How can Muslims be more involved and effective in manistream media?
Answer
Assalamu Alaykum,
The need is to establish relationships at the grassroots level as well as the leadership level of the media. If you reach out to a beat reporter and offer him the material, he will keep coming back to you to nibble for more. Cultivating grassroots contacts may work as a long term insurance because many among the younger generation may not be as biased as the older ones. In reaching out to the younger journalists and offering them help through providing timely and accurate information, you are only winning friends. Once this person starts trusting you and in fact knowing you as a reliable friend, he may even fight to get through the information you gave.
Best wishes
Name
Zahra
- United States
Profession
Question
Do you think the amount of negative propaganda has decreased in recent years, or is it the same?
Answer
Assalamu Alaykum,
The amount of negative propaganda has not ceased and I don't see a letdown anytime soon. As we all know that we are the favorite whipping boy in the post-colonial era, the anti-Muslim wave will continue. We only have to see the reporting on Chechnya or any other theater where Muslims are involved.
The excruciating stranglehold of the Zionist forces is such that the entire governmental and to an extent the private sector is directed to perpetrating the rule of Israel over the Muslims.
For example, Pakistan is not immediately next door to Israel but we have shrill anti-Muslim propaganda to prove that Muslims cannot be trusted with nuclear power and Pakistan being Muslim should be allowed to have such a facility.
Name
Ali
- Turkey
Profession
Question
Why don't we have any well-know journalists in mainstream media?
Answer
Assalamu alaykum,
The media will not allow a practicing Muslim to enter its inner circle because such a person will not dance to the tune that Israel has the right to lord over the Arabs and Muslims; or harp the tune that observant Muslims are "terrorists," or praise the drinking and dancing 'Muslim' rulers who are the darlings of the West.
Even in the secular-fascist state of Turkey, a practicing Muslim cannot find a job in the popular media.
A practicing Muslim may find a limited scope in the western media such as an assignment to cover the Hajj. But in matters such as Israel or even say the Chechen issue, the Muslim voice will be subsumed to the anti-Muslim policy.
The secularism of the West may seem benign compared to the Turkish model, but again secularism has created the mindset that religion is for the home, or the Sunday or Christmas service only. Thus, anyone not obeying such a mold is considered a pariah.
Name
Hikmat
- Pakistan
Profession
Question
What's wrong with the Muslims that we don't have our own television stations or radio stations?
Answer
Assalamu alaykum
The main issue is of economics. Once the Muslims start controlling the advertising revenue, i.e. own businesses that advertise, Muslims can run their own TV or Radio or even newspapers and magazines. The scale of the media operations require huge layouts and make the media dependent on advertisers, and non-Muslim advertisers will certainly shy away from supporting a media that is critical of policies such as Isrsaeli terrorism.
Name
Sara
- United States
Profession
Question
At this time I see little to no Islamic influence on mainstream media. When should we expect to see more influence if any?
Answer
Assalamu alaykum,
As I told Br Hikmat that it is a question of economics. While Muslims can certainly gain some territory by reaching out to the media, the media is still highly dependent on advertisers. We can exercise influence when we become the paymasters.
I cannot recall names but sometime ago a senior Hollywood actor was critical of Jews and soon he was put in place, being told to understand who runs Hollywood and pays him.
Young Muslims - And I must add OBSERVANT Muslims - need to focus on becoming entrepeneurs and use this power to secure a niche for the Muslims. We will continue to wallow at the bottom of the ladder as long as we don't control the economy and this is the reality in a capitalistic system. He who pays, controls the media.
Imagine a few top advertisers walking out from a TV network for calling Muslims "terrorists." You can be sure that the station will learn who is calling the shots. The support for Israel is not mere sentiments alone.
Name
"Sister"
- United Kingdom
Profession
journalist
Question
Can a Muslim female journalist work as a journalist in the western world - in reference to her status as a wife and the fact that her position may involve travels away from home alone?
Answer
Assalamu alaykum,
Please don't get me wrong but I feel that Muslim women need to make career choices in the light of Allah's commands. In an overseas reporting situation, a Muslim woman cannot observe many of the obligations expected from women.
