Posted By Dr. Sahib
Bleher
The nature of mass media is changing,
mainly due to advances in technology
affecting both broadcast and print
media. "Broadsheet"
newspaper had to change their format
to a less cumbersome size long ago as
well as their content, since the news
they revealed in the morning would
already be an old story for those who
accessed it on television, radio or
the internet. Whilst the titillating
gutter press tabloid newspapers could
continue their mix of sex, crime and
prejudice, more serious newspapers had
to diversify and focus more on
background and analysis. With podcasts
they also tried to venture into
broadcasting, effectively producing
community radio for selected sections
of listeners who were less catered for
by the large corporations like the
BBC.
"Islamophonic", recently
launched by the Guardian, is such an
attempt to provide meaningful
listening for educated middle class
British Muslims. The show goes out
once a week on a Wednesday and is
presented by Riazat Butt who during
her inaugural session initially
sounded like the proverbial DJ talking
to an imaginary audience in an empty
room, but soon began to master the
task admirably. The 25 minute show is
a mixture of reporting, comment and
interviews tackling topical stories
relevant to Muslims in Britain
together with a "Fatwa
Focus", attempting to give
guidance on questions of what might or
might not be the correct Islamic
approach to everyday issues, and a
highlight of media stories in a
selected Muslim country each week.
It is apparent that the Guardian
producers are not quite sure yet who
their audience is going to be, since
they venture rather cautiously and
even conservatively into this newly
discovered world of Muslim listeners.
The rather strict and dogmatic answers
obtained from the Saudi-orientated
Shariah Council for the Fatwa Focus,
prohibiting Muslim women from plucking
their eyebrowes (most Pakistanis do
it) or shaking hands with men (a
common practice in Turkey and the
Levante countries) and declaring it as
"haram" (forbidden) to
listen to music intentionally sits
uneasy with the normally Liberal
leaning of the Guardian and gives the
false impression that Islam is
over-prescriptive, ingnoring the fact
that in Islamic jurisprudence there is
not always just one right answer. An
exploration of the meaningful attempts
of Muslim scholars to tackle moral
dilemmas, e.g. stem cell research, and
the often differing approaches taken
to arrive at solutions would be
infinitely more useful to educated
Muslim listeners, helping them to
understand the methodology of the
Shariah, rather than confronting them
with the dictates of "safe"
foreign scholars.
On the other hand, by interviewing
Muslims from organisations not usually
represented in the mainstream media as
well as ordinary people at
universities or in the street the
podcast empowers Muslims by giving
them a voice. Unfortunately, exposure
is limited to those "dialling
in". To change the uneasy
relationship between Muslims and the
media, the latter frequently accused
of being sensationalising and
prejudicial - a charge admitted
patially by the Guardian's own media
editor Matt Wells -, genuine Muslim
voices will have to be encountered
more frequently in the publications
and broadcasts targetted at the
mainstream. A select programme for
Muslims only is not going to achieve
that momentus task, but it is a
worthwhile start. Well done Guardian!
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TrueTranslation
by
Dr.
Sahib M Bleher,
a
professor of linguistics and
translation, member of the Chartered
Institute of Linguists <>
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