Q-News May 2004 Issue 356

When the Greek poet Homer penned The Iliad - his harrowing, epic account of the Trojan War - most of his fellow countrymen probably expected him to produce a testament that made his own people appear good and noble. After all, the war against Troy was a battle to restore stolen honour, returning Helen to her marriage bed and, in the process, demonstrate the moral and military superiority of the united Greek armies. Eager Greek youth must have waited with baited breath to hear the story of their magnificent victory - after ten long years of war - aided by the pagan gods and the strong arm of heroes like Achilles and Odysseus.
You can imagine their surprise when the tale did not play out as they hoped.
Agamemnon, the king of Mycenae and leader of the Greeks, far from being a wise ruler, is portrayed as a greedy, arrogant and power-hungry man who sends tens of thousands to their deaths for the sake of his own glory. Achilles, the divinely protected hero of the Greeks, fights valiantly at times but is often consumed by rage and allows emotion to get in the way of his honour. Menelaus seeks the return of his wife and honour, but is driven by revenge and seeks to see the walls of Troy razed to the ground with much booty taken to fill his coffers.
The enemy king, Priam, on the other hand is portrayed as an aging monarch who has little appetite for war and killing and whose reign has seen Troy prosper. Hector, his son and the Trojan hero, is the champion of his people. Hector is portrayed as civilised and gracious and he acts bravely in defence of his city and defiled in death by his rival Achilles.
Homer, although a Greek, is clearly no partisan. His views are honestly and meticulously documented with little care as to who will be offended. Like a good reporter, he offers us a sincere version of the truth for all the read. It is a noble, albeit flawed, effort.
Being a Muslim journalist these days is a task worthy of Homer. She struggles between two extremes. On one hand, she faces acute pressure from the Muslim community to ‘serve the cause of Islam’. On the other hand, she is faced with a cut-throat media industry that often tries to make her conform to its shifting agendas - at all costs.
Muslims love to hide behind convenient slogans and shallow platitudes (like “Islam is a religion of peace” or “don’t blame Islam for the actions of Muslims”) to make up for their intellectual deficit and lack of direction. At a conference I spoke at recently, I heard one of my favourite Muslims slogans earnestly repeated by community elders: ‘we need more Muslims in journalism’.
If the purpose of having more Muslim journalists is so they can somehow swoop into the profession and change the way the industry works, we are being foolish. The media isn’t here to make Muslims, or any group for that matter, look good. The best journalists are here to tell stories and to hold the mirror up to society. Consequently, attempts by Muslim journalists to produce work that is introspective or critical of the community are labeled the work of the “gutter press”. So difficult is this job that many fellow Muslim colleagues have chosen to cut their ties with the community for the sake of being journalists (who happen to be Muslim), committed to a profession, instead of an interest group.
When a community systematically attributes its ill-reputation on the ‘media’, as if it is a monolith, which is systemically and inherently Islamophobic, there is a serious problem. Such finger pointing takes away responsibility from us for the state our community is in. An Islamophobic press is less than half the story. Muslims have the right to demand that the media be fair, but we must also be open to scrutiny, even when it is uncomfortable.
The Quran tells us, “O you who believe! Uphold justice even against yourselves or your parents and relatives. Whether they are rich or poor, Allah is well able to look after them. Do not follow your own desires and deviate from the truth. If you twist or turn away, Allah is aware of what you do.”
Our faith sets high ethical standards for us. It is to these standards that committed Muslim media professionals must aspire. Such a commitment need not come at the expense of honest, hard hitting and well researched journalism that challenges inspires and above all forces us to take a second look at ourselves.
May Allah help us tell the truth, whatever the cost. Ameen.

Fareena Alam

Managing Editor
fareena@q-news.com