Countering racism with love | Ali Can | TEDxBerlin
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Ali Can |
TEDxBerlin
• September 2017
Ali Can is a 23-year-old author, intercultural peacebuilder and founder of the Interkultu- reller Frieden e.V. (Intercultural Peace Asso- ciation). Born in the south-east of Turkey, he and his family came to Germany in 1995 to escape the social oppression faced by kurdish Alevis in the Maras Region.
In 2014 during his teacher training, Ali noticed that as more refugees were arriving, an angry and worried discourse was growing ever louder. Convinced that the breeding ground for xenophobia and rightist ideology is partly based on a deep-rooted fear and ignorance of the “unknown”, he actively approaches those who are vocally opposed to “those” refugees,
“those” Muslims and “those” immigrants. He nds creative ways to facilitate respectful encounters and, where possible, a peaceful conversation between the two parties that breaks down prejudices. These meetings are
his answer to racist slogans.
He recently founded the “Hotline für besorgte Bürger” (hotline for worried citizens) and with it contacts – amongst others – supporters of the right-wing AfD (Alternative for Germany) party.
Ali has been nominated twice for the Deutsche Engagementpreis (German Engagement Prize), is the winner of the 2016 Jugenddemokratiepreis (Youth Democracy Prize) and in September last year received two RTL com.mit Awards for his work with refugees.
He gives readings from his book “Hotline für besorgte Bürger”, published by the Lübbe Verlag, throughout the German-speaking world.
This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx