Pain & Peace, World Without Hate’s first full-length documentary, captures the courageous stories of extraordinary people, victims and victimizers alike, all of whom share their remarkable capacities to heal, persevere and empathize — seeking purpose while searching for peace.
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As I stood in the crowded East Room during the conclusion of the first of its kind, United We Stand Summit, President Biden reminded us that “The power is within each of us to transform the story of our time to rise together against hate, to show who we are. We are the United States of America. There nothing, nothing, beyond our capacity.” The President’s address, More
World Without Hate’s signature Empathy Ambassadors Training is a multi-disciplinary, multi-cultural, development program in which participants discover, or rediscover, and connect, reconnect, or expand how they live and interact in the world, both within and around them. Workshops are fully customized as participants engage in highly participatory and multi-faceted storytelling activities focusing on healthy human development and bridge building
Before 9/11, Rais didn’t stand out as “other” but immediately after the attacks was labeled a terrorist and a threat to society because of his race and perceived faith. Years later, when his attacker came to know Rais, he called him brother. Rais believes and shares that “Once you get to know the other, it’s hard for you hate them.”
With so much misinformation, ignorance, and the lack of empathy in American society which creates an environment for spreading fear, lies, intolerance and hate, pinning humans against humans. Hate crime in America, including vandalism, intimidation, assault, and murder has risen to levels not seen in over a decade, according to federal data. Hate crime, defined by the FBI, is “a criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender’s bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, or gender identity.”
In 2020, the Southern Poverty Law Center tracked 838 hate groups across the U.S. The FBI recorded 8,052 single-bias incidents involving 11,126 victims in 2020. Of these, 61.8% of victims were targeted because of race and ethnicity, 20% because of perceived sexual-orientation, and 13.3% religion. Experts agree that this data remains severely undercounted because many victims of hate crime fail to report and unfortunately, local agencies are not yet required to report hate crime data to the FBI.
These statistics point to the overwhelmingly stark reality of growing hate in America. This saying
nothing about the implicit bias and microaggression permeating our communities. This is our call to action. Each of us has the capacity to turn negatives into positives, ignorance into wisdom, fear into courage, and hate into love. Together, we can increase empathy for “the other,” paving the way for a world without violence, a world without victims, and a world without hate.
Shot by a white supremacist after 9/11, Rais Bhuiyan not only survived this brutal hate crime, he forgave his assailant, and led an international campaign, trying to save him from death row. From this movement, and the manifestation of his death-bed promise, Rais founded the non-profit, World Without Hate with a focus on preventing and disrupting the cycles of hate and violence, restoring peace through storytelling and empathy.
Over the last decade, World Without Hate has directly addressed, engaged, visited, and worked with over hundreds of thousands of people around the world. Millions more have heard our messages and learned about our mission through a wide array of virtual channels. Through programming, special events, community conversations, site visits in classrooms, on college campuses, in maximum security prisons and refugee camps, as part of interfaith summits, town halls, corporate board rooms and conferences, we promote the transformational power of forgiveness, compassion, empathy, understanding and acceptance, keys to realizing the world we all deserve – a world without violence, a world without victims, and a world without hate.
~ Rais Bhuiyan, Founder & President
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