Stoking the fires of radicalisation
-Illustration by Mahjabeen Mankani/Dawn.com
One of the great achievements of the Musharrarf regime was the granting of far greater freedom to the press than the previous regimes, which has continued under the PPP government. However, most unfortunately, the relatively greater freedom that the electronic media now enjoy has not been handled with a corresponding sense of responsibility by them within the scope of all their activities including entertainment.
The media have been responsible to a large extent for the radicalisation of the population of the country, infusing more religiosity in a country already greatly obsessed with religion, perpetuating ridiculous conspiracy theories and creating a fiercely, irrational and non-pragmatic anti-American environment. A number of anchors are visibly pro-Taliban and viciously anti-west and their lack of objectivity is barely concealed; such anchors were able to stoke the fires of the outrage that followed the killing of Osama bin Laden. Not one anchor questioned why the declared number one enemy of the power with which the country was on friendly terms remained hidden right under the noses of the establishment while they all castigated the United States for violating Pakistan’s sovereignty and spun dark, implausible and laughable conspiracy theories. It was this quite clear tilt towards the Taliban and the extremist forces that one of the anchors on a major network had the audacity to give equal time to the perpetuators of the Lal Masjid fiasco and tried to transform the traitors who wanted to challenge the writ of the government into martyrs. The right-wing electronic media methodically gives exposure to the likes of Hamid Gul and others who are acolytes of the Taliban, declared enemies of the state, question the involvement of the Taliban in terrorist attacks, accusing Indian agents or other outside forces for such atrocities and proclaiming these savages to be ‘our brothers’.
The channels fan the flames of intolerance and bigotry in a nation already obsessed with a crazed religiosity, by offering far too many religious programs. It was on one of such programs that the ‘aalim’ Dr. Amir Liaqat Ali, whose true face was revealed in the video that went viral, showing his obscenity laden outburst, elicited from one of his guests the fatwa that Ahmadis could be killed as they were not just ‘non-Muslims’ but ‘apostates’, leading to the murder of three innocent Ahmadis the very next day.
The disease of radicalism and intolerance has even reached the shores of the United States where the Muslim population is supposedly more moderate. In a program named ‘Ghaib Ki Baatain’ on one of the channels, presented through a TV station owned by a local Pakistani American tycoon, the guest, proclaiming to be a sufi but acting strictly like a salafist in answer to a question, if it was jaaiz for a Sunni to marry a Shia replied in the negative, a viewpoint which was supported by a number of postings on the hazrat’s facebook page accompanied by vicious and hateful tirades against the Shias. During Moharram, in one of his sermons, he referred to Yazid in a respectable manner. However, in an example that could be emulated in Pakistan, through the persistent application of pressure on the producers of the programs by only two people, who relentlessly pursued this matter, the hazrat was replaced by an aalim and the program finally moved to another channel which will hopefully act more responsibly.
The pronounced reactionary tilt in the ‘News and View’ arena is bad enough but even in the entertainment field, the lack of responsibility is most glaringly evident. More than 90 per cent of the TV dramas are penned by novices.
The repetitious hackneyed plots more often than not are idiotic, unrealistic and implausible and do a great harm to the society by presenting archaic stereotypes and awful, conservative portrayals of women as weak, hapless, totally at the mercy of their husbands and in-laws, with no possibility of escape from their horrible life situations, who can be summarily thrown out by the husband merely repeating talaak three times.
The dearth of good playwrights leads to formula plots of a cruel mother-in-law, a spineless, obedient son and a jellyfish of a husband, a subservient daughter-in-law for whom working outside the home, demanding a divorce, returning to her parents or even going to an Edhi center is unthinkable. A distorted version of religious injunctions is presented play after play which stipulates that a woman can be summarily divorced or has a religious duty to stick with her abusive husband. Such awful depiction of women reinforces their second class citizen role that the religious right advocates and by presenting women in such a light the channels are complicit in further marginalising the already pitiful status of women in Pakistan.
When one looks at the trend of the dramas playing at any one time, one is struck by the similarity in plots, as if they were all written by the same playwright e.g. a brother or a sister lusting after his or her sibling’s paramour or spouse, the husband who divorces his wife in a manner most favored by the playwrights in a fit of insane rage now attempting to resort to ‘Halala’ another favorite of theirs. The arrival of the Turkish plays, which may also suffer from this criticism, but may have better plots is causing great concern in the TV entertainment industry but it may induce the stakeholders; the channel owners, the playwrights and the producers to direct their energies to present more socially responsible plays and help fight the battle against rigidity, retrogressive thinking and intolerance.
