Recently the Prime minister of Malaysia made a speech in connection with the opening of the first Islamic TV station here. The key element of the speech was that muslims should use the media more to improve the image of Islam throughout the world. Obviously as with everything being said in Malaysia, he received a lot of criticism from opposition supporters, bringing in all kinds of issues into the fray that have nothing to do with Islam.
Fact of the matter is that the image of Islam outside of the islamic world is extremely negative. Ignorance, misinformation and bad publicity makes billions of good people look like raving violent lunatics. But the thing is that the Islamic world does it mainly to itself.
A few days ago in Malaysia a 14 year old girl was married to a 23 year old man. Even though it is legal in accordance with Syariah law, most of the muslims here are just as shocked as the rest of the world, but of course this story travels faster than the speed of light and just confirms people's perception of Islam. Other stories about stoning a woman in Iran or a woan convicted for being gang raped also don't really help.
Is Islam a bad and violent religion? OF COURSE NOT!! In its essence Islam is one of the most tolerant and accepting religions around, but as always it is the people professing the religion that turn it into something foul.
The Syariah court here that approved the girl's marriage, the conservative judge in Saudi Arabia who convicts a woman for being gang raped, the judge in Iran who convicts a woman to be stoned to death. They are the ones that give Islam a bad name! And the rest of the islamic world should use all the channels available to them to counteract such acts of idiocy.
The majority of muslims is moderate and does not act violently. In the same way that most Christians do not bomb abortion clinics and most hindus do not burn sikh temples.
There are billions of moderate, intelligent muslims all over the world and now it is time for them to show the world that being a muslim is something that u can be proud of. New media like Facebook, Twitter, etc. should be used to correct the distorted image that a lot of people have of one of the world's great religions
Media played an important role in this. It may sound cliche but this is an honest truth. When a bombing occurred, what comes to mind is the thing that you are most exposed with. Then again, this is just one of the reasons.
ReplyDeletePeople who lived in a kampung area in the US and have never stepped out to see the outside world, might not know what Muslims in Malaysia are like. They might think that we are those who cover our faces and all. This is why exposure plays a really really important factor for people to create their own perception of something.