Are Our English Newspapers Without Religion?

While reading through today's Utusan Malaysia, I came across the "Kemusykilan Agama" section by Mohd. Farid Ravi Abdullah.

The headline intrigued me as it stated "Tidak Haram Bermain Biola". A reader had inquired whether playing musical instrument with strings were haram (prohibited).

The answer by the columnist, Farid Ravi Abdullah was pretty interesting. I'm producing it here verbatim in Malay, so as to avoid any misinterpretation:

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"Bilakah muzik dan nyanyian menjadi haram?

Kebanyakan nas yang mengharamkan nyanyian dan muzik adalah apabila ia bercampur dengan perkara-perkara haram seperti nyanyian disertakan dengan arak, pergaulan lelaki dan wanita tanpa batasan, seni kata yang bercanggah dengan iktiqad Islam, muzik yang digunakan yang melampau seperti rock, yang pada hemat saya tidak mendatangkan ketenangan malahan mendatangkan ketegangan emosi yang tidak stabil.

Nyanyian dan muzik hukumnya harus selagi mana etika Islam dipelihara di dalamnya seperti nyanyian menggambarkan keindahan alam, kasih sayang sesama manusia, ketuhanan, kedamaian dan sebagainya.

Kesimpulannya, tidak salah saudara main biola atau alat-alat muzik yang lain seperti seruling, kompang dengan syarat alat-alat itu tidak melalaikan saudara daripada mengingati Allah dan melaksanakan tanggungjawab saudara sebagai seorang Muslim.

Sebenarnya, jika kita amati dan fahami konsep muzik dalam Islam, ia boleh menjadi wasilah dakwah kepada kebaikan dan menjadi satu alternatif ke arah keharmonian."

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Aside from the interesting interpretation taken by the columnist, the thought struck me - why is there no religious content in our English newspapers?

Hishamuddin Rais asked a few weeks back about why the English-speaking (or more accurately, English-writing) Malay writers don't write in Malay. I argued in one of my entries that it goes beyond preference of language of expression and proficiency - it's an issue of the worldview related to a particular language.

Malay newspapers (and some tabloids) by nature, Malay-centric and are catered more towards the issues that the Malay community enjoys - politics, polemics, religion, scandals, entertainment and purely hot gossip.

The knowledge, business and technology content is rarely very deep and is conveyed on a very superficial level, perhaps catering to its readership base, which perhaps comes from a wider range of income and education levels. One-sided views are pretty much a norm in Malay newspapers - be they owned by the Government or the Opposition.


But I noticed another thing today : How come I've never in my lifetime come across a Q&A column on Islam in the English newspapers? (The IKIM column in NST does not count because it's a watered down, urbane, one-way sermon and usually without any references to specific religious texts even, sometimes)

I would understand if the paper were owned by non-Muslim parties (and some of their papers do have columns on Taoism, Feng Shui and other beliefs and practices) and there is no imperative for them to do so but what about an English newspaper owned by the Muslim parties, like The New Straits Times?

Are English-reading and English-speaking Muslims (especially Malays) in Malaysia doomed to never have a religious advice column, in any other language, other than their native tongue? Are our Muslim owned newspapers destined to be areligious?

Is this deliberate or is it a practice we unconsciously inherited from imitating English newspapers around the world?

Is that one of the reasons why the worldview of those who express themselves in Malay and those who express themselves in English are so divergent, sometimes? And why the views of the likes of Sisters in Islam (SIS) carry so much more weight with the English speaking community, than those that do not?

I'm just asking a question, to provoke thought and debate. It's good for us to know the substance of what really divides us - rather than just scolding people about the language they speak and write in.

The medium of the language carries a worldview with it. That's my suspicion. It may or may not be deliberate - but what happens is that we're creating Malays and Muslims on 2 different trajectories of economic progress, intellectual growth and religious consciousness in Malaysia - with fewer and fewer common things between them.

That's why they struggle to communicate, sometimes. It's not the language - it's the worldview, shaped by the creators of the medium.