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Northern Ireland, The Deep South of America, South Africa, Germany, Palestine, Uganda, all of these places have one thing in common, that hate speech was allowed to go on, and to fester. In all of those places, and in other parts of the world too, hate speech became like a growing cancer on the psyche of mankind. The things that people where saying that they wanted to do, actually did come about. Apartheid in South Africa and America's Deep South, would never have come about, but for the results of a continuing hate speech. Speech that would deride and denounce another race simply on the basis of skin colour. Whole politics, {or Apartheid Politics}, came to the fore based on race. Even the media got in on the act, enforcing stereotypical prejudices among those who already held latent racist or homophobic beliefs. And if the media are saying it, then it must be true - such is the illogical thinking of those who carry out those those thoughts and the will of the ones spouting their prejudices.

Murders, lynchings and every other conceivable type of pogrom ensued against a people pushed and given credence, by hate speech. Hate speech spouted from organisations like the KKK, ensured that their speeches where carried out, literally, in the form of murders. To deny a whole race of people the basic right to liberty and life based solely on religion or race is quite clearly evil. Yet these hate speeches where allowed to go on - and still do go on.

Northern Ireland's long history of bombings and murders of Roman Catholics, was brought about by the many hate speeches of the so-called 'Christian Clergy.' Northern Ireland's troubles are far too complicated to try to explain, but in every incident that happened there, you could say that hate speech was the driving force behind the atrocities - much like the pogroms and atrocities in America's Deep South. Indeed, Northern Ireland was separated,{and still is}, by a religious divide that is so much a part of a way of life now. Protestants on one side, Roman Catholics on another side of the road, and never the twain shall meet.

Hate speeches power the hatred and gives it fuel. A Catholic that wanders onto the wrong side of the road is chased {or at the worst, killed}, and vice versa. I feel also, that the churches could and should play a far bigger role and lead by example. But, far too many of their clergy are too busy, too pre-occupied with looking after their own interests. That, in itself is evil.

Indeed, in fact it has been the Church that has also contributed in some way to the hate around the world, {particularly in Northern Ireland}. They have been too pre-occupied with looking after their own interests, too pre-occupied with spouting the hate speeches of within the North and South divide of Northern Ireland. Instead of trying to bring people together, there is still religious apartheid now even in the 21st Century.

The hate speeches given by some of the Imans of Islam are just another example of a democracy that has gone too far. Their hatred of Western Civilization {while enjoying all the benefits of that civilization}, is sickening. Their hatred of other faiths, denouncing them as 'evil' and of 'little consequence', is, quite frankly, a hate speech. It is a speech that powers the extreme amongst us to murder and maim. Democracy has afforded us, and given us some wonderful things, but to talk about murdering another person, knowing that you can say anything you want in a democratic society, means that that society itself has gone wrong. Yes, there has been arrests after such statements but, how many people are actually sent to prison who spout this sort of thing?

And yes, the same goes for racists amongst our society too. They shout, they demand and look on with hatred at those who they think are the enemy within. Such speeches inevitably lead to attacks on minorities and murders of men, women and even children. Hate speech should never ever be tolerated in a free society. Yes, you can have and form an opinion, no one is saying that you cannot. But, hate speeches are different in that they DO lead to attacks and death. Society has to look at these speeches for what they are and ban them outright.

Hate speech thrives when the conditions are such that they are just right. Recession, lack of housing, and high unemployment are three of the main ingredients that can make hate speech succeed in that climate. Hate speech instigates fear of the unknown -mainly foreigners} Based on lies and damn lies. It is a bit like Chinese whispers, the lies go around the crowd, spread to the population they are then given credence by some parts of the National Press and TV who are sympathetic.

In fact, you could say that it was hate speech that began the 2nd World War. Indeed, Adolf Hitler's speeches where formed and formulated in the small taverns and bars of his homeland. He studied politics extensively and was well-read. Having studied what he needed to know, by the time he was in his early 20s, his opinions had been formed and solidified in his mind, {especially his opinions about the Jews}.

Those speeches to the small gatherings of people in those taverns began to spread. Word got around, and his views where agreed with and taken up. Soon, his speeches were reaching not just a few hundred people, but hundreds and thousands. Yes, Hitler had an agenda, and his agenda was ultimate power and the destruction of a whole race of people. His followers grew and carried out the things that where mentioned in his speeches. These hate speeches where cancerous, poisonous, and spread around the whole world, choking the world in an iron grip of fear. And, at the same time that Hitler was giving his speeches, people where being hung from trees, in another continent...the land of the 'free' America.

What a paradox, that America should fight against Fascism, yet, within her own lands and borders, her own citizens, simply because they had happened to be born with the 'wrong colour skin', where being lynched, due to hate speeches given by the Klan. Yes, the black people where fighting against Fascism and Racism every single day of the week. They didn't need to go abroad to fight Nazi Germany, indeed, for there where Nazis within their own lands that wanted to do to them exactly what the Germans where doing to the Jews.

Hate speeches in Cambodia, where POL POT ruled the roost for so many years, saw the destruction of millions of his own people. In Uganda, Idi Amin, began to leave his legacy behind which is still felt to this day. His hate speeches, transformed Uganda from a land of prosperity into a desolate wasteland, thousands upon thousands of people suffered horrific deaths under his regime, all started by hate speech.

In Yugoslavia, the hellish pogroms that took place there, during the 1990s, with people starving to death in concentration camps, beggared belief. All started with an invasion by the Yugoslav Army after Slovenia and Croatia declared their independence. Hate speeches between the Serbs and Croats pushed this war on to new lows of inhumanity, and the result was there for all to see on our news screens.

The hate speeches between the Israelis and Palestinians continues unabated, and there seems no end to the atrocities there. All these atrocities, as I have mentioned before, have one common theme running through them...hate speeches against a people, against a country.

Yes, there are many more hate speeches around the world that result in the deaths of one, two or maybe a whole race of people. It is up to us, as a society to stand up against hate speech, and to speak out wherever and whenever we happen to come across it. Hate speech can bring out the worst in human beings, but it can also bring out the good in people, who recognize the speech

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