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Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board
| the innocent but heavily publicised "kiss" |
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| jaihoon |
| 03/14/04 at 06:42:27 |
| Comment: Was 'Big Brother' cancelled because of Islamists? By Joseph A. Kechichian Gulfnews.com The cancellation of the Arab and much-cleansed Big Brother version in Bahrain raised several legitimate questions. While conservative commentators dwelled on its various social repercussions, more liberal voices perceived Manama's decision as a clear surrender to Islamist elements throughout the Gulf. Was the show a social threat to Arab and Muslim societies? And what does its cancellation tell us about the putative Islamist influence in the region? Conservative views Although the popular Saudi-owned MBC network addressed Muslim sensibilities - men and women were housed separately in the Bahrain production - no producer could avoid the inevitable. When Abdel Hakim, a young Saudi, kissed on the cheek Kawthar, a Tunisian beauty, on one of the first episodes, all hell broke loose. Given that the parties were not related, the innocent but heavily publicised "kiss" was perceived as a sign of moral depravity, potentially spreading sedition even among the more emancipated. Religious leaders, parents, and several members of the Bahrain Parliament joined the public ruckus that was fuelled by newspaper commentaries, all questioning whether the show trashed traditional values. One did not have to be a fundamentalist to realise that this so-called "reality" program portended to alter a way of life that stood at odds with the more reserved approach cherished by Arabs and Muslims. Still, the conservative backlash was not only targeted at Big Brother but also to bon vivant programmes like Star Academy and Al Hawa Sawa (On Air Together) that certainly challenged existing norms. Beyond their entertainment value - perhaps even their amusement merits - the shows provided liberal voices new opportunities to champion freedom of expression. Thoughtful arguments posited that broadcasting Big Brother and similar programmes allowed individuals to make choices - even if the concept of individual freedom is still in its infancy here. Business leaders, for their part, joined the liberal bandwagon. Many hoped to reap financial rewards as well on the assumption that such entertainment could, potentially, boost tourism. What mattered were pecuniary gains given that the island-state is well known for its merriment infrastructure. Still, while it is true that Bahrain is considered by many as a bastion of liberalism - allowing Saudis, Kuwaitis (and soon Qataris) to drive over the causeway - the Island-Kingdom cannot broadcast its laissez-faire attitude. What takes place behind closed doors is one thing. What is flaunted in public and over the airwaves is another. It is facile to conclude that the show's termination is ominous and that it demonstrates the rising power of Islamists bend on preventing a Lebanon life-style in the Gulf. Nothing can be farther from the truth because most Arabs and Muslims value privacy and defend the right to exercise choices at home. To be sure, Islamists are stronger in Saudi Arabia and Yemen but much weaker in Bahrain, Oman and the UAE. Yet even in the more conservative societies of the Arabian Peninsula, the "Islamist lobby" is not as powerful as is often assumed, because Gulf governments are masters at maintaining social balances among various constituencies. What many object to are the methods/options imposed on their societies. It is not that Big Brother posed a threat to Arab/Muslim societies but that its entry in the region stood as an awkward initiative because its in-your-face approach was alien to the area. Equally important, it was and is perceived as yet another Western concept of reality television, which is not necessarily desired by a majority of Gulf populations. Above all else, Gulf Arabs are pragmatic and have a unique knack to adapt to changing circumstances, as the history of the past half-century amply illustrates. With significant exceptions, a well understood détente has existed among Islamists and most liberals, especially on social issues. The Bahrain experiment demonstrated that dramatic social changes could not be imported into the Gulf with ease. It further indicated that the evolutionary process required time and tact - irrespective of conservative or liberal preferences. Joseph Kechichian, author of several books, is an analyst on Gulf and Middle East affairs. |
| Re: the innocent but heavily publicised "kiss" |
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| jannah |
| 03/15/04 at 19:40:55 |
