Muslim Media (sister report)

The development of cyber technologies and Internet brings many new opportunities. In the recent years the Internet has become a common tool of communication and information. For many Muslim women, the World Wide Web has become a safe portal where they can learn about their duties and rights within the religion, without the usual cultural or traditional barriers. But along with these opportunities the challenges come. Internet can be used in either beneficial or harmful ways. We cannot ignore the fact that altogether with benefits we get the access to misinformation, hate-sites and the other harmful sites is also increased.

Unfortunately, very often the potential of the media, designed to promote cross-cultural understanding and tolerance, to deliver the information about current issues, to educate the people all over the world, performs the inverse function. By spreading false information, creating negative stereotypes and misconceptions, the media frustrates dialogue and works against mutual understanding. We can overcome these challenges only by presenting real and correct information and knowledge, creating religion-oriented websites and forming our own opinion.


Impact of Media on Western Populations:
incorrect information and negative stereotypes

In the West the media is accidentally due to the ignorance or purposely because of biased feelings creates inaccurate ideas and present incorrect reports about Islam. Due to this false, misleading and anti-Islamic information the audience is influenced with the wrong stereotypes that lead into making prejudices about Islam and Muslims.

One of the most common misconceptions that the general public tends to believe is the
association of Islam with violence. Western journalists traditionally present Islam as ‘bloody’, ‘terrorist’, ‘extremist’ religion. In most of cases more neutral terms are not used. Islam has become synonymous with jihad. And the Holy War is understood by the general public as unjustified and irrational, religiously-based violence against non-Muslims. Literally Jihad means a ‘Holy war’ or a ‘struggle in the path of God’. Anything what Muslim does for the sake of Allah is Jihad. Gaining knowledge, struggling for justice, helping to poor and old people, and even stopping yourself from bad deeds – all these things can be called Jihad.

Another possible meaning of this word is the resistance to the aggressors. And it is also presented to the general public in a twisted manner. The Palestinian resistance against the Israeli occupants is usually called the ‘attacks of religious fanatics’. In the same time the genocide in Gaza is portrayed as an ‘operation against Islamist militants’. For example, very often we listen in the news reports that ‘two Israeli soldiers are shot by Palestinian militants’. Context of this situation will be completely ignored and journalists will ‘forget’ to say that Palestinians who ‘shot’ Israelis were protecting their homes, women and children from the soldiers who came to rub and abuse them. If media reporters were objective and correct they would say that ‘two commandoes from the occupant’s army were shot while trying to destroy Palestinian village’. But they are not doing so. Instead of this the media is trying to twist the image of reality and presenting the false image of Muslims.

The same way the popular resistance to American occupation in Iraq is called a ‘bridgehead of the Islamist radicalism’ and the development of peaceful atomic program in Iran – a ‘threat to the West’. American terror in Afghanistan is presented as a ‘war against of international terrorism’ and the provocations against of Islamic Republic– ‘as a struggle for democracy and justice’.

The media portrays Muslims as ‘people with guns’ or ‘fundamentalists’. Of course, journalists interpret the term ‘fundamentalism’ by its own way. In fact the fundamentalism means the way of believers who want to follow their religion properly. It means ‘an attitude, an effort, or a movement that an ideology, group, or religion tries to promote in its fundamental beliefs’.

The fundamental belief of Muslims is the belief in One God and the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). And it means that everyone who believes in it is a ‘fundamentalist’. But the western media is not comfortable with it. It is fully ignoring the fact that Islam completely prohibits any kind of injustice or violence and trying to present it as a religion of ‘fundamental extremism’ and its followers as medieval monsters who are prostrating themselves in front of God before to do something criminal.

Another great problem that we face is the infrequent distinguishing between Islam and political affairs in different countries with predominantly Muslim population. For instance, there is a bloody battle going on in any African country where two tribal leaders are fighting with each other for the piece of land. They are killing innocents, destroying homes etc. Of course, what they do is totally wrong from the Islamic point of view. However the media will present it as a report about the ‘life in Islamic country’.

I’ll give another example that will help to put things into the perspective. Few months before the world was terrified by the reports from the Iraq. International News Agencies reported about the tortures in the American military prisons. People who abused Iraqi prisoners were Christians. But it does not mean that the actions they did were consistent with the Christianity. Likewise those African tribal leaders and all their actions have nothing to do with Islam.

Another favorite topic of western media is the rights of women in Islam that is mispresented as male dominant religion. Islamic veil or hijab is often misinterprets as a sign of the oppression of women. The cultural and traditional customs that are practiced in some backward areas are presented as ‘Islamic customs’. Observers are ‘forgetting’ again that Islam is the religion that protects women and takes care about their rights as no other religion does. It is never mentioned that the Prophet of Islam (peace be upon him) was the greatest reformer for women in history. They are ignoring the fact that Islam gave to the women economical, social, educational and political rights. Muslim women got the right to vote few centuries before the western women got the right to participate in elections. So, if Islam is practiced correctly it becomes ‘the best example of society’. And if in any society these rights are denied it means that that society is not living in accordance with the Islamic law. The media often fails to inform its audiences about all these facts.

Islamic segment of the Internet:
informing people and promoting their knowledge

Despite the Islamic Internet develops very quickly, the representation of true Islam in the Web is still very poor.

In the past few years many Muslims-oriented Educational portals, on-line shops, virtual Mosques, web-missions of communities had been launched. Internet has provided a new opportunity for media consumers to become media producers and disseminators. And consequently now we see lots of personal pages of users in the Web. The community of Muslim-bloggers is growing, Islamic groups in the popular social networks are launched. The Islamic social websites that offer similar services organized in accordance with Shariah are also created.

