Loading ...Arab Media Forum Challenges Religious Stereotypes
Experts from across the Arab world gathered in Tunis to discuss the depiction of Islam in the international media.
Media professionals and researchers from Syria, Morocco, Libya, Iraq, Bahrain, Egypt, Sudan, Yemen, Oman and host country Tunisia gathered in Tunis October 18th-20th to discuss ways to improve the image of Islam through the media.
The Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (ISESCO) in association with the World Islamic Call Society and the Tunisian Educational, Scientific and Cultural Committee held the forum where participants broached the possibility of introducing university journalism courses on how to alter the stereotypical image of Islam.
“The aim is to shed more light on the bases of Islamic civilisation in order to enhance dialogue among civilisations and stress the need to respect cultural diversity and call for stopping defamation of religions and sanctities,” said Dr Mahjoub Ben Said, an ISESCO representative.
Chief of Tunisian Educational, Scientific and Cultural Committee Fatma Barhoumi stressed the importance of information and communication technologies in building bridges of understanding, given their “role in enlightening the public opinion and establishing a culture of communication that respects the other”.
“All Arab media professionals and elites have to help in ridding the West and Islam of the inherited ideas because the world lives in one civilisation that all peoples took part, and will take part in making,” Tunisian Education and Research Minister Bechir Tekkari said.
He added that the project of introducing classes on changing ideas about Islam in the media would help portray Islam as religion that “calls for respecting humans and spreading the values of tolerance and dialogue with the other”.
For his part, Education Ministry official Redha Methnani emphasised the need to use foreign languages in drafting a convincing Islamic discourse, compatible with modernity.
“The countries of the Arab and Muslim world are too concerned with their domestic affairs and have neglected the religious aspect. They didn’t develop the content of Muslim discourse, which is still traditional and doesn’t keep up with developments,” he said.
The Arab States Broadcasting Union indicates that most of Arab satellite channels air in Arabic, with only 26% broadcasting in foreign languages, of which 20% in English and 2% in French. Arab religious channels constitute 8% of total television channels in the Arab world.
In this regard, Methnani stressed the importance of employing modern as well as traditional communication means, including cinema, press, theatre, music, drawing and other forms of art, to spread a positive picture of Muslims and Islam.
He also called for focusing on research centres that promote Muslim-Christian understanding and annual parliamentary forums for children and youths from all cultural backgrounds to encourage interfaith dialogue.
Meanwhile, Dr. Mohamed Ali Ibrahim, Islamic Studies Faculty dean in Jordan, stressed the need to “train Arab students in Islam in order to enable them to defend their religion and promote it on correct bases. Many of those students are still unable to learn about their religion in a correct way due to their lack of knowledge about Muslim culture.”
While the project sounds promising, some fear that difficulties with carrying it out might inhibit the process. According to Tunisian student of journalism Redha Temtem, “the implementation of this project may require much time because of differences existing between Islamic currents in Muslim countries, some of which may oppose the idea”.
Monia Ghanmi
Magharebia