| >:( hmm I feel like the author of that article is so culturally biased, talk about hypocritical ethnocentric westernism... like why shouldn't muslims be offended? Why is it backwards and fundamentalist to find that being shown on tv disgusting. When they showed two lesbians kissing on TV here it was (is still) very controversial and offensive.. and anyone remember the recent janet jackson superbowl thing...why the scandal? it was "freedom of expression" after all right?? Even Indian movies never show any kissing on the lips.. they can wear tight clothes and sing all they want, but not that. Every society has it's limits. that guy is extolling a "lebanon life style in the gulf" ?! probably because the lebanon lifestyle is liberal christian or even valueless at that social change?? yeah right.. ask him how the equivalent of pornography for muslims will create social change...he seems to think that raises you up the eviolutionary ladder of civilization..when it is actually debasing it and returning people to animal-like atavistic tendencies |
| Re: the innocent but heavily publicised "kiss" |
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| mujaahid4ever |
| 03/22/04 at 12:38:58 |
| [slm] Its as simple as this. The muslim nations dont want that rubbish on their screens. So they gave it the chop. If some western commentators dont like it, TOUGH! They can watch the trash on western TV. |
| Re: the innocent but heavily publicised "kiss" |
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| Trustworthy |
| 03/26/04 at 02:34:02 |
| [slm] YEAH!!! U tell em!!! And we'll do it again, too. Ma-assalama... |
| Re: the innocent but heavily publicised "kiss" |
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| Yasin |
| 04/11/04 at 02:14:59 |
[quote]Even Indian movies never show any kissing on the lips..[/quote] That was the past,even here Hyderabad one of the conservative cities in India, there is a giant billboards almost all over the cities advertising the coming TOLLYWOOD(bollywood type in southern of india)MOVIE..where the actor kiss the actress on the lips with close up picture where you can see this kiss from the distance. I couldnt believe and lil bit shock when the first time I saw it....Did you believe before 4 years or 3 years people here was so conservative and even didnt allow their girls to wear western outfits and you see where ever you go girls wears shalwar and khamees and women wears saris. but that days gone...even Aunties( as they called here) they wear western outfits...it is pretty amazing. |
| Re: the innocent but heavily publicised "kiss" |
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| Halima |
| 04/11/04 at 04:49:34 |
| jannah wrote: [quote]I feel like the author of that article is so culturally biased, talk about hypocritical ethnocentric westernism... like why shouldn't muslims be offended? Why is it backwards and fundamentalist to find that being shown on tv disgusting. When they showed two lesbians kissing on TV here it was (is still) very controversial and offensive.. and anyone remember the recent janet jackson superbowl thing...why the scandal? it was "freedom of expression" after all right?? Even Indian movies never show any kissing on the lips.. they can wear tight clothes and sing all they want, but not that. Every society has it's limits. that guy is extolling a "lebanon life style in the gulf" ?! probably because the lebanon lifestyle is liberal christian or even valueless at that social change?? yeah right.. ask him how the equivalent of pornography for muslims will create social change...he seems to think that raises you up the eviolutionary ladder of civilization..when it is actually debasing it and returning people to animal-like atavistic tendencies[/quote] Well jannah, you can say that again. Here is what I posted/shared last year on the Africa Big Brother version. After reading it again, everybody will understand what you mean by : I feel like the author of that article is so culturally biased, talk about hypocritical ethnocentric westernism... News_Analysis Sunday, July 13, 2003 SUNNY BINDRA / NEO-COLONIALISM In Africa, Big Brother is always watching us By SUNNY BINDRA Unless you’ve been in serious hibernation for the past three months, you will be aware of a phenomenon called Big Brother Africa. In case you’ve just woken up, however, here’s what you need to know: twelve contestants, each from a different African country, are holed up in a specially adapted house in South Africa. They are under complete ‘24/7’ television camera surveillance. The camera follows, literally, their every move. Every two weeks or so, they nominate fellow contestants they want evicted from the house. The African public then votes to eject an unfortunate housemate back into the real world. Two have already suffered this indignity. Ultimately, the sole remaining housemate will pocket US$100,000 (approximately Sh730,000) at the end of the contest. The rest will get nothing. Big