While the overwhelming coverage of Islam and Muslims is of the distorted type pointed out above, one can still find every now and then some objective reporting. Examples of this can be found even in publications notorious for their anti-Islamic propaganda. Le Monde, for instance, carried in its 19 April 1995 issue a news feature, titled "Egypt Shuts Islamists Out of Politics," describing the regime's repression and human rights violations against Islamist groups in Egypt. An editorial by The Economist, in its 18 March 1995 issue, advocated, under the title "Living with Islam," a more accommodative stance, and cautioned against lumping various Islamist groups into one category. The question, however, is how are Muslims responding to global challenges?
Admittedly, the Muslim response to media distortion of Islam is, for the most part, meager and ineffective. The campaign of distortion and misinformation against Islam has not been effectively countered by Muslim media, simply because the latter is practically non-existent. For beyond the few publications normally circulated among small groups of people who are already committed to the cause of Islam, one can hardly speak of Muslim mass media. While the ineffectiveness of Muslim media and its inability to counteract the abusive campaign against Islam may partially be explained by the economic and political imbalance between the established global order and the world of Islam, the true reasons lie in the manner in which Islam is being introduced and promoted. The term used by committed Muslims in reference to the various activities which aim at exposing people to Islam and promoting Islamic beliefs and values is da`wah. The method of da`wah that is widely discussed and accepted for passing on the true Islamic values and beliefs is the personal interaction between the transmitter of the Islamic message and its recepients. The model da`wah is that which was practiced by the Prophet Muhammad and the sahaba (the Prophet's companions). Thus, an author writes:
dawa is not an occupation to be undertaken by any professional group, neither is it a contingent or part-time activity nor one undertaken in reaction to Christian missions or communist onslaughts. Dawa is the responsibility of every Muslim, whether a ruler or ruled, a leader or follower, a scholar or student, a sufi or soldier, a trader or farmer, wealthy or poor, a man or a woman, living in the East or the West, North or South. No one has a greater or lesser responsibility among Daiya, those who undertake dawa, and no one can (shrink), postpone or evade this responsibility under any circumstances.
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This argument, which represents a widely accepted view, fails to distinguish between promoting Islam by individual Muslims from different walks of life, as a result of the goodness of their character and attitude and the nobility of their actions, on the one hand, and promoting Islam through planned action undertaken by professionally trained Muslims, on the other. The latter requires the utilization of the most advanced skills and techniques available, most notably arts and technology. Arts include, among others, playwriting, acting, and singing. Technology includes the use of electronic media, whereby transmitted pictures and sounds can be employed to convey the message of Islam. The marriage of the two has produced powerful media, capable of transmitting values, beliefs, and views in the form of movies, theater plays, documentaries, educational programs, talk shows, cartoon shows, and others.
But, despite the importance of electronic media and the profound impact they have made in effecting cultural change, they have not yet become tools and instruments for the dissemination of the message of Islam. One important sign of the lack of appreciation of these powerful tools may be seen in the fact that Islamic higher learning institutions do not consider arts and technology to be useful means for reaching out with the message of Islam, but continue to focus on interpersonal communication, and to a lesser extent on public speaking. Recently, print media has received more emphasis by Islamists. However, newspapers and magazines published by Islamists are very often oriented towards Islamic movement audiences, rather than the public at large.
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