Dear Sir,
It is an interesting article to read and ponder. I always wonder, in this
wide world, ALLAH had allowed all these thing to happen and flourish in the
world, when HE the Almighty can easily put it away. Just like the example we
have read in the Holly Quran, what happened to the followers of Lut AS. How the
almighty ALLAH crushed them, what happened to the defiant followers of the
prophet Noh AS. How the almighty drowned them in the big flood. Why ALLAH
AZAWAJALAH blessed all these things for mankind to create and produced. Well,
to my mind, I think everything in this world which ALLAH allow human to produce
or create, because it can give benefit as well as distruction to mankind. For
example, a computer can be use to communicate and exchange ideas between the
Muslims in this wide world, although we might be a world apart, and dont even
know each other. It also can be use to download pornographic pictures. On
television, it is also can be use for far more better purposes
such as learning Quran through the tube, they can show a glimpse of the Holly
Land which some people are not able to go for their own personal reason. What
we can do, is to suggest to the relevant authority not to show something
disgusting and not to our liking. But is it fair to the others, who are not
Muslim. The point is, we ourselves should refrain ourselves from looking at
them. That is called JIHAD, to refrain oneself from bad influences or bad
intentions. I think that is why ALLAH AZAWAJALLAH allows these to take place in
this whole wide world. To test the 'iman' of the so called faithful Muslim
while the still alive in this world. Just look in the Quran, i know the verse
of it in my language, but sorry i cant do it in English.
Salaam.
Leon.
[EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
JAMIATUL ULAMA (KZN) ISLAMIC WEBSITE
Council of Muslim Theologians
Ramadaan : Understanding Television
What Can Be Done?
- By Khalid Baig
Television has spread like a wild fire in the world, including the Muslim
world. It seems to have overcome the limitations of space and time.
Consider place. In Saudi Arabia, one can find the imprints of Hollywood only a
few yards away from the Haram, the most sacred of all sanctuaries of Islam.
Videocassettes are easily available at stores. A hotel attendant, at a walking
distance from the Haram al-Sharif in Makkah can be found busy watching English
movies on the television in his office even as the prayers are going on. At the
Jeddah airport, the Umrah pilgrims can watch a European beauty contest courtesy
of an Egyptian TV channel being broadcast to the airport television sets.
Consider time. Ramadan is the most sacred month in the Islamic calendar, a
period of time that is to be devoted to direct acts of worship of Allah. Yet,
during Ramadan, believers around the world can be found glued to their
television sets when they should be busy making dua, doing dhikr and tilawa or
offering nafl prayers.
Or consider the time of suffering. Hardly a day goes by when we do not get the
news of pain and suffering from Palestine, Kashmir, Iraq, Chechnya,
Afghanistan, or a dozen other hot spots around the globe. Yet, between all the
suffering and grieving that accompanies the tragedy, the dish antennas on the
rooftops have been flourishing. In the past at times of catastrophes people
would turn to Allah, would stop going to the cinema houses, and would repent
from sins, even though temporarily. Today, there is an ever-increasing appetite
for the television fun. This is also true in the lands closest to the areas of
suffering. On days when a strike is called to protest Indian atrocities in
Kashmir, the video stores in Karachi run out of videos of Indian movies.
Throughout the world religious, moral and social values have been drastically
undermined by this great "technological gift" of the century. And entire
nations seem to be helplessly "enjoying" the invasion. When people are doing
nothing, they watch television. When they are doing something else, they still
have television in the background. The device has contributed to the addition
of a new space in the architecture of the private home: the TV lounge. It is a
space where perfect strangers come to pedal nudity, immorality, and hedonism.
This is the space, which increasingly controls the entire house.
It is fashionable to complain about "excessive" sex and violence on television.
Even those who make money from this enterprise willingly do that. CNN tycoon
Ted Turner said in July 93 before a U.S Congressional subcommittee: "I don't
need experts to tell me that the amount of violence on television today and its
increasingly graphic portrayal can be harmful to children. Television violence
is the single most significant factor contributing to violence in America." And
a poll released in February 95 in the U.S. by Children Now, whose directors
include TV producers and Warner Brothers Chairman, reported that most children
believe that what they see on television encourages fornication, disrespect for
parents, telling lies, and aggressive behavior.
The most significant thing here is that what the TV industry wants us to
discuss (and we willingly follow) is what is ON television, not television
itself. Everyone will wholeheartedly agree with the problems with TV programs
and offer all kinds of advice. (Watch the programs with your children. Tell
them what is wrong. Be critical. Be creative.) Irrational and meaningless as it
is, this exercise will nonetheless soothe your irritation. In the meantime,
keep on watching. It is fun. It is also unavoidable.