Brother is also big business. An estimated 30 million viewers are supposed to be watching the programme across Africa. Millions of fans hit the programme’s website, and send SMS messages which then scroll across a strap-line on the screen. Big Brother Africa even pulled off a rare TV ‘first’ recently: a swap was done with the Big Brother UK house (the UK programme happens to be running simultaneously); one contestant from either house was put on a plane and flown across the seas overnight to spend a few days in the other country’s house. This caught the world’s attention: Big Brother Africa is big news. Both CNN and the BBC have done special reports on it. Even The Economist carried an article on it recently. It is being touted everywhere as a pan-African success story, a rare ‘feel-good’ achievement in a continent known only for war, drought and pestilence. The makers of Big Brother Africa selected the housemates very carefully. Rigorous screening and testing was done in each of the 12 African countries. Looking at the results, it seems quite obvious what the producers were looking for: young, confident, hip, urbanised, relatively affluent Africans with a modern outlook. The seven men and five women selected certainly display these characteristics. The ‘fun’ for the audience is to watch how these youngsters interact: their friendships, enmities, alliances, love affairs and gossiping are on continuous display. Reality TV, at its most powerful. If these housemates are a microcosm of the ‘new’ Africa, what are we to make of it? For a start, there’s certainly no shortage of confidence. These new Africans are ebullient, enthusiastic and entertaining. They seem worldly-wise and cosmopolitan in outlook. Indeed, it is universally accepted that the African version of Big Brother is far livelier and more sparkling than the UK one; the latter is notably insipid and the participants almost irredeemably dull. The Africans are spending their time in the house with great gusto, and Africa is putting on a highly entertaining show for the world. Another notable plus: all the women in the house are strong, confident characters. They are competing on a par with the men. They do not play second fiddle to anyone. If this is the face of the new African woman, then perhaps our notoriously patriarchal society is fast coming to an end. Now, then: you didn’t really think this article was about extolling the virtues of a TV programme, did you? I hope not, because the good news ends there. The housemates are also promiscuous, profane and obnoxious. They seem to have no problem in conducting multiple love affairs, nor in consummating them on camera. They are deceitful and duplicitous, often found stealing food and drink from the house pool and hiding it for themselves. Getting drunk is usually the highlight of their week. Their preferred reading material is pulp western fiction. Their long, tedious conversations contain not a hint of intellectual depth, nor of any spiritual or religious yearning. They are utterly self-absorbed and full of their own self-importance. Their hormones are in full control of their bodies. And recently, they decided to engage in near nudity in order to ‘raise awareness’ about world hunger. Ye Gods! Much is being made of the fact that these young Africans have a new commonality, that the national traits that once divided Africa are fading away. This is true, but there is nothing to rejoice about. The thing that is uniting young urbanised Africans is not a new pan-Africanism; it is an unashamed adoption of the behaviour patterns and habits of western youth. These people could be placed in any western city with little problem. Sadly, it is all the negative traits they revel in: intoxication, materialism and sexuality. These are their new gods, and they worship them with great passion. If this is the face of our future leaders, then we have a great deal to worry about. If brainless hedonism is to be the credo of the new generation, then we will soon join the rest of the world in becoming worshippers of empty brand names and treating life as an endless orgy where the goal is to ‘have a good time’. We will become part of the global assembly line producing wonderful, transient consumer ‘experiences’. Our dream of coming up with our own ideas and our own solutions will remain just that. Real life will pass us by; higher values will remain out of our reach. But hey, that’s OK: at least we’ll be hip and trendy! Perhaps we can take heart that this group of urban youngsters has little to do with the reality of Africa. Most young Africans are a very different breed: they live far from any city; many have never received a telephone call, let alone worked on a computer; their lives still revolve around crops and livestock; they have certainly never watched Big Brother. These ‘true’ Africans may