But for a present we can’t talk about the Islamic Internet as an established segment of the Web. I would say that it is still under the process of active development.


Islamic news agencies

There’s no doubt that the level of religious literacy of general public and news media professionals must be increased. This can be best accomplished via Islamic News Agencies.

One of the biggest problems that we face nowadays is the clericalization of the Islamic news websites. In my opinion, we should not limit ourselves with purely religious content. Islam does not differentiate the spiritual and secular spheres, and therefore the Islamic media outlets should cover all aspects of the life of believers, not only issues connected to their spiritual practice. Islamic web-agencies have to pay attention to the events that take place outside the community and interpret them from the Islamic perspective. They must present to the public an alternative view on global issues.

Today there are two recognized leaders of the Islamic news market – Middle Eastern news network Al-Jazeera and the first Iranian international network, broadcasting in English – Press TV. These agencies shape their own content and do not depend on such media giants like AP, Reuters, France-Press, which monopolized news market.


Islamic Wikipedia - (Muslims provide their own version of the Truth about Islam)

Islamic version of Wikipedia source of disseminating information about Islam. Today in Russia the project of the Islamic Wikipedia is widely discussed. According to the organizers, this project will help users to get acquainted with unbiased information about Islam. It will also help to structure already existing information about religion in the Web.

At the same time Russian developers are working to improve the Islamic segment of the classical Wikipedia. The value of the second option is that the articles on Islam, located in the popular resource falls on the first lines of search engines for queries. And it means that more users will be able to get access to this service.
Suchwise parallel development of these two projects will help to shed more light on the religious values of Muslims.
Social Networks as an instrument of cooperation of Muslims

Religion-oriented social websites is one of the most important tools of forming the virtual Islamic community. They offer us a platform to express our thoughts without facing vulgarity and hostility. They give us a unique chance to share our views with other members of Ummah, to discuss the problems, to learn about lifestyle of Muslims around the globe, to learn about the merits of living in each country from an Islamic perspective.

Originally Islamic social networks were launched to duplicate the existing services for the benefit of Muslim users. Nowadays these websites offer a special environment that is difficult to be found elsewhere: video and audio about Islam, Qur'anic recitations, virtual educational centers, Calls for prayers etc.

All Muslim social network request from the users:

- Respect for religion;
- Ban on obscene, violent, abusive, insulting, threatening, or harassing material or comments;
- Respect for copyrights;
- Ban on spamming.

Above mentioned guidelines let people communicate in the safe atmosphere. And this makes the Islamic social networks attractive for people of other believes.

Despite Islamic websites offer so many opportunities for Muslims, some people still prefer to use general social websites such as Youtube or Facebook. In their opinion religious-oriented websites are limiting their potential and leads to segregation. This group of users is calling for the open dialogue with the people of other believes. They say that the general social websites provide interaction with other people, and offer a platform for discussions of common issues. They believe that these sites become a bridge between people of different religions and cultures, and the Muslims can use them as a good tool of Dawat.

Personally, I think both approaches are valid for use of social networks. Each path has its advantages and disadvantages. In the first instance we are creating a new hierarchy of administrators and users from scratch. In this structure any kind of Islamophobia will be resisted. On the other hand, the religion-oriented resources will not be so visited as general social networks. At least until Muslims manage to have really interesting and creative content that non-Muslims will be interested to see.

Strategies and solutions

The services offered by Islamic websites must be based on a clear understanding of user needs. They must adhere to certain principles of presenting the material. They should have comfortable navigation, user-friendly design and performance. They must provide access to information relevant to the visitors.

Despite the rigid framework, Islamic media must be clear to the mass reader. It is necessary to avoid clericalization, but at the same time we should not act like a yellow press. In order to find the balance we have to develop the conception of submission information about Islam in the Web.

We should also develop a language that is understandable to the mass reader. Today, most of the texts published on the religion-oriented sites are difficult to read. This point is especially important for the Islamic websites that are working in the West because at least half of their visitors are not Muslims.

As I mentioned above, the number of web pages constituted by the enthusiasts is increased. But the quality of most of these sites is poor in many respects. Typically, they are engaged in copying information from other resources. This is a completely unnecessary waste of time and effort, inefficient way of Dawat. Before proceeding to develop their own projects, beginners at least should learn basics of computer literacy, and competently express their thoughts. Russian Muslims are trying to solve this problem by creating the virtual educational and counseling centers, organizing the competitions among web-developers, experts in the field of IT-technologies and Islamic journalism.

Experienced Muslim web-developers must strive to keep pace with the times. As for the technical side, Islamic Internet should not stand still, but change in accordance with the recent advances.

From an ideological point of view it is important to understand the specifics of the Internet, changes in the mindset of network community. It is necessary to strive for interactivity and the most accessible presentation of information without overburdening the user. More attention should be paid to the logic and usability, quality of content. Particular attention must be paid to the website’s layout: the beauty of the Islamic faith must be disclosed not only in words but also through the visual images.


Conclusion

Working in the directions sketched above may help us to spread the message of Islam in the non-Muslim societies. As Islam increasingly spreading worldwide, people are seeking for correct information about our religion. As more as media will provide the real information about Islam and its followers, people will find out that their prejudices and misconceptions are incorrect. Only by this way people will break stereotypes and find common language to discuss current issues.

In order to overcome all mentioned problems and to make the media a really effective tool of Islamic call - we must interchange with our experiences, accelerate the professional skill development and increase media literacy. In order to implement these program Islamic web-developers from different countries must join together. If a virtual Ummah will act as a single organism Muslims will be able to work in the World Wide Web much more productive.

(sister) Olga Bajwa