Standing Alone, Voiceless, on the Global Stage
By Dr Ghulam M. Haniff
St. Cloud , Minnesota
In recent years several writers have claimed that Muslims, while on the global platform, are a people without a voice. These observers noted how Muslims are kicked around whether in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Palestine or France and have no one with respectability to defend them.
While under constant assault no Muslim leader, no maulana, no shaykh, and no tribal chieftain emerged to argue their case with intelligence and in a rational manner. As we have seen in the WikiLeaks revelations their political leaders chose to side with the enemy.
Hence, it was not surprising that no one stood up to face Juan Williams, a black journalist, concerning his remark on the Bill O’Reilly Show that he gets “nervous” at seeing someone in “Muslim garb” on an airplane. It was to be expected that no Muslim journalist would respond to the bigotry.
A well credentialed Muslim journalist enjoying global reputation is difficult to find. Journalism is not a profession valued among Muslim parents who encourage their children to go into technical areas. Narratives for future generations, in various communication styles, are neither admired nor encouraged.
For most Muslims the world of communications is just beginning to be discovered. One researcher pointed out that Israel publishes more books each year than the entire Arab world combined. The thesis here is that Jews are intellectuals while Arabs are not. But Arabs will never accept that though they ought to.
In regards to Williams, generations of “whites” believed that “Negroes smell” and were not allowed in cafes. That was the case until a few decades ago. Someone needed to remind Juan Williams of that reality. For him the Muslims, a vulnerable small minority, has become a fair game for ridicule.
At present respect for a community is acquired through the loud speaker on the global stage, the louder the better. It is said that Jews mastered that technique so well that even the “whites” keep their mouths shut in their presence. By rejecting the “peace plan” Jews have given even Obama a swift kick in the pants.
Of course, the Chinese and Indians have picked up that trick, too. The dramatic rejection of the Nobel Peace prize by China is an example of that. Not only that but they persuaded several US allies (or sidekicks) like Egypt, Saudi Arabia and of course Pakistan from attending the ceremonies.
Both Indians and Chinese tell their own narratives in the form they want them to be as shown by the Chinese answer to the Nobel awards. The Indian style of communication was developed by Jawaharlal Nehru, Krishna Menon, perhaps even Mahatma Gandhi, telling the West bluntly what they did not want to hear.
The Muslim narratives are still told by the Westerners as we witness every evening reports pouring in from Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Israel. Once in a great while a local native is given two seconds to show his face on TV in the interest of “diversity.” The “swarthy” natives are all terrorists but not the “whites.”
For the Muslims of the subcontinent it was Rudyard Kipling who described them to the world as “half savage and half child,” a characterization that still stands today. No one knows how long will it take for that caricature to be dismantled.
India was one of the first nations to understand that construction of reality by colonial authorities had a tremendous impact on the colonized. Immediately after independence several Departments of Communication/Journalism were created in the universities of India. Today, we know of some their graduates as Sanjay Gupta, Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Hari Sreenivasan and others who outperform the local professionals and communicate the Indian worldview to the global community.
Is there anyone to do the same for Pakistan or for the Muslims? Alas! No!!
The Arab masses, particularly the Palestinians, continue to be depicted as “semi-humans” by their overlords in collusion with the Arab leaders. It is news to the Arabs on the streets that they oppose the Iranian nuclear research. The Arab tyrants from Mubarak to the three Abdullahs, and others, have repeatedly communicated that message to their benefactors in the West, and of course to Israel.
When Muslims attempted to create an Arab news network of their own, al-Jazeera for example, the United States called them terrorists and established an Arabic language news network of its own. It seems that AIPAC pressure had worked again.
The only person to challenge the colonial ideology imposed on the Arabs/Muslims was Edward Said. He understood the power of colonialism to imprint the stamp of racism on the human mind. It is a hot issue still making waves in the Western intellectual circles. His work ushered in the call for multiculturalism (or diversity) and Washington was quick to grab on to it.
Muslim are said to be in excess of a billion and a half though they command “less power than a billion fleas.” By most measures of international standards Muslims continue to hug the bottom of human achievement.
However, it is a hopeful sign that some Muslims with American roots have found their tongues as Nihad Awad did when he responded to Juan Williams and Bill O’Reilly’s claim of a worldwide “Muslim problem.” Separately, Ibrahim Hooper and Ahmed Rehab chimed in on other channels with cogent messages of their own. Prominent liberals as Keith Olberman and Rachel Maddow, MSNBC talk show hosts, also came to the defense of the Muslims.
The Muslim outreach in search of allies is moving in the right direction. Others ought to follow in those footsteps. Nevertheless, it is to be noted that Muslim narratives can best be told only by the Muslims.
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