Editorial: India TV's anti Muslim reporting on Adv Faiz Syed in the spread of Corona virus, My Response
By: Iftikhar Islam
We all know about the media’s attack on Islam and Muslims since decades. According to Nathan Lean, editor-in-chief, Aslan Media and a researcher at Georgetown University, “The media plays a strong role in promoting Islamophobia in the world.” It got increased after 9/11, reached its peak in India in 2014, and went beyond since the Corona disaster. Thanks to the preaching made by Indian media which got so influenced that a non-religious pandemic Corona ‘accepted’ Islam and became Muslim. Now the COVID-19 became “(un) officially” Muslim in India. The influence was so much that most of the common people started hating Muslims in India. There are many Muslim harassment cases got reported after the emergence of COVID-19 due to media’s misreporting.
Each channel is in a race of perpetrating Islamophobia. The unethical reporting by the Indian media, day in and day out, went to the extreme when India TV ‘investigated’ and came with the result why Muslims were ‘spitting’ on the authorities and volunteers. They discovered an old video of an Islamic presenter Adv. Faiz Syed which was published on YouTube on 25 October 2017, more than two years before the Advent of COVID-19. Obviously, the video is nowhere linked with the pandemic Corona.
Here are the six reasons why I say that the India TV is filled with Islamophobia and the reporting was ill-intended.
First, the name of the speaker is Adv. Faiz Syed, not Maulana Faiz Syed. Since decades of his activism, nowhere he is referred as Maulana Faiz Syed, not even once. He is very popularly known as Adv. Faiz Syed. The anchor said “Ye hai Faiz Syed. Ye Advocate bhi hai aur maulana bhi, magar Faiz Syed koi aam maulana nahi hai, ye Islamic Preacher hai…” (This is Faiz Syed. He is an Advocate as well as Maulana. But, Faiz Syed is not an ordinary Maulana, he is an Islamic Preacher). The India TV has stressed on the word ‘Maulana’ so much so that it becomes easy to portray him as a peculiar maulana. Adv. Faiz Syed is not a Maulana, he is an Islamic Preacher. An Islamic Preacher may not necessarily be a Maulana. Even the person who has discovered this ‘great’ discovery had to research about the person well, then, why deliberately leave the title “Adv.” which is officially used by him and impose a new title of “Maulana” which is not correct?
Second, when India TV practices “Investigative Journalism”, why hasn’t the investigator searched for the new videos of Adv. Faiz Syed? He would have just visited his official YouTube channel @IRCTV, it was that simple! He has published a full video on Coronavirus on 3rd April 2020 while the India TV has aired the report on 11 April 2020. This clearly exposes the intention of the producers. The self-proclaimed ‘investigation’ was an utter failure.
Third, the video deliberately taken out-of-context was published on YouTube on 25 October 2017, more than two years before, can never be related to the pandemic disease even remotely. The way clips were pasted in editing with the hounding music in the background and voiceover of the anchor tried to change the direction towards hate against Muslims on the pretext of the video clip and started explaining the ways of spreading the coronavirus, which exposed the India TV itself.
Fourth, the actions of Adv. Faiz Syed in the video was deliberately ignored by India TV to push their agenda. He was explaining about a ritual in Islam where if a person is tempted by Satan while in a prayer, and when Satan whispers about the creation of Allah, then he should spit thrice lightly towards the left shoulder. The actions clearly displays how a person has to perform the act. Nowhere Islam promotes spitting on another person. The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) strongly advocates keeping hands on the mouth even while sneezing. Even Adv. Faiz Syed has preached the same in a video published on 25 February 2015 on official YouTube channel. But why would the India TV bother even to know this? Once they get the video of their taste, the agenda is set.
Fifth, the research of India TV is so rubbish that even a layman who understands little bit of books of hadeeth knows that India TV knows nothing about Hadeeths. The anchor said, “Hadeesh ki book number untees (29), Chapter one ki ayat 5613…” Even if I leave the anchor for mispronouncing the Hadeeth as ‘Hadeesh’, the simple question arises which book of Hadeeth? There are ‘n’ number of books of hadeeth which the team of ‘investigative journalists’ failed to investigate about it. From where did they found ‘Aayat’ number in the books of hadeeth? There are no aayaths in the books of hadeeth. This clearly displays the lack of correct research methodology and having malicious intention against the Muslims. The entire editorial team is so busy in demonizing the Muslims that they even fail to research simple things.
Sixth, even after knowing the close interpretation of the hadeeth which the India TV tried to explain it later, but have deliberately put down. Instead of emphasizing on the correct interpretation, India TV has chosen to attack Adv. Faiz Syed and portray the Muslims in the bad limelight.
These are the six points, according to me, where India TV got exposed for their Islamophobic agenda.
Zainab Sikander rightly said “The one thing Indian media is not doing is journalism.” The duty of a journalist is to present the things as it is, not to work behind a set agenda and target a particular group of people. This is happening due to a silence of the good people and the incompetent & unjust authorities holding the power. Media is the fifth pillar of the state which always plays a role of the opposition that questions the decisions of a government and helps in building the nation.
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Read in Hindi: राय: फैज़ सैयद पर इंडिया टीवी की मुस्लिम विरोधी रिपोर्टिंग, मेरी प्रतिक्रिया
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