Also, the family situation needs to be considered. If the husband can take care of the children and the reporting say involves a UN session, then it is someting else but I would not advise you to serve on the war front where you will often be hard pressed to observe your limits.
I have been a reporter and often even covering the arrival of a president becomes quite a challenge, where the media people rush forth without reservation with only one objective in mind...to catch the big man in flesh.
Name
Miriam
- Canada
Profession
Question
Are there any projects in the wings being prepared for the mainstream media which are positively influenced by Islam or even created by muslims. i.e. movies, t.v. shows, (popular) youth centered magazines and other materials?
Answer
Assalamu alaykum,
I doubt if I have heard of any. Muslims still have to make their presence felt. Once they do so, only then the media will cater to us.
Name
Ali
- Turkey
Profession
Question
I understand what you are saying, but don't you think that even non-practicing Muslims are shunned simply because of the way they look or the names that they carry (Muhammad, Fatima; etc)?
Answer
Assalamu alaykum,
You may be right. But I have seen a few Muslim names and one such person wrote that Ramadan had 31 days perhaps because the month had 31 days. I guess a Muhammad who calls himself Mike or Yousef who calls himself Joe can be welcomed by the media.
Name
Ahmed
- United States
Profession
Question
There are many Muslims that have a lot of money. Are there any Muslims that are supporting young Muslim producers in film, radio or television? What are we focusing our attention on that we have nothing to give for these efforts?
Answer
Assalamu alaykum,
I don't about any such projects, but I have read in some community newspapers that Michael Wolf, the Muslim convert who reported on the Hajj, is floating a project. Let us see what support he will get.
I guess if Muslim organizations help in the presentation of these projects, Muslim donors may invest. The Muslim attention towards the media is still primitive, and one needs a few active workers to really go to the people who have money and get them to support it. In recent times, we had the example of the documenmtary about JINNAH of Pakistan. In this case, a few Pakistanis simply used their personal contacts and energy to raise the required funds for it. I guess if we have a fundable project and we have the eager workers, we can get the funds.
Name
Haroon
- United States
Profession
Question
Recently, there was a very good report on ABC NEWS Nightline about Chechnya. I think it is perhaps too generalizing to say that all media is negative towards Muslims. I agree that there are many elements that ARE negative, but there are some that are also positive. Are the negative ones all bad, or are some of them simply ignorant about our way of life?
Answer
Assalamu alaykum,
Sorry, I missed this rare show which you think was positive. However, what we see is that the poor Chechens are getting no sympathy, although Russia is crossing all bounds. There are even people who are writing negatively about the Chechens.
Yes, there are many who are ignorant. I served as a member of our county school board textbook review board. Reading the piles of social studies textbooks one can understand where such anti-Muslim negativism, rather Islamophobia, emanates from. Certainly, Muslims need to work really hard at correcting stereotypes.
Name
Murad
-
Profession
Question
I don't know if you were a journalist at the time, but what sort of reaction did the media have when Malik El-Shabazz (Malcolm X) left the Nation of Islam and became an orthodox Muslim?
Answer
Assalamu alaykum,
I was not in the US at that time and probably in high school or a freshman. I did read in the only western media available to us, TIME or Newsweek. At this moment, I cannot recall.
Name
Haroon
-
Profession
Question
In that ABC Nighline presentation, the journalist went behind the scenes with the Chechens, lived with them for a few day, and even interviewed the Chechen President while he was on the front line in his fatigues.
The reporter said that a Russian officer that had helped the journalist behind the lines to the Chechen side because he was so sick of the war and what it was about had been discovered by the Russian army and was killed. There are reports coming from the various fronts, but we are not aware of them. Its very easy to sit back and complain about what the western media is doing, but we have reliable sources that we can take from other than that.
Answer
Assalamu alaykum,
Yes, I too have read two or three dispatches from a woman who did so for the Times London. If you notice that it was the Russian officer's hurt that made NBC stick its nose in, and not concern over the Muslims being butchered.
As long as the students keep using the Islamophobic textbooks we don't expect much hope. Muslims need to be extremely alert and lobby their schoolboards as actively as they can to get such books out of the system. The Council of Islamic Education (CIA) in California is a great source for such efforts.