In about two decades, this "wonderful" technical development has played havoc
with societies around the globe. But what is even more unprecedented is the
ambivalence with which these societies face this greatest of all invasions.
Underlying this is a strongly held belief that television is a neutral tool
that can be used with equal facility for good or evil. Unfortunately, this
position has been taken without any critical examination of the facts. It is
about time that we approached the subject with an open mind.Neutral Tool?
Is technology ever neutral? "[Every technology] has within its physical form a
predisposition toward being used in certain ways and not others," writes Niel
Postman, chair of the department of Communication Arts at New York University.
"Only those who know nothing of the history of technology believe that a
technology is entirely neutral." (Amusing Ourselves to Death, 1985).
What about television? It reflects the idea that serious discourse can be
carried out through pictures instead of words. As Postman explains: "The single
most important fact about television is that people watch it, which is why it
is called television.' And what they watch, and like to watch, are moving
pictures__ millions of them, of short duration and dynamic variety. It is in
the nature of the medium that it must suppress the content of ideas in order to
accommodate the requirements of visual interest."
Words and pictures do not occupy the same universe of discourse. A piece of
writing requires one to go beyond the shape of the letters to read them. It
requires thought to understand what is being said. Television does not require
reflection, in fact it does not even permit it. That is why little children can
spend hours in front of the mini screen. Television can titillate, it cannot
teach. It can bring images into our heart, not ideas into our mind. It appeals
to the emotions, not the intellect.
But isn't a picture worth a thousand words? Is it? It is important to note that
this claim itself is made in words. A picture cannot make any claims. For
reason, arguments, claims, and judgment belong in the universe of words not
pictures. That is why advertisers love pictures. Consider an ad for, say,
Coca-Cola, that just shows young people singing, dancing, having fun, and
enjoying the drink. The audiences make the connection between happiness and
Coke. This ad cannot be refuted. It makes no claim, so there is nothing to
refute.Medium Is The Message
The above explains Marshal McLuhan's famous aphorism. The inherent, built in
biases of a medium allow certain types of messages and not others. The
communication is conditioned by the medium. It is enhanced or distorted by it.
The medium is the message. And when the medium is TV, the message is
Entertainment. As Postman notes: "Entertainment is the supra ideology of all
discourse on television." Whether it is news, science, religion, or education,
if it is happening on TV, it must follow the dictates of entertainment.
In fact, a new term has been coined indicating a blend of education and
entertainment: Edutainment. It smells like the language problem of a TV baby.
But remember that it is already being used by the serious press. Which suggests
that edutainment will produce even more edutainment!Like A Drug
Actually, TV is not just another kind of entertainment either. As a project by
the National Institute of Mental Health in the U.S. involving 1200 subjects in
nine studies over a 13 year period found in 1990, television is like a drug.
The researchers asked the subjects, ages 10 to 82, to note down their
activities and moods every time a beeper was activated, which was done
randomly. The researchers found that when people sit down to watch TV,
particularly for long periods, they tend to be in low moods. The longer they
watch, the less able they are to concentrate. As time goes on, they grow
sadder, lonelier, more irritable, and more hostile. Although people are relaxed
when the television set is on, when they turn it off, they are less relaxed
than before they began, "much like a drug that makes people feel better while
they are doing it but worse afterward." And just like a drug the weaker
segments of the society are its greatest target. Thus in the U.S. blacks tend to
watch more TV than whites. And now thanks to satellite TV transmissions over
which the poor countries have no control, the rest of the world is being turned
into the U.S. black under class.Islamic Work And Television
Can this dangerous drug be somehow converted into a medicine? Not too long ago,
a young professional in the U.S. approached prominent Muslim scholar and Deputy
Cairman of the Jeddah based Islamic Fiqh Council of the Organization of Islamic
Conference (OIC), Justice Taqi Usmani to inquire about his profession. He
produced computer graphics for the television and motion picture industry. This
is the age of the media, and the only effective way to spread Islam today is
through television and movies, he argued. If we do not learn the trade how
shall we be able to produce such programs and if we don't who will, he
inquired. Yet, some people had told him that it was not a good profession.
"I have given a lot of anxious thought to this issue," replied Justice Usmani
in his characteristic measured tone, weighing every word. "And I have reached
the conclusion that the cause of Islam cannot be served through television,
especially under the current circumstances. You should seek another line of
work."
Frankly, there are lot of enthusiasts who may be totally bewildered by this
answer for it challenges both conventional wisdom as well as some dearly held
dreams. They may even consider anyone making this suggestion as belonging to
the Flat Earth Society: backward, anti-progress, ignorant of today's realities.
