Documentary on Islam set to speak to uninformed West<\/p>\n
By Mehru Jaffer<\/p>\n
NEW YORK (JP): The possibility that Megawati Soekarnoputri,
\nrecently declared the most popular leader by voters, may still
\nnot make it to the top job in Indonesia is a puzzle to most
\nAmericans.<\/p>\n
That the largest Muslim country in the world is not ready even
\nat the turn of the century for a woman head of state is something
\nthat is baffling to people in contemporary Western societies
\nwhere the equal status of women is taken for granted. After all,
\nwomen make up half the work force here and have nearly equal
\naccess to all educational and occupational opportunities. Many
\neconomists even argue that this is the secret to the West's
\neconomic and social development.<\/p>\n
Why is it that values of sexual equality have not been widely
\naccepted in many Muslim-majority countries? Instead, Muslim women
\nare seen navigating through a thicket of legislation that,
\nwhatever its intention, actually restricts their lives in ways
\nmany in the West find difficult to imagine.<\/p>\n
\"This is because the Muslim world's attitude toward women is
\nfar more complex than it appears to Western eyes,\" said Prof.
\nMaristella Lorch of Columbia University. Examples also are cited
\nof Muslim women soldiers fighting alongside men, women
\nparliamentarians in Iran, doctors, economists, engineers and
\nfilmmakers around the world and heads of state in Pakistan,
\nTurkey and Bangladesh.<\/p>\n
In the search for answers to many other such contradictions
\nwithin Islamic societies, yet another film is planned for an in-
\ndepth exploration of the diverse ways adopted by Muslims to the
\nchallenges of modernity. The idea is to try and understand all
\nover again the political and social forces operating in the
\nMuslim world.<\/p>\n
A group from the William and Mary Greve Foundation contacted
\nthe International Conflict Resolution Program at Columbia
\nUniversity three years ago to help create a television
\ndocumentary series that would introduce Islam to a largely
\nuninformed Western audience.<\/p>\n
The film will try to dispel the common Western association of
\nIslamic fundamentalism with violence and intolerance.<\/p>\n
\"It is our hope that this program will aid the process of
\nreconciliation by helping to demystify this powerful religion
\npracticed by a billion people, one fifth of all humanity, but
\nwhich is demonized today by headline-grabbing acts of violence
\ncommitted by a small minority of its followers,\" explained Alvin
\nH. Perlmutter, producer of the project who is a former NBC news
\nvice president and has made more than 100 documentaries for
\npublic and commercial television.<\/p>\n
Columbia University's International Conflict Resolution
\nProgram is a research-based program, operating both in the
\nclassroom and the field, working toward a better understanding of
\ninternational conflicts and the factors that cause them.<\/p>\n
Lorch feels that a large television project on Islam at this
\npoint in time is not only feasible but highly desirable. Aghast
\nat the gravity of tension brewing between Muslims and Christians
\nin countries like Indonesia, the filmmakers will trace the common
\nroot of Islam and the other two monotheistic faiths of Judaism
\nand Christianity. It will emphasize the way all three faiths are
\nstruggling to define themselves in the modern world.<\/p>\n
What is most frightening is the reductive view that has taken
\nhold on both sides. A recent Roper poll reveals that 50 percent
\nof those polled believe all Muslims to be inherently anti-
\nAmerican, and\/or supportive of terrorism. For their part, many
\nordinary Muslims strongly feel that Western powers are bent upon
\nundermining their cultures, their governments and their religion.
\nMany Westerners view Islam as a rigid, reactionary, even medieval
\nfaith.<\/p>\n
The relationship between Muslim and Judeo-Christian worlds can
\nbest be described in this day and age as one of alienation,
\nhostility and suspicion. The need is to understand the political
\nforces operating in the Muslim world and to puncture the
\nstereotype image of Islam by portraying it in its vast diversity,
\nfrom those who resist change, to those who have accepted, even
\nembraced secular modernity.<\/p>\n
Islam does have a core of set beliefs that are the same for
\nall Muslims but around this core there is a swirling diversity of
\nnationalities, races, politics, customs and social conventions.
\nThe film will search out the forces of both unity and diversity
\nin Islam that are always at odds, causing ebbs and flows of
\ncohesion and conflict.<\/p>\n
To prove that Islam has not one mind but many, the four-hour,
\ntwo-part program will be shot in seven countries around the
\nworld, including Indonesia where Islam is seen to blend
\nbeautifully with the country's pre-Islamic culture.<\/p>\n
Perlmutter was struck in Indonesia by the fact that none of
\nthe news stories about the downfall of the Soeharto regime put
\nthe focus on religion. In Malaysia, the film will explore the
\nconcept of modernizing without secularizing, where fundamentalism
\nwill be studied for existing without the violence so often
\nassociated with Islam in the Western mind.<\/p>\n
In contemporary American jargon the term fundamentalism is
\ntaken to mean something foreign and threatening. The film
\nattempts to refine the definition of Islamic fundamentalism, to
\nuse it along with revivalism, to mean the reawakening of the
\nIslamic ideal and its rising influence in most Muslim countries
\nfrom Indonesia to Bosnia. It is important for the West to
\nunderstand that this movement is not simply an expression of
\nrage against the West, but a complex reaction to the challenges
\nand pressures of post-colonial and post-Cold war politics in
\nMuslim societies and outside.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/documentary-on-islam-set-to-speak-to-uninformed-west-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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