Filling a crucial communication gap between the Muslim world and the West, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has announced plans to launch a new television channel, amid unprecedented wave of Islamophobia across the world.
“The Islamic world today urgently needs to have a serious and meaningful television channel that would contribute to positive change and help Muslims achieve their goals,” said OIC Secretary-General Iyad Madani, Arab News reported on Friday, October 23.
According to Maha Mustafa Akeel, the OIC’s communications director, the new channel would broadcast across the world to discuss issues affecting Muslims, create awareness of Islamic teachings, and encourage solidarity among the faithful.
Developments taking place in the Islamic world has motivated the OIC to improve its media capabilities, which would be used to “defend and clarify our mission, defend the Ummah’s identity, values and culture, and invest in what this Ummah has in terms of its immense human and natural abilities,” Madani added.
A feasibility study submitted by Lola New Horizon (Madrid), Media Research and Consultancy (Madrid) and Creative Media Solutions (Dubai), was discussed during a recent meeting of the ad hoc committee tasked with launching the channel.
“We are now in the process of discussing the financial, legal and management aspects of the television channel,” said Akeel.
“We will now be looking for partnerships with private investors and with those who have knowledge of the television industry.”
The launch of the channel, which would not be a 24-hour news channel, is expected in one or two years.
“It would be broadcast in English, Arabic and French, the three official languages of the OIC. “It will be aired through a satellite and will also be available via the Internet,” Akeel said.
“We are not competing with CNN or BBC or other mainstream English or Arabic television channels,” she added.
“But we will definitely focus on the core issues of the Muslim world, such as that of Palestine.”
Welcomed
The OIC new channel was welcomed by many media personalities who aimed it will give a voice to world Muslims.
“This is a great project and a very welcome development,” said Amer Smadi, who anchors the popular “Yatair” television program on Jordan TV every Friday.
“We Arabs and Muslims keep talking among ourselves.
“This channel will help us talk to those in the West who have either no idea or negative idea about our culture, our religion and our civilization.
“It will help reach out to the people in the West and clarify our issues and positions to them,” Smadi added.
A similar sentiment was shared by Pakistan’s leading TV anchor and commentator, Nasir Baig Chughtai.
The most important requirement for the idea to succeed is that it should be thoroughly professional. “Only then will the channel be able to establish its credibility,” Chughtai said.
He added the new channel should also be in Urdu because “an overwhelming majority of Muslims in South Asia speak Urdu.”
On the other hand, the channel was opposed by some who deemed it an “irrelevant project” because of the massive technological advances in media recently.
“The Islamic world is in turmoil and technology has moved on. Social media is the in thing now,” Chughtai said.
“The OIC is 20 steps behind, even Daesh are ahead and know how to lure people toward their deviant ideology with slick media production.”
Established in 1969, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) is an intergovernmental organization which safeguards the interests of The Muslim world.
Comprising 57 member states across four continents, the OIC has a permanent delegation to the United Nations.
Source: Onislam.net
