TO a certain extent, I agree with what Muslim preacher Dr Zakir Naik said on the TV AlHijrah programme Persepsi recently when he said Muslims failed to use the media to propagate the truth about Islam.
The other point he made was how easy it is to explain that Islam has nothing to do with terrorism and that the Islamic State movement is actually anti-Islam.
Just quote ayat al-Maidah verse 5:32 in the Quran when Allah SWT said: “If anyone slays a person, it would be as if he slew the whole people, and if any one saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of the whole people.”
Naturally, the failure of Muslims to use the media to counter the bad or wrong perception of Islam has made efforts to explain it difficult.
One reason is the line of reporting by Western news agencies.
In almost all reports on conflicts involving Muslims, they will be referred to or labelled “terrorists”, “rebels”, “militants” or “guerillas”.
There is no attempt to correct this line of labelling or reference to Muslims, including by the media in Islamic countries.
I notice reports from Western wire agencies — Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse (AFP) — use the word “militants”.
Such labels will influence readers to think negatively of Muslims.
For example, one paragraph in a story on southern Thailand said: “More than 6,500 people have been killed, the majority civilians, since 2004 in clashes between militants and security forces from Thailand’s Buddhist-majority state.”
Even if AFP tried to be balanced, the reference to militants against the Buddhist-majority state will be looked on unfavourably by readers.
Short of establishing a Muslim media giant to counter this , Dr Zakir may have inadvertently given us a way out.
Referring to those who protested against insulting the Prophet or Islam, such as the Danish caricatures in a newspaper, he urged Muslims to use their heads rather than their hearts because stopping work for Muslim causes will not get them anywhere.
Instead, Dr Zakir has shown Muslims how to deal with provocations or misperceptions of Islam.
He thanked those who had reported to the authorities as their actions helped his cause to explain about Islam. None of his events, which include question-and-answer sessions with non-Muslims, had reported any untoward incident.
A website portrayed his meeting with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and Pas president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang as a desperate attempt by Najib and Hadi to ride on Dr Zakir’s popularity.
Dr Zakir has been a visitor here for a decade. He suggested that Umno and Pas should be allies for the good of the ummah.
After Sheikh Ahmed Deedat, Dr Zakir is probably the most well known preacher-evangelist in showing what Islam is all about. Who needs the media when we have Dr Zakir.
AZMAN A.H., Kuala Lumpur