Why I have coffee with people who send me hate mail

["Conversation is the most difficult thing in a democracy, and also the most important."]( [Read online]( [TED]( This week on TED.com November 10, 2018 [Talk of the week]( [Özlem Cekic: Why I have coffee with people who send me hate mail]( 15:21 minutes · Filmed Sep 2018 · Posted Nov 2018 · We the Future Özlem Cekic's email inbox has been full of hate mail since 2007, when she won a seat in the Danish Parliament -- becoming the first Muslim woman to do so. At first she just deleted the emails, dismissing them as the work of fanatics, until one day a friend made an unexpected suggestion: to reach out to the hate mail writers and invite them to meet for coffee. Hundreds of "dialogue coffee" meetings later, Cekic shares how face-to-face conversation can be one of the most powerful forces to disarm hate -- and challenges us all to engage with people we disagree with. 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