Honorable President of the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts,
Distinguished Heads of Religious Communities in the Republic of Macedonia,
Esteemed Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is my honor to greet you at this National Conference on Political and Inter-Religious Tolerance, organized by the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts and the OSCE Mission in Macedonia. Conference focused on finding mechanisms to stop hate speech on the Internet. Conference held at the right time, on the eve of the International Day for Tolerance. Tolerance has become universal, common human value. Value upon which peace, security and stability of our societies rely.

Voltaire says that "Tolerance is the consequence of humanity". Humanity, however, is characterized by the acceptance of the other, the different. This acceptance would have been impossible without the golden rule present in almost all religions. The rule that says that we should treat others the way we want to be treated.

Humanity today, being the source of tolerance, respect and acceptance of diversity is, indeed, facing a huge challenge.

In this modern digital age, intolerance is spreading with increasing speed. If it reaches a soil soaked with resentment, isolation and bitterness will result in hate speech. The hate speech, in its expansion, unfortunately, always tries to keep up with the time.

Today, hatred makes use of the Internet to spread like a virus. As computer viruses affect computer's memory, hate speech is a virus that affects human mind. Symptoms are known: narrowed human visual field, darkened human worldview, paranoiac suspicion of the unknown, invented hostilities. Creation of stereotypes and prejudice. Victims of this virus are the others, the different, the unlike.

In the recent past, this condition was commonly associated with the Balkan region and was named as Balkanization. But today we see that intolerance is present everywhere. The consequences of the military hot spots in the Middle East and North Africa are felt in the developed countries, too. Neither Europe nor the Republic of Macedonia is unaffected by this negative phenomenon.

The European strategy for combating radicalization and recruitment into terrorism of 2005, unfortunately, has not yet provided the desired results. It is enough to look at the negative comments on the social networks. We have numerous cases of young people from the region indoctrinated over the internet. More often there are extremist messages calling for fight, bloodsheds and violence. Calls to demolish holy temples and burn holy books.
Religious extremism has nothing in common with the real faith in God, as the holy wars have nothing sacred. Exactly holiness is the first victim of the so-called holy wars. It is a serious threat to us, to the Balkans, to Europe. The question is no longer whether we should react, but how to deal with these negative phenomena?

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Open space creates people with open minds. But what should we do when the open cyberspace is not sufficient to create people with open minds? Can we blame the Internet? The Internet is a human creation and mirror. Like humans, the Internet contains potential for good and for bad. The problem is not in the Internet, but in the purposes it is used for.

Will we allow radical individuals and groups, through the social networks, to fish our young people, being the most vulnerable category? Will we allow the Internet to become a network for religious radicalism recruitment?

Responsibility should not only be sought in the extremists. They simply fill the existing vacuum up. Unfortunately, many educated people have distorted the public space decorum. In public space, harsh words are used with ease. If the Internet space is not filled with good, positive, creative and innovative contents, it will be filled with negative and destructive contents. Are messages of peace, tolerance and coexistence sent often enough?

The solution is institutional, but also non-institutional. The answer should be sought both at collective and individual level.

It is necessary to prepare well the Macedonian multi-ethnic, multi-religious, multi-linguistic society to successfully face the challenges of the contemporary world. It is necessary to create mechanisms to stop hate speech on the Internet without limiting freedom of expression. It is necessary to properly understand freedom and its limits. The limits of freedom of expression are drawn by the freedom of other people and their human dignity. These are limits drawn by inter-ethnic and inter-religious tolerance, respect and acceptance.

Only three days ago, the Republic of Macedonia was elected a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council. It is a recognition, privilege and great responsibility. Continuously and proven, the Republic of Macedonia is committed to the protection and promotion of human rights and the right to human dignity. Hate speech is a violation of the right to human dignity. Hatred, however, leads to violation of the basic human rights. Therefore, the fight against hate speech is part of the mission to protect and promote human rights.

Now, we come to the second level: How should we treat people in order to live in harmony with each other? It is necessary to go back to the basics of the Macedonian model of integration without assimilation.

Distinguished Attendees,

Tolerance is always seen in our attitude towards the others. There is no tolerance if there is no other. Nor the identity is complete without the other's identity. One belongs to a particular ethnic, religious, linguistic and cultural matrix. The Macedonian ethnic, religious and linguistic mosaic includes the identities of Macedonians, Albanians, Roma, Turks, Serbs, Vlachs, Bosniaks... Christians, Muslims, Jews... Each person, at the same time, belongs to his own matrix and is distanced from the other's matrices. Tolerance is only possible when there is a balance between belonging and distancing.

Distancing without belonging, as well as belonging without distancing have a similar result - integration with assimilation. In the first case, the denial of the other's identity and its assimilation, and in the second case, the renunciation of self-identity and assimilation in someone else's identity.

The Macedonian model, which has been built for centuries, is a model of integration without assimilation, a model of respect and acceptance of diversity. Model which primarily means creating a space in us to accept the other, without having to melt him or without having to be melted into someone else's identity. In the core of the Macedonian model is the notion that other cultures and religions are not a threat to someone's identity, but a potential source of its enrichment.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Speaking of protection of tolerance, we are aware of the paradox of tolerance. Karl Popper said that unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we are limitlessly tolerant towards those who are intolerant, if we are not ready to defend the tolerant society against attacks by intolerant, then tolerance is threatened. The society must retain the right to self-sustainability.

Combating intolerance and hate speech is not at all a matter for the security services only, but for all of us. For all educational, scientific, social and religious institutions, for the civil society, the media and the citizens. We, as political, social and religious leaders should be a role model for the citizens, the youth and the believers. We should send positive messages of reconciliation and coexistence. Messages for public decency. Messages which should help preserve and promote what is most precious, which is part of our tradition of mutual trust and respect.
We have always cherished something that is more than tolerance and acceptance, and that is respect for diversity. Respect is, however, an expression of humanity of all those who live in this area.

Thank you.