we're seeing um in our community.

SPEAKER_00 23:02

Yeah, I I want to go back to you before uh I get to that about the reasons. There's so many reasons why there is violence, you know, trauma, a big one, as you said. And it's not just trauma of the person themselves or going through the past experience, but the generation, right? Like that what you were talking about, seeing like in war-torn societies, there are, you know, generations of um trauma and generational killing and hatred, and and and this stays, you know, even it was years ago, but it stays through the years. And this is why the healing, the restoration, the reconciliation is important. You cannot um you cannot start you know talking about peace when when when there is a lot of things carried within. So healing of these past traumas is very important. Um media, media is a big, big influence in University for Peace. We studied uh peace media, and there's no peace media. It's it's all you know, you you open the news, it's all bad news, hate, cry, even social media and everything, because um uh it has something to do with the chemistry of the brain. The brain likes to see excitement and likes to see this news that you know there is action and things like this is happening. So, I mean, this is what sells, right? It it it uh it builds in hormones and dopamine and all of that. So again, uh culture and as I said, upbringing and parents and beliefs and and fear. So again, there's a big list of of the reasons, but going back to how can we restore that and how can we deal with that, um I I want to give life examples, right? Like again, there's a big list, as I said, education, awareness, um uh knowing each other. But I want to recall in University for Peace, I think we were coming from 150 um countries coming to study uh peace. And what we did there, like I still that was 15 years ago, but I still remember that. We used to have like an African night, Asian night, Middle Eastern night, and then we repeat culture, like food and clothes and uh a performance, and then we ask, we answer questions, we talk about things, so that helps dissolve all the misconceptions. Like, for example, yeah, I come from the Middle East, I came to the West a lot. I I don't know anything about Asia and the Eastern uh culture. I learned a lot, I learned so much, and I I must admit, I had some stereotypes or judgments from again, from media, from culture, my culture. But then when I when I attended such events and I got to know that that was an amazing experience. Why don't we bring more of this everywhere? Um, unfortunately, even within one culture or within one faith, you know, there they're different cultures. You would see different sects and and just people coming together because of course there is familiarity and they know each other, but again, it's like there are you know different diff differences inside everything, right? Um, and also as you're talking about um uh the experience you shared, I want to mention uh a great example from Nigeria. Um they are the Imam and the pastor, and their story was fascinating. They go all around the world and they teach peace and conflict resolution. Um, you know, that there is a lot of conflict between Christians and and Muslims in Nigeria, and the uh I think the the pastor had his arm or leg was you know you know um was gone through a conflict, and one of them wanted to kill the other for like 10 years, right? And they were like, I will kill them because blah blah blah. And then somehow they managed to get together and they became friends, and now for so many years, they not just Nigeria, they they traveled the world to teach people how from wanting to kill each other now that they are going together to to bring that peace. Uh back to the University for Peace, uh, recalling Rwanda, we had um two men from uh you know the Hutu and the Tutsi, and and we did celebrate Rwanda genocide and everything, and you see them coming together and working together and studying together for a future of peace. So all this initiative needs to be highlighted. Um, again, restorative justice and all the the good examples that are there uh and stories need to be you know highly disseminated as we disseminate this um violence media, we need to bring all these great stories beyond the scene that are most of the time not shown, right? Because these are things that um would help with with um um with with human emotions and and inspiration as well.

SPEAKER_01 28:26

So uh what I'm what I'm hearing basically like uh having platforms, having conversation, that's one talking about it, sharing stories, uh education. Um these are practical steps that we can actually take in in uh somehow counteract that uh uh hateful rhetorics that we are actually seeing or narratives that we are seeing, uh, or the peddling of hate. Um education, I think, is a key thing, as you're saying, um, to ensure that we share the stories and initiatives that are are being um taken across the globe to build harmony and togetherness. Um and I think uh this is a great start, and and you know, this is a great start for us to do this. I really believe in having these open dialogues. Um as an imam and spiritual leader, I often say this, I'll say it again, I probably echo this multiple times on this platform, that uh religious leaders, their work should extend beyond the walls of the mosque and to go out and to share these narratives and to think a little bit deeper about the society that we live in behind, our religion itself, Islam. That, you know, right now in Texas, I know that the uh politicians that are sitting in high offices are calling and advocating for the ban of Islamic law. I don't know what's their understanding of Islamic law, and saying that Islam is over overtaking, for example, um uh uh Texas. I I'm sharing this for a particular reason is that the lack of knowledge, I think a lack of knowledge that's one of what Islamic law is, and also when you see people occupying um platforms, uh major platforms, and they're sharing a tweet or they're making a statement that words do matter because it it has a ripple effect and it pushes people to commit violence and peace. So we have to counteract those narratives through uh these types of discourses, and it has to come from trusted communities, peace builders, community leaders, uh, religious leaders, right? Religious leaders with a moral compass and should understand the role that they play. And um, you know, thank you so much for sharing that. You know, yeah, you have worked um uh internationally and taught it's always uh uh a great moment in chatting with you and to see the depth of your your your work in your your thought process about peace building. Um, and I know that you have worked uh uh internationally. Um and I'll say this that many people who work internationally, I think this country, uh the United States, that many seeks to divide, can learn a lot. What lessons should this uh America consider? Um, do you think they should consider um from your experience as someone who would worked internationally?

