Global Arab Network | Egypt - Mainstream Islam takes to the airwaves

Translate this article to your language:

GANPublications

e-Publications

Add Site to Favorites

Add Page to Favorites

Make Homepage

Share This Page

RSS Feed

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| |

Egypt - Mainstream Islam takes to the airwaves

- Adam Turner

Wednesday, 07 October 2009 16:50

Cairo - The man on the television appears enraged, talking fast, yelling and demanding Muslims follow the "right path of faith." Not too far, at a nearby table, two young Egyptian girls, shrouded in their colourful hijabs, or headscarves, watch the white-clad sheikh speak. They turn to each other and their glances say it all: this is not what they are looking for in Islamic television.

The café, with its Islamic preachers blaring on most Fridays and often at other times during the week, have become more commonplace in an Egypt growing progressively more conservative by the day, but there are many who are fighting against this current, especially young headscarf-clad women.

Heba is a 22-year-old recent college graduate who studied media. She has worn the headscarf since she was 18 years of age, but these diatribes by elderly preachers are too much, she says, highlighting the growing gulf that exists in Egypt.

"I just don't like how angry they sound and how judgmental they have become", she told The Media Line. Her friend Sara nodded in agreement.

Both are part of the growing trend among 20-something Egyptian women looking for a more restrained approach to Islamic television.

The recent launch of IslamOnline's television channel Ana TV, is just such an option, and both Heba and Sara are excited.

"I read the articles from IslamOnline because they give a nice, honest and not-so-arrogant perspective on the issues that affect my life", said 21-year-old Sara, who says she was thinking of removing the headscarf until she discovered the mainstream Islamic news organisation. "It has given me a new sense of what it means to be a Muslim woman and someone who wants to be liberal and open to new ideas and new ways of thinking."

Ana TV is part of a consortium of groups, led by IslamOnline, to create a new perspective on the growing Islamic media that is taking hold in the Muslim world. For Heba and Sara, it is a trend they hope will continue.

"We hope that such [an] aim would be a mutual goal for all the participant and non-participant organizations. It is truly an open invitation for all those interested in effective participation in the campaign", a statement from IslamOnline read, highlighting the growing need to accommodate the new wave of Islamic liberalism in Egypt and across the region.

An IslamOnline reporter, who asked not to be named due to their connection with the organisation, said that "we are a moderate Islamic institution in many ways and we try to give people a new route to discover what Islam means in the modern age."

Rania Jalal, a Tunisian Islamic researcher who helped establish the new channel similarly feels that moderation is key.

"If we think back to when the Prophet [Muhammad] was around and the other important people in Islamic history, then we see that they were open to debate, in talking about the issues at the heart of the faith, without preconditions", she begins. "It was not until centuries later, when kings and caliphs tried to make Islam part of their rule that it became different than it was supposed to be."

With programmes debating Islamic tenants, perspectives and Islamic law, Ana TV is being seen by young Muslims as ushering in a new generation of Islamic media.

For Jalal and other young Muslim working women, this channel, she says, could help battle the male-dominated "sheikhdoms" that exist currently on satellite television.

"What we have seen in recent years is a rise in extremely conservative channels that broadcast a skewed perspective of Islam, such as the sheikhdom-style television programmes run by certain Wahhabis in Saudi Arabia. It was time for a change."

Time will tell whether Ana TV will set the standard for new Islamic media, or whether it will dwindle in the history of ideas that have come to represent much of the Muslim world, says leading liberal Islamic thinker Gamal al-Banna.

"I hope people see it as an opportunity to debate and have a conversation about the issues at the heart of our society", says the 88-year-old scholar and younger brother of Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna. "I think openness is key to the success and future of Islam."

As Sara and Heba relax, puffing away on their water pipes, they believe they can help shape the future of their country and region.

"If we look at how things are going, it is obvious... that we need more ideas and more talk about the things that are affecting us", says Heba.

Sara nods, laughing at a joke from a presenter on Ana TV. She points out that this is what has been missing.

"People are too serious and make everything black and white when they talk about my faith. I think that if we can joke, it will remove the tension and allow people to think for themselves", she argues.

Both agree that the Prophet Muhammad would have found Ana TV a useful endeavour for Muslims, Sara said, which would have enabled Muslims to look "into their hearts to find what Islam means to them." She then added, "That is the point. If we don't have our own faith, just that from others, then we are not good Muslims."

Global Arab Network

* Joseph Mayton is founder and editor of Bikya Masr (bikyamasr.com), an online English-language news site based in Egypt. This abridged article is distributed by the Common Ground News Service (CGNews) with permission from the author. The full text can be found at www.themedialine.org.

Source: The Media Line, 28 September 2009, www.themedialine.org
Copyright permission is granted for publication.

Add comment

The opinions of the authors in articles published are theirs alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of Global Arab Network
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Published comments are the opinions of private individuals and do not reflect the views of Global Arab Network