MAKALA/ ARTICLES

THE ROLE OF MEDIA, ART, AND THE VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENT IN THE EXPANSION OF ISLAMIC AWAKENING



Media, Art, and the Virtual environment are powerful tools in the awakening of Muslims; Muslims must understand that; Islam is a total way of life and is the only true religion acceptable by Allah. Muslims should be conscious about their religion, and therefore the quest for further enlightenment is a necessity (faradh) qur an, (96:1-5). Hence, this quest for knowledge now becomes part of studying.



The awakening should commence from the individual Muslim to the community and onwards. Muslims must be aware of political, cultural, economical and social issues. We should have knowledge of our religion and put this into practice. In 2011 we observed a number of Arabic nations suffer from a Muslim awakening, though we can term this a political awakening. “An Islamic revolution in Egypt would have immense worldwide repercussions. If Arab dictators start falling like dominoes, we might see the beginnings of a united Ummah” (Kevin Barett, 2011) Any Muslim who knows his/her position in Islam, he/she will use that opportunity to build our religion well. In fact, simply being aware within the political arena is insufficient; we need to expand this awareness into action. There are some tools we can use to expand awareness amongst the Muslim community, for instance, the Media, the Arts and the Virtual environment.


 In fact these tools can carry information easily to the mass. Some of the media can be radio, Television, Newspapers, and Magazines. Art can be in the form

t which includes:- Face book, Twitter and E-mail and other blogs. Already quite a number of people use at least one of the latter daily to acquire either entertainment, education, news, or any other relevant information. For instance millions of people depend on the Media so as to acquire news around the world; so how many people watch Aljazeera, CNN, and BBC, everyday? The answer naturally will amount to quite a significant lump sum of people. Therefore the media can be used to raise people’s (Muslims) awareness through its information. Further advancement of the media and mass literature has also changed the composition of our society. Now, people are becoming more conscious and practical-minded. They have developed a sense of logical thinking and a rational frame of mind. (Kaptan, 2004).


To a larger extent, we can use the Media to expand the awakening of Muslims around the world because it is a tool that can have a direct impact on the society. To some extent we can trace the use of media in western countries and the United States. They try to create and broadcast negative information to other countries in order to weaken some countries. At the same time, these countries are also trying to supply negative information on Islam and its Muslims, for instance, by using the media, these countries spread the issues of Terrorism around the world. Many people now believe that Islam is terrorism. Can’t we use the same media to awaken Muslims? We must make use of the same media to spread the positive message that is Islam to our fellow Muslims. In fact the media has such power, that it can bring about serious changes to societies if people are allowed to analyze the information themselves by receiving different views from different media.


In many countries, Muslims have been very late in incorporating Art in their activities, but we must understand that, Art also has the power to disperse information; we can also use Art to expand awakening among Muslims. Just take an example of the Ummah Film Company which produced the short film “Tomorrow never comes”, The story is about Hassan, an intellectually and athletically gifted young man, who wakes up one day and discovers that he can't hear. He soon realizes that he has actually been deaf long before that day just because of his arrogance. His loss of hearing humbles him and he realizes that he must change. He decides to change tomorrow but tomorrow never comes as tomorrow is his funeral”1. Therefore this film cautions Muslims to be prepared every time. It reminds Muslims that; "there is always tomorrow" but tomorrow isn't guaranteed for any of us. Art, having a direct impact on the society, easily penetrates into the mind and it tends to remain in the memory longer. Other arts which can be used are; paintings, documentary films, drawing and drama.


In a nutshell, we have examples of our fellow Muslims in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Yemen and Syria; they have been revolting against their governments and Islam has contributed much in these revolutions, for example, (Bayat 2011) says  that “It is true that there are some similarities between today’s Egyptian uprising and the Iranian revolution of 1979, the Iranian revolution - unlike the Egyptian upheaval of 2011 - was led by a religious figure, for example Islamic organizations such as the Muslim Brotherhood are present in the movement”.

 1www.ummahfilms.blogspot.com/2006/04/muslim-awakening-film-update

 To some extent it seems that Muslims have become aware of their rights, but can we remain to see these few countries bring changes to their lives? The “Arab Spring” in Tunisia, Egypt and elsewhere in the Mid-East heavily relied on the Internet, social media and technologies like Twitter, TwitPic, Facebook and YouTube in the early stages to accelerate the social protest (socialcapital 2011). Therefore we can use the virtual environment as another tool to expand this awareness. Nowadays science and technology being advanced and easily available to almost everyone means that most individuals have access to computers daily.

There are a large number of people who are using twitter, face book and other programs to communicate because this way of communication is very simple, and people can communicate with many people at reduced costs and timely conveniences. Some information implies that the revolutions in Egypt, Tunisia and other Arabic countries were stirred up on face book, twitter and other blogs. Therefore we can increase our efforts in using these sources of information dispersing sites to expound on any information which can assist in the awakening of Muslims around the world.

We should understand that, in many countries Islam is very weak and some efforts are needed to support our religion. Allah said that he will protect his religion but also we are responsible in the defense of our religion. Muslims must be aware of their religion and therefore more efforts must be utilized in this cry to awake.


READINGS

Kaptan, S.S, (2004), Media and Consumer protection, SARUP &SONS

Qur an, (96:1-5).

 Bayat A, ( 2011), Egypt, and the post-Islamist middle east (article)

social capital (200), Twitter, Facebook and YouTube’s role in Arab Spring (Middle East uprisings) (Blog)

Kevin Barrett's  (2011), The Islamic Revolution Continues in Egypt (Blog)

www.ummahfilms.blogspot.com/2006/04/muslim-awakening-film-update