not be chic, and can even be termed ‘backward’, but they certainly still hold many values we would be foolish to discard: a quiet modesty; a charming openness; a respect for age and experience; a solid spiritual base; and a belief in common decency. But the sad evidence of Big Brother is that these are precisely the things we stand to lose as we march on towards material advancement. Finally, there is another sense in which Big Brother is disquieting to Africans. Have we in Africa not always had a Big Brother? An unseen force that sets out the rules that govern our existence? A voice we hear always telling us what to do? An entity that sets us meaningless targets and tasks? That gives us short-lived, trivial rewards for our achievements, and sends us to the ‘sin bin’ when we break the rules? A body that rewards a selected few in great measure, but keeps the majority in abject poverty? And a power that makes the real money, while keeping us intoxicated and revelling in our silliness? We in Africa are not masters of our own destiny, and have not been since we were colonised. Today, the colonisation of our minds continues apace. We accept, without question, that material advancement, western brands, and ‘modern’ values are all good for us. We mimic our teachers and ape their lifestyles. Someday, we must all break out of the house that Big Brother built for us, and start making our own rules. Mr Bindra is a writer and management consultant in Nairobi. |
| Re: the innocent but heavily publicised "kiss" |
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| georger |
| 05/22/04 at 23:28:47 |
| I only wish there could be some equalization between standards...... Remember last summer? It was in all of the papers when Madonna, Christina Aguleria and Britney Spears......(I won't say it). You couldn't escape it. Everyone was talking about it, it was on the radio, on the TV...... What was described at the beginning of this thread is, by comparison, so very very innocent sounding. |
| Re: the innocent but heavily publicised "kiss" |
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| kashifs |
| 05/25/04 at 01:09:00 |
| Assalamua'alaikum, Having grown up here.....I am sooooooooooooo happy that large segnments of the Islamic community are so innocent in this day and age. :-* Meanings we don't give it up(phycal morality)l so easily, they say India will surpass Africa in AIDS in by 2010 and China is mushrooms. This is not to say we not have problems with prostitution and rapid spread of desieses in countries like Pakistan, or Egypt just that majority of us still choose to remain 'innocent' till marriage. Alhumdu'llillah :-/ |
| Re: the innocent but heavily publicised "kiss" |
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| georger |
| 05/25/04 at 09:32:18 |
| [quote author=kashifs link=board=bro;num=1079264547;start=0#7 date=05/25/04 at 01:09:00]Assalamua'alaikum, Having grown up here.....[/quote] Begging your pardon please, but where is "here"? |
| Re: the innocent but heavily publicised "kiss" |
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| kashifs |
| 05/25/04 at 11:02:14 |
| Assalmaua'alaikum, Here is Toronto, Canada....I see and hear about cultural and insecure Hijabis dancing at cultural and mainstream dance clubs(about 1-5% of them) , bearded Hafizes smoking, and bearded guys drinking(and of course tremendous cultural wife abuse) even really nutty things like a friend of mine viewed a twelve year old hijabi often making out with a 14 year old non-muslim boyfriend white boyfriend in public school(like remove the Hijab and the respect and santity it represents if going to do such)......yep we have our share of messed screwups. Yet to counter them, we also have a lot of proud to be Muslim Brothers and Sisters and many that don't wear the clear religious exterior yet have maintained their chastity, politeness and outlooks in life and very active in many non-Muslim and Muslim charities and social arenas .....I believe the love, warmth, caring, and guidence in immediate family helps form our level of confidence that we majority in Toronto despite being now second generation still don't give it up so easily as their mainstream counterparts. I believe as a result we have a better quality(versus quantity) of life experiences, freedoms with the beautiful norms of Islam . We know that many non-Muslims in North America no longer grow up with two parent families or children have to undergo the tensions of parents divorces, loose affairs, and boyfriend and girlfriends, pressures towards giving it up, pornography as the norm, and lonelinesses they are not brough up with similar values, character focus and outlooks to what their great grand parents were who were raised in more sound home environments(and would be agust that what North American mainstream social cuture has become). I believe Islam and Muslims have a positive role to play in repairing the social fabrics of North America, yet currently we are still being undermined by those that have too much of the glitter of (hollywood) the west in their eyes and into their self-damaging orea behaviours. Thats my two cents worth ::) |
