Muslim Voice in the American Media
By Dr Ghulam M. Haniff
St Cloud, Minnesota
Had it not been for the presence of Congressman Keith Ellison at the Congressman Peter King’s “Islamic Radicalization” hearings chances are that there would have been a big void in the Muslim voice. Ellison, it turned out, saved the day by speaking out forcefully in defense of the Muslims.
Elected in 2006 Congressman Keith Ellison, from the Fifth Congressional District of Minnesota, is the first Muslim to be elected to the US Congress. For a number of years he was the only Muslim in that august body until he was joined by the fellow Muslim Andre Carson, elected in 2009 from Indiana.
The big void in speaking up for Islam will continue to exist until Muslims choose to go into the communications field. Muslims are just discovering the fields of communications arts though they are not too terribly excited in becoming a part of it. In the Western world, on the contrary, it is a burgeoning field with university campuses exploding with students who want to major in that discipline.
On some campuses it is said that everybody wants to appear on television or wants to see his name in print.
Just within the past year or two young Muslims growing up in America are also taking an interest in the communications studies field. They still have long ways to go and the fact that they have to overcome parental brain-washing that discourages anything outside of two practical scientific fields, viz. engineering and medicine.
However, many Muslims are also realizing that they ought to intensify their voice in the media world of America. Regarding the hearings they could not help but notice that in the American media network Muslim voice was silent except for some guests who appeared for interviews.
Their silence was even more deafening in the global community. Muslim countries had no idea about what was going on. Muslims constitute over one-fifth of the world’s population but they are voiceless in communicating their views through the global media.
If Muslim voices had been raised against the hearings, or analyses and re-analyzes done on King’s comments, perhaps the congressman would have paid attention. As it is he thinks Muslims are dumb and stupid and can’t respond.
There is only one enterprise among the Muslims, Al-Jazeera, which has taken the bull by the horns to make its voice pre-eminent in the global arena. Though only two decades have elapsed since its inception the network can be credited with having had a major impact on the Muslim world. The current rise of populism in the Arab world can directly be attributed to the views aired by Al-Jazeera throughout the Arab world.
None of the dictators, such as Hosni Mubarak, had any use for the Al-Jazeera network and wanted to dismantle the entire enterprise. They put enormous pressures on the ruler of Qatar to get rid of this pesky voice that irritated the egotistical tyrants. But it dared to prevail in the Arab hinterland with analyses delivered in the colloquial Arabic until the revolutionary expressions of those ideas became commonplace on the Arab streets.
Not only the Arab tyrants but America (home of the brave and land of the free) too wanted to stifle the Al-Jazeera network. Up until now the television outlets in the United States are under severe pressures to refrain from allowing Al-Jazeera broadcasting opportunities in this country.
Ironically, the US administration developed its own Arabic broadcast network to drown out the Arab voices. To this point it has not achieved much of success.
Arab dictatorial tyrants and democratic America apparently share a common hatred for dissenting voice. One wonders about the sincerity of the American claim of spreading democracy and freedom in the world, particularly in the Arab Middle East.
Observers have repeatedly pointed out the dearth of professional Muslim journalists in the global media. It would be a great comfort if there was even a single Muslim journalist whose writings regularly appeared in one of the major newspapers in America.
In the West some of the most creative minds study communications arts and many other disciplines that may or may not be connected with journalism. Through their writing, analyses and speaking, journalists substantially influence the formation of ideas that people carry in their heads. Even Glen Beck, while he may be laughable, has a vast following in this country through his ridiculous television broadcast.
One of the elements responsible for the advancement of the West is that the ideas are articulated and debated ceaselessly whereas in the Muslim world it is bullets or cudgels that occupy the public square.
The time for the use of words and phrases in the public square is long overdue. The youthful generation has to rise up to take up the challenge.