The author is a Pakistani American based in New Jersey. He obtained his Ph.D from the University of California Medical Center, San Francisco and now heads an independent Clinical Laboratory. Deeply interested in both US and Pakistani politics, he believes the ‘Sir Syed Model’ to be the most appropriate guideline for Muslims for the 21st century. He can be reached at masoodhaider1@gmail.com.
The views expressed by this blogger and in the following reader comments do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Dawn Media Group.
The media is at nascent state so allow it to mature. However what they depict is end result of last four and three quarters of years of governance. Some of us do not want to hear bad about goverance it does not mean it does not exist. The logic depicts by a commentator about not allowing music in mosque so donot allow regious talk or comments on media ? Dear open up your eyes ,you are living in ranbow society not in dark one .Tolerance is a Big word to learn more about it. Same media anchors were terrorized by bloody dectator, Mushar raf who veil the facts finding investation of Kargi war at cost of our patriotic soldiers, does not deserve any applaude, Same dictaor tried to harm an honorable Chief Justice does not deserve pet on his back. .No one but media exposed ton of dictator’s wrong doings. Give crdit to those deserving it
I do agree with writer to certain extent but to say Pakistani media is igniting religious war is rubbish. When it comes to religious views in Pakistan, one should not forget why and how Pakistan was created. There are only two countries in the world who were created in the name of religion Pakistan and Israel. So to say religion is the root cause of all the problems is pathetic and immature thinking. It is the mind set of corrupt Pakistanis who should be blamed for majority of problems, eighty percent of media in Pakistan is owned by politicians and they use media for their own cause that includes igniting religious problems or black mailing and so much. Actually media is just a tool and who control it that should be the discussion of our topic. If we analyze blaming religion or media is just an excuse, we should blame on our selves who are responsible for majority of problems.
An Excellent article – honest, courageous, unbiased, reflective and truth telling.
Masood Haider, you are a great American and a great human being. This is from one professional to another from the Indian sub-continent.
May your thoughts be heard, listened to and absorbed by Pakistan.
Masood’s blog is very well written. Pakistan is going through turbulent times and this phase will also change. Extreme poverty, or at best a grossly unbalanced distribution of income, and a lack of educational and occupational opportunities have embittered large numbers of people. Radical Islamic movements, powerful state actor, aggressively seek regional dominance and export influence. Today terrorism is threatening the very roots and fabric of Pakistan’s nationhood. More tragically, terrorism in Pakistan draws its justification from the very faith which provides the country its ideological bases.
Unfortunately in Pakistan Media never played a positive role . Religion is use to make money and common Pakistani is also liable by watching those anchor and give money to Religious leader and to follow them blindly without learning Qur’an in true sense .Islam teaching is tolerance,peace , to help others, honesty etc.
Why our political and religious party do not make long march against corruption and demand to hang corrupt official publicly? Why not our system arrested and give harsh punishment to any high level corrupt official?
so many people died in this country because of their religion believe, like governor Punjab and others but non of the corrupt got even life sentenced.
We are a religion phobia nation.
“Not one anchor questioned why the declared number one enemy of the power with which the country was on friendly terms remained hidden right under the noses of the establishment”
This is factually incorrect. You cannot watch two channels and juxtapose the resulting ‘survey’ onto the whole industry. Many people spoke up on television and highlighted precisely this point. the fact that you didnt watch them doesnt mean they do not exist.
And as far as your critique of the drama industry goes, they show whatever is commercially viable. they are not tasked to educate the populus, they are tasked with entertaining them. same everywhere else in the world. Two and a Half men is a glaring example of an amazingly popular tv show that was not about too much more than the objectification of women. If silly dramas are pervasive on television, it is because silly people love watching them.
The author has missed the conversion of a hindu boy which was shown live.
The writer has correctly identified a key element of the extremist poison being spread in Pakistan. Private TV channels are pumping out a lot of ignorance and hate, and are responsible for much of the sectarian violence today. They also reinforce hateful gender bias.
Not entire media. Only one group. I fail to understand what they want to achieve. Some of its reporters are obsessed with religion.
Why blame the reporters? Ordinary muslim people, educated or illiterate, are obsessed with religion. Even in the west, their numbers are on the increase. Most surprisingly, young muslims are more indoctrinated with Islam than their parents. A dark future for the world indeed.
A very nice article. You have hit the nail right on head. Excessive religiosity is a major cause of so many problems in Pakistan. Unless there is a paradigm shift from superstitious mode of thinking to rational and objective one, country can never get out of this confused state of existence. Let media be media and let mosque be the mosque. If you are not allowed to play music in a mosque, why you allow religious dogma on TV or Radio?