Writing about religion

On October 30, Iman Research and its partners, The Habibie Centre of Indonesia, Usaid and The Malaysian Insider organised two events – a closed door working group roundtable attended by members of the diplomatic corps, the media and academics, and a public forum to discuss the media’s role in countering religious extremism.

The media plays an extremely important role in disseminating “the truth and only the truth” as said by Jahabar Sadiq, the CEO of this news website, and the “it” comes in the form of opinion essays, features, news and articles.

The restrictions of the media

My colleague, and also columnist Nicholas Chan, gave us a rundown of the event in his column. Everyone shared, discussed, disagreed and debated on their experiences and work on religious extremism, and the question always came back to the role of media in countering extreme prejudices.

Is the media just a platform? Is it a tool of state control, an egotistical trophy for the media owner? What other roles can it play? Jahabar said it cannot be just the media who took on the responsibility of countering religious extremism. The media does what it does, reporting truth.

I feel that it is not as simple as that. Writing on conflict, religion and politics requires a certain kind of intellect and analysis, especially when you deal with religion.

I mean no disrespect to members of the media, for many of us are trained in communications or have come to journalism from a different professional field, with the mind-set of reporting and writing the truth. But as an employee, observer and citizen, I see that writing and reporting about religion are two different things.

I do not think you need to be a scholar nor theologian to write about religion, believers and the public sphere, but there has to be passion and understanding for this subject.

To write about religion, “it requires a willingness to look outside our own perspectives in order engage with the great questions – and questioners on their own terms.”

It requires a person to understand the nuances of language and agenda, and to appreciate that language can persuade a would-be Jihadi to join the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (Isis), or not.

One of the things I personally struggle with when I write my columns is the issue of voice. Am I trumpeting a truth that is alien to my background, truly and truthfully speaking on behalf of a (marginalised) voice, using a cause to forward an agenda or am I telling the truth, that is universal to the voice I am championing for? Linda Alcoff’s The Problem of Speaking for Others exemplifies my personal feelings.

The media today is no longer just about print. All media, print and broadcast, have to contend with digital selves, and face one insurmountable challenge: speed. In the digital world, everything happens and changes within nano seconds.

What was breaking news an hour ago is now usurped by another. The attention span of the consumer is as short as news updates – that’s why headlines, sensational or not, are as important if not more, as the news content, which by the way, is shortened to accommodate online reading.

So certain truths may or could be withheld or chopped up, because media practitioners have to meet with deadlines and publication timing. Then there’s the issue of whether the story would pique the audience – in Malaysia, religion sells, but only and most times, if it’s fractious.

Because of (the lack of) resources, editors do not have the time to train and mentor journalists. The best they can do is to advise: read! Talk to people! Write! And the idea of having specialist writers focusing on religion, counter terrorism and extremism, is relegated to experts who can be very dry academics and policy wonks who use a language that confuses or bored layreaders.

Some notes to ponder on

Recently, there was a little backroom kerfuffle on how coverage of a public intellectual’s talk should not have been written the way it did, and instead created problems for the personality.

I was not there to witness it, and neither do I know what truly transpired, but I have witnessed before, on how a discussion on ethnicity and religion amidst a very sedate group of Malaysians, which I attended, ended up splashed on the media with headlines that shouted racial crisis in the country.

I contacted the editor to say none of what had reported happened at the discussion, while fending off very irate members of that group who thought I had the power to take down the offensive article (I wish).

In the digital era, even if the offending article was taken down, its footprint would still be left on the Internet.

I believe the journalist did his or her work to the best he could, like all of us. If there were misquotes or misunderstanding, perhaps it could be due to a different understanding of the context of the presentation.

Reportage sometimes is not literal comprehension. Again, I was not there, so I cannot give a full opinion of the incident.

But because the personality’s talk and presentation was about religion, the politics behind faith, and we will be dealing with countering religious extremism for a long time (this is an age old debate), all media and their partners must realise that writing and reporting about faith in the 21st century has nuances that are different from before.

People’s attention spans – instant news and what makes news, news, for instance, have changed how news is written, published and perceived.

Even ownership of a media company can be deemed suspicious by readers: if the published language of the organ is English and owned by what the public feels is not trustworthy, no matter what truth you stick in the media, it won’t jive with readers.

The media in Malaysia is stuck – damned if you do, and damned if you don’t. Writing about religious and religious extremism requires the nimble and articulate skills of a tightrope walker.

But the media is an ally and important platform of information. Its truth may not be yours, but it does tell you what a certain segment of society is thinking. And that tells you almost everything you need to know about a topic. In this case, religious extremism.

However, there needs to be more discussion on the media’s role when it comes to religion. Let’s work on that. – November 13, 2015.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.