The power of the media - some thoughts

[Guest guest]

Dear Friends

 

This mail below is some food for your thoughts.

 

We Hindus/Indians need to understand the power of the media,

the public relations exercise, the need to spend more time with

our kids right from young age, the need to be proud of our

culture, traditions, languages, religion and more.

 

(1) The foreign policy mistakes of USA

(2) The Israeli-Palestinian-Arab world conflict

-- these are all only the deeds of the recent times.

 

What needs to be looked deep is, where and how,

do these terrorists of OBL and his network,

get their spiritual inspiration from ?

 

Thank You

Suresh

 

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[ corrected for some spelling / typo errors - it/8468 ]

 

Rajiv Malhotra

Sat Oct 6, 2001 9:57 am

 

probir raya

 

did anyone watch the oprah show on Islam 101 today - I just

caught the tail end of it. Can any organization take a lead

and put together a package out of the past postings in this group

and ask few questions/ points on Islam? E.g. giving some

quotes from Quran - treatment of women , infidels, jihad -

posing some of the following questions

 

Response:

 

Your question shows remarkable naivete, even after months of

attempts here to explain how the system works. Please, once

again, these successes of Islam are all the result of careful

public relations planned over the past 15 years by islam, Inc in

the us. This requires commitment with consistency, as opposed to

doubt over whether to act or not, or whether to be organized or

disorganized, or what the message should be.

 

Islamic scholars in the US academics number in the thousands.

Besides the quantitative advantage, there is a qualitative

difference - they are publicly muslim and very emphatic and clear

about identity. They nurture students whom they can influence in

class and outside, both muslims and others (including hindu

kids). They influence the way textbooks get written. They have

powerpoint presentations now being given literally at thousands

of briefing sessions around the country - universities, every

publishing house, every public policy think tank, etc. There is

an organize rescheduling system to get their scholars out

there and busy, busy, round the clock. It's like an

intellectual militancy.

 

Islamic studies and related fields (e.g., history,

social studies,...) are well 'oiled' by Arab money. They

nurture the right scholars over many years. They have got

hundreds of young bright westernized muslims through Ph.D.

programs who now teach at major universities. Even many

teachers of 'religions of India / South Asia' are muslims.

 

Are these the intellectual equivalent of the "sleepers" and the

hundreds of "cells" that are at the physical militant level? It

takes years of dedicated planning to pull this off.

 

So why is NY times emphasizing muslim art as beauty and love

today? Why are museums around the us featuring Islamic

contributions of art? Why are media educating the American public

about the greatness of Islam? Why are Americans as the victims of

crime being asked to feel guilty and apologize to muslims for

having bad foreign policies? (Many Indians have also joined in

this bandwagon.)

 

You cannot want fruit and yet make fun of attempts to plant fruit

trees. How many on this list did anything to promote indic

studies in the education system despite repeated calls to do so?

 

America is a highly educated country and that is the system

through which values and ideologies and prejudices are

inculcated. Less than 0.5% of Americans ever go to a Hindu

temple, so whatever you do in temples impacts a few insiders

only. Yet these so-called 'leaders' of Hindu revival are mostly

obsessed with internal politics to impress each other and

relatives back home. They have negligible presence or

participation externally with the American public at large, nor

adequately developed communication skills to be able to do so.

 

So rather than complaining that the other's trees have lots of

fruit and that your trees are few and their fruit barely visible,

you must focus on the mechanisms by which fruit trees get planted

and nurtured; and mobilize tree-planting activities of your own.

 

Then in 15 years our kids would enjoy the fruits in this country

that we wish we could.

 

Rajiv

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