SPEAKER_00 31:33

Um, you know what? I'm a I'm a I'm a spiritual coach as well, and sometimes thoughts just come to me without any preparation. And as you were speaking about everything, just one quote came to me from my my teacher and mentor is that understanding replaces forgiveness in the mind of the master. And I love this quote because once we understand, we don't need to forgive, because if we understand what if we deeply understand, I know it could be controversial, but if we deeply understand why did this person do that, we might really, you know, like why would I forgive them? I understand. Like if there is a two years old kid or three years old kid, um, you know, uh blew up something, we won't, we won't, we won't be heard that we need to forgive them. It's we would say that they just they're kids, they don't understand. And I know, of course, there is a responsibility on the adults, but going through what they went through, and we are all different, you know, some people there's a lot of ignorance out there and lack of understanding and circumstances. Yes, of course, again, there there is a responsibility for people to go do the search and the work, but also psychologically and emotionally, if people have been suppressed for so many years and you know that they just want to get back to their oppressor, right? So understanding is a big key to understand everything, to understand the human, um the the human development, to understand what goes in our minds and in our hearts, and and work with that is is very important on on a human level, you know, like that this is just globally not just America, but this there is a need for more understanding and and knowing.

SPEAKER_01 33:32

So, you know, we're approaching the ending the end of our discourse, and uh I just want to ask, you know, if you're to offer uh an advice or a counsel to uh the various communities in the US and beyond, and for our listeners, what would that be?

SPEAKER_00 33:52

Thank you so much. I I would really um my recommendation is uh I think of it as on all levels. So let's start with the individual, the individual level, and what is our responsibilities as individuals is to to learn about who we are, uh our our deep selves, right? Like uh um we don't have to be a psychologist, but at least there is a minimum level of knowing who am I, what is my shadows or my egos, or the the parts of me that I don't like to show. We all have limitations and we all have a little bit parts, like we we call it in Islam, the heart diseases, um, the parts that we don't want to face, you know, like the envy, the jealousy, the uh the pride. We all have parts of that. We're humans. So facing these and understanding, and when we see ourselves making judgments or saying, oh, this person is that, or to to have a moment with ourselves and question and and and go deep and you know, recall our beliefs and um and what who do we really want to be as humans living this life? Do we want to have um love in our heart, or do we want to have fear? Like being conscious in the way we we live, being conscious in the way we think, being conscious and even our words, sometimes words can really hurt. So working on that self-level is important, and also with the others, compassion, understanding, more understanding of starts with the family in the home, and um, you know, there's a lot of conflicts inside the home, but when we sit and understand and try to to have an open conversation and talk about our emotions and our needs, and um like try to really work with our judgments, and then we go further into the communities, the the school, the institution, the education institutions, doing more of events and dialogue, um, like the ones I I just you know shared from University for Peace, um, corporate, everyone has responsibility in all levels, government and policy and and all of that, you know, these podcasts, uh, media, all of that. Um so if we can all really think and and have a conscious choice, again, my mentors would say every thought or word or action, it's either contraction or expansion, it's either love or fear. So we need to think and choose and be conscious on all levels. What is it that we want to bring to this lifetime? Because life is very short, we're here just for a short period, and it's it's it's not worth it, all this hate and all this um animosity, because we are the ones who suffer when we have any anger or hate in our hearts. It's it's it's you know, like we carry this forward and it affects our life in all levels.

SPEAKER_01 37:08

So thank you so much, uh, Shahinaz. As we conclude our program, I just want to say thank you for reminding us that peace is not merely um uh an international agenda, it's uh a deeply personal responsibility that we have. And um today's conversation uh has shown us that uh preventing hate is not solely the work of law enforcement, it's not the work of parents, it's not only the work of educators and faith leaders and neighbors and policymakers, businesses, and every but every individual who chooses empathy over fear, right? This is our responsibility as human beings. Well, God created us in a particular way, and we have that obligation to live in a peaceful manner and let our actions speaks uh in a positive on use in a positive voice. Um, your emphasis on belonging, prevention, and restoration offers a very uh powerful framework, I think, for building healthier communities. And I think I like that you have you know uh presented in that way so that we were able to think uh about the stages and what we can do uh to to help in uh with this particular crisis. As people of faith, uh, we are reminded that every human being is honored by our creator, and despite what faith you may belong to, um but you should all uh remember what something that we have in common in all faiths, that we are all the children of God, or it's uh you know God created all of us uh in this diverse way. And diversity is not a problem to solve, it's definitely a sign to appreciate our differences needed not to divide us, but rather uh it becomes an opportunity for us to learn, it becomes an opportunity for us to grow and strengthen one another. Um, to our listeners, remember peace is not passive, right? It's an intentional choice we choose every day. It's our words, it's our relationships, it's our willingness to truly know one another and taking time to know the people around you. Uh, thank you so much for joining us on SB Life Institute Podcast. And this conversation inspired uh uh hopefully that it will inspire uh educators and others who are actively involved in this work to do more. And I want to thank you so much, Shahanas, for the work that you do and for continuously being inspiration and a very strong voice uh to advocate peace and to be a beacon of light for those that you work with and beyond. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_00 40:03

Thank you so much, Safras. Thank you for this opportunity. I appreciate it.