By Safaa Abdoun
Daily News Egypt
CAIRO:
In a bid to bridge cultural gaps and clear misconceptions about Islam,
Azhari TV is reaching out to a wider audience and is now available in
English, French, Urdu and Pashto in addition to its original Arabic
language programming.
Azhari TV was first launched following US
President Barack Obama's address to the Muslim World in June 2009 where
he called for a dialogue based on mutual respect and understanding
between people of different faiths.
One year later, Azhari TV, the
educational and entertainment satellite channel created to promote
moderate Islam, has decided to expand.
“[Through Azhari TV] we're
trying to show the people in the west and the rest of the world that the
problem isn't in Islam but it's the misinterpretations by certain
people that's the problem,” said Hassan Tatanaki, chairman of Azhari TV,
in an interview with Daily News Egypt.
The
satellite channel was founded with the aim of promoting a moderate
interpretation of Islam and intends to counter extremist rhetoric which
they saw dominating the debate.
Breaking language barriers
Operating
on a new channel, Azhari TV 2, the dub of the Arabic language channel's
original content into four additional languages, will enable the
station to reach homes across Europe and Asia, spreading its message of
reason and tolerance.
The channel aims to serve as a direct
counterweight to more confrontational and aggressive interpretations of
Islam that have proliferated in the last several years and exacerbated
the turmoil that has plagued much of the Muslim world.
Through the
expansion, Azhari will be reaching non-Arab Muslims that don't have
access to a correct interpretation of Islam because they are limited to
certain outlets.
The languages were not chosen after thorough research, especially in Afghanistan, Pakistan
and South East Asia. French and English were selected to cater to the
Americans and Europeans, Arabs and non-Arabs residing there.
Faces of Azhari TV
Prominent
television presenters and journalist Mahmoud Saad is the head of Azhari
TV. “Mahmoud Saad, highly educated in religious matters in a civil way,
a subject close to his heart, truly believes in the mission,” said
Tatanaki.
“What happened during the past period is that there has
been many television stations coming out which present fatwas and
extremist views by people that aren't scholars, we need to fight this
trend and the only way to do that is through the media, not by attacking
but by presenting another view since this view is far from true Islam,”
Saad told Daily News Egypt.
“[The
channel will present] a viewpoint that is moderate, rational, scholarly
to present a true image of Islam which has been marred,” he explained.
Azhari
TV faces the challenge of attracting viewers and distinguishing itself
from other religious channels that are available in abundance.
“I
will get popular religious preachers and scholars,” Saad said, “and we
are giving the audience the correct viewpoint, by time you will know
that this is the correct interpretation.”
“We need to explain that
Islam is about moderation, forgiveness, understanding, we need to show
the west and non-Muslims in general so that they understand,” said
Tatanaki. “We also need to understand that we have to fix ourselves
before we fix the view of others of us, instead of just blaming the west
for being anti-Islam we have to do something about it,” he noted.
Tatanaki
cited the misinterpretation of the world ‘jihad.' “It was misused by
extremists and it now means ‘to kill yourself' to the world, and it's
because of us not them,” he said.
Azhari TV is named for and is
closely affiliated with Al-Azhar, Islam's oldest and most venerable
institution and seat of learning. Programming includes news programs,
cartoons for children, drama series, lectures and call-in shows.
The channel's content is developed by religious scholars educated at Al-Azhar University.
The
star of the channel, considered by many as popular and charismatic, is
preacher Sheikh Khaled El-Guindy, who is also a partner.
El-Guindy
explained that the drive behind launching Azhari TV was the lack of a
moderate voice of Islam in the contemporary media.
“[Furthermore,]
the fierce attack on Al-Azhar scholars made us persist in our call on
Al-Azhar institution to have a television channel speaking on behalf of
this historic institution which led the Islamic rhetoric one day
spreading moderation, tolerance,” El-Guindy told Daily News Egypt.
“Al-Azhar
[has] not kept up with the advancements of the media, [and] this
allowed other bodies to take control of Islamic preaching, spreading
certain views that we have many reservations about,” he added.
El-Guindy
explained that they have embarked on the expansion as there are over a
billion Muslims in the world, out which Arabs only count for about a
third.
“So why have we excluded these people from the religious
dialogue and left them at the hands of those who misinterpreted Islam
and misguided them on a certain path and at the end of the day we all
pay the price,” he said.
“We can't sit back and stay silent anymore,
Allah said ‘We have sent you for the mercy of all mankind,' so why has
that changed that to ‘We have sent you for the mercy of Arabs?'”
El-Guindy asked.
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