Let us grant them their day in court and look at their case objectively.
The enthusiasts have shown interest in three primary areas. The first deals
with propagation of Islam. There are lots of sincere Muslims putting lot of
hope in a yet-to-be-released video that will attract the people of the world to
Islam by the thousands. They are simply confusing Dawah with propaganda! Dawah
means inviting people to the Straight Path by relaying the True Message to them
without any distortion. It is a very serious message and requires a serious
medium to deliver it. The message is for their own benefit and what they do
with it is their own business. Our job is done once we have communicated the
message correctly. Our job is not to manipulate people into submission to Allah
any more than it is to coerce them into it. A Dawah worker is a teacher, a
propagandist is a manipulator. Television is a good tool for manipulating, not
for teaching.
The second area deals with the education ("edutainment") of children. Many
videos have already been produced for this purpose. In one program from a
popular series of such videos, a puppet named Adam drives a skateboard to the
mosque. Scenes of Adam doing his antics are mixed with the videos of real
children praying. But there is no doubt that Adam is the hero of this story.
Here is a clear case of the medium distorting the message. The children who
learn to pray this way may learn the mechanics of Salat, but they would have
paid a terrible price for it. The idea of Salat will be associated in their
mind with the images of puppets, skateboards, and the idea of fun. Missing will
be the spiritual dimension of prayer, the solemnness and grace of this pillar
of Islam. Such videos are very popular as they help assuage the guilt feelings
of parents over their failure to control the TV in the first place.
To be fair there is a useful role for these videos but it is not normally
perceived. Doctors use nicotine patches to help their patients stop smoking.
Nicotine is not a medicine, but it becomes therapeutic under the circumstances.
Similarly, the TV addicts may be helped by such videos to get over their
addiction. It might work if that is the goal. But this is very different from
the view that here is a Brave New Way of teaching Islam. The children and their
parents must realize that ultimately they have to learn their religion the old
fashioned way: read books, listen to lectures, work hard.
The third type of videos are used by relief organizations showing the terrible
situation of Muslims in Kashmir, Bosnia, Palestine and elsewhere. The
intentions are noble, the results look great. But someone must ask the hard
question: Why should the Muslims need disaster pornography before they can come
to the help of their brothers and sisters? What are the implications of this
practice for both present and future?
There are, of course, cases where the TV is being used against its grain, where
the only video is that of a talking head. Such Islamic programs in Egypt or
Saudi Arabia, as elsewhere, may not contain all the dangers cited above, solely
because there the TV is being used just as an expensive radio. The problem is
such programs will not be able to withstand the onslaught of CNN or MTV, of
dazzling colors and dynamic pictures. The question remains how long can you use
a tool against its grain?
The simple fact is that no one buys a TV and VCR because they desperately
wanted to learn about Islam and it was the best way of doing it. The TV lounge
is not a study room and all the Islamic videos in the world are not going to
make it one. It is a peace of Hollywood. The rest is camouflage or
self-deception. The earlier we get out of it, the better.What Can Be
Done?Television is powerful. It is everywhere. Is there anything that us
mortals can do about it? The answer is yes. Things can be done at individual,
as well as collective levels. At the individual level, try using the ON/OFF
switch. It takes some effort and will power, but the device can be turned off.
The key is to involve the entire family. Those nervous about the idea may rest
assured that there is no known disease linked to lack of exposure to TV! Also
those who have tried it know that it becomes easier with time. Community
Organizations and Islamic Schools can help by educating the people about the
perils of
watching TV, countering the social pressures, and providing healthy
alternatives.
Ramadan: The TV Free Month. Our best chance of kicking the television habit
comes in Ramadan every year. It is the time of year when every Muslim who has
any trace of Iman in his or her heart, is naturally inclined toward doing good
and staying away from evil. And it should be like that. Did not the Prophet,
Sall-Allahu alayhi wa sallam, curse the Muslim who finds Ramadan but does not
use it to seek forgiveness for his previous sins? If we cannot leave sins or
vain activities during Ramadan, when can we? We not only have the strongest
moral and religious reasons to do so, it is also easy because the regular
activities of Ramadan leave little time to be wasted in front of television.
Muslim organizations and communities will do a great service by launching a
campaign to declare Ramadan as the TV free month. Urge all the Muslims in your
community to turn it off for at least one month. And who knows, after one month
many may decide to stay away from it because of the personal insights they got
through the experience.
Of course, if you are convinced, do not wait until the next Ramadan. Start
today.
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