| Re: the innocent but heavily publicised "kiss" |
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| georger |
| 05/25/04 at 12:21:07 |
| [quote author=kashifs link=board=bro;num=1079264547;start=0#9 date=05/25/04 at 11:02:14]Assalmaua'alaikum, Here is Toronto, Canada....I see and hear about cultural and insecure Hijabis dancing at cultural and mainstream dance clubs (about 1-5% of them), bearded Hafizes smoking, and bearded guys drinking (and of course tremendous cultural wife abuse) even really nutty things like a friend of mine viewed a twelve year old hijabi often making out with a 14 year old non-muslim boyfriend white boyfriend in public school (like remove the Hijab and the respect and santity it represents if going to do such)......yep we have our share of messed screwups.[/quote] I'm northwest of Toronto. And yes.....if a heart is bent on following excitement and current popular trends, old parental and societal customs and dress codes are meaningless and actively repelled. I've seen tan skinned teen girls walking on the sidewalks in Malton, wearing the Hijab and at the same time wearing skin tight jeans, tops and high heels, being a very revealing spectacle. Drive by a Bramalea Catholic school during lunch time and sometimes you'll see similar behaviour and attitude reflected in the appearance and action. :( [quote author=kashifs link=board=bro;num=1079264547;start=0#9 date=05/25/04 at 11:02:14]Yet to counter them, we also have a lot of proud to be Muslim Brothers and Sisters and many that don't wear the clear religious exterior yet have maintained their chastity, politeness and outlooks in life and very active in many non-Muslim and Muslim charities and social arenas .....I believe the love, warmth, caring, and guidence in immediate family helps form our level of confidence that we majority in Toronto despite being now second generation still don't give it up so easily as their mainstream counterparts. I believe as a result we have a better quality (versus quantity) of life experiences, freedoms with the beautiful norms of Islam.[/quote] :) Yup - It's the inner person that makes the outside worthy, not the outside defining the inner. [quote author=kashifs link=board=bro;num=1079264547;start=0#9 date=05/25/04 at 11:02:14]We know that many non-Muslims in North America no longer grow up with two parent families or children have to undergo the tensions of parents divorces, loose affairs, and boyfriend and girlfriends, pressures towards giving it up, pornography as the norm, and lonelinesses they are not brough up with similar values, character focus and outlooks to what their great grand parents were who were raised in more sound home environments (and would be agust that what North American mainstream social cuture has become). I believe Islam and Muslims have a positive role to play in repairing the social fabrics of North America, yet currently we are still being undermined by those that have too much of the glitter of (hollywood) the west in their eyes and into their self-damaging orea behaviours.[/quote] In the name of seeking greater freedom, people have abandoned God in society, in the classroom, in some of the laws of the land. They have embraced secular relativism and social Darwinism over the God-fearing values their grandparents and great-grandparents worked so hard to teach. And I couldn't agree with you more. In fact, I'm hoping for greater Muslim positive influence on western society's sense of morality, ethics and vision of what constitutes true social progress, hoping what you've described to come true! |
| Re: the innocent but heavily publicised "kiss" |
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| Saam |
| 09/01/04 at 10:48:35 |
| [slm] I feel these kinds of Western shows in our Islamic countries seem to be a way for the kuffar to invade non-militarily. They will go in and introduce shows to the Muslims like "Big Brother" and start to open up "Planet Hollywoods" and distribute all other kinds of immoral propaganda. All with the intention of turning the Muslims away from their "evil backwards fundamentalist ways" and "liberate" them by bringing "freedom." Then after the culture finally becomes Muslim in name only (which seems to be their wish), they can go in their and finish off whatever traces of true Islam seem to be left. It's like I see it all happenning in slow motion, and I can't do anything to stop it. Ya Allah, please save the Muslims. Wassalaam, Saam |
| 09/01/04 at 10:49:53 |
| Saam |
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