peace be upon you and welcome to eye on islam, the show where we look at current affairs through an islamic lens. one of the biggest responsibilities that muslims have been endowed with has been to propagate islam and spread awareness about the causes that are most important to the muslims. it's also amplified by the fact that the world is under the spell of the zionist owned and controlled media empire. which is uniquely hostile to

muslims and islam, evidence by their shameful coverage of the genocide in gazah and other issues related to islam. in this week's episode we will explore what the responsibilities of muslims are in propagating the religion, defending the muslims and islam with the tongue and clarifying the falsehoods of the global media. first we take a look at what the religion of islam says about these matters in the holy texts of the religion. the religion of islam is and has been from its. inception, fast growing religion. one of the reasons for that has been the focus on propagating the religion or performing dower, literally calling others to the straight path. it is also a religion that calls its followers to correct misconceptions and falsehoods, as well as enjoying the good and forbidding the evil. first we can go to the holy quran to learn what islam says about propagating the religion to others. in surah 41, ayah 33, allah ta'ala says: who is better in speech

than one who calls to allah, does righteous deeds and says, "indeed, i am amongst the muslims." in surah 16, ayah 125, allah also says, "call to the way of your lord with wisdom and good preaching. thus it is a direct command from god that believers must propagate the religion of islam wherever they are, and must do so with the best of manners and etiquet." also instructs the believers to enjoy. the good and forbid the evil. you are the best nation raised up for humankind. you enjoin righteousness, forbid corruption, and you believe in allah. this concept of calling others to the right path and calling out wrong behavior or ideas is also found in a famous hadith of the prophet muhammad. who says, "whoever of you sees wrong being committed, let him rectify it with his hand. if he is unable, then with his tongue, and if he is unable. than with his heart, and this

is the weakest of faith, and this is a theme which has been explored in a recent book released by the leader of the islamic republic of iran, entitled. this means the struggle against misconceptions, which, as he points out, is even more important a duty on muslims in an age where social media and the mainstream media spread such damaging lies about muslims as well as others who find themselves. in the firing line of the global zionism and its western government puppets. to discuss this important topic of two very special guests. we're honored to welcome dr. razza john vedadi who is a multiple award winning filmmaker based in london. over the past 12 years dr. fadadi has directed, produced and filmed over 50 documentaries that delve into the west asian and muslim identity and culture, and he has also presented academic papers at numerous institutions across the world. also joining

us is the esteemed sister sahar jaber. sahar has an honored degree in sociology and communication studies from mcmursey university. she resides in lebanon where she studies at the islamic seminary. she co-founded figs and olives publications in islamic publishing house aiming to provide reliable and impactful resources for parents, institutions and children in english. assalomu alaykum to you both, thank you for joining us on the show. uh, sister ja, but if of i could begin with you. just saw in the video at the top of the show some of the verses that allah subhanah has revealed uh for the muslims to understand their duties in propagating the religion of islam. what are your thoughts first of all on some of those verses that allah has revealed? i think those verses stress on the idea and fact that the prophets themselves, their main role in this world uh was to propagate islam, that's the very essence and the purpose of a prophet himself, and so what allah does is he does a not stop at the... prophet it is not possible

that the prophet was the last one to propagate islam and then we should continue in our ways, what allah asks from us is for us ourselves to propagate islam, and so... understanding this verse is that we have a responsibility in ourselves to be a representation for allah, to be a representation on this earth, um, in the way of god. lot of individuals in this day and age, especially because of the society we're in, the feminine society we're in, uh, they're very afraid to put on their their beliefs or what they actually uh think would be true to others, because they don't want to enforce anything, they don't want to enforce any religion, but islam itself says: 'you need to propagate in the way of your actions, propagate islam, because that's the very essence of your purpose, what's to be a khalifa, what's to be a representation of god? absolutely, and um, there was another uh, well hadith actually that we touched upon in that video, which is the prophet sallallahu alaihi saying uh that muslims if

they see a wrong, they should correct it by their hand if they can and if not by their tongue, and if not that at least oppose it in their hearts, which of course is the lowest form of belief. what do you think are the duties of muslims when it comes to enjoining the good and forbidding the evil? when we talk about forbidding the evil and enjoining the good, the reason why there's different levels is because if you can do it by tongue, it's the best of course to speak, but however we know in this day and age sometimes someone cannot accept and maybe even they will put some force on you in a way in which is unacceptable, and so at that manner uh enjoining good and forbidding evil will even go towards your eyesight and so in a way in which you do not show them um that you uh are smiling or that you excell. or accept what they're saying imam jafar even says call the people towards islam without using your tongue to the point in which your very representation in the workforce um in the community it's a representation of what it means to be a muslim and in force people are then questioning about islam we see for

instance uh in gaza right now what's happening so many are converting to islam because they are seeing not by words not by the tongue but by the actions what it means to be a muslim and they are. being introduced to it in a beautiful way, absolutely. um, and dr. vadadi as well, i would maybe pick up the same point with yourself, anything to add on that? i think also one one thing i always thought about is those people who are muslims from the muslim ummah, from the muslim community, and they don't have the connection to what we're discussing in the sense that sometimes they accept injustice, um, i think sometimes we have to remember that injustice starts in the heart, and so we need to reevaluate, that's why it goes. if you call it by tongue, by hand, by tongue, then the heart, buse initiating the heart, if your heart is not purely against oppression, doesn't matter what your tongue says, it eliminates from the heart, so that's why it's important that we go back to the root being the heart, and those who are not eminating

the against oppression, they need to reevaluate their connection with islam and allah, that something is not correct in their heart, and if i can say with you, doctor, um, you're a media professional, you're somebody who has vast. experience over decades, i want to get your thoughts in terms of the global media, how you know uh, you know that they are controlled by zionists or buse those who are sympathetic to zionists or funded by zionist capital, um, how do they use that media to defame muslims and islam? so there's various tactics used by media to defame any any group, if we look at the muslim uh, they use lot of uh tactics, for example stereotyping and generalizing. some activities and lumping it with small number of people that may be doing something that's uh wrong or or inaccurate towards islam, then they start one thing they use is framing, so they frame muslims in a specific way, they use a military language when they describe muslims, so it's a jihad when um terrorist

act happens and it happens to be a muslim, but it's a lone wolf or or or or a crime when it's a non-muslim, the they use devisive. to them and us, they don't accept our values, they don't, they come to this country, they don't, they want to impose their shariah onto us, it's them and us, so um, and there's also political motivations behind this, it's not, so people always say just zinanism, i think zanism is one of the one of the puzzles and the jigsaw of anti-muslim, so capitalism is also part of that, because what islam says is promote justice, and justice is everyone having a fair share in the society they... living, but capitalism is about capitalism is about enriching a small number of people, and the concept of zinanism falls into that, it's it's used to uh, bring a certain group of people down, unfortunately palestine, but also used outside, and it's interesting because you know, in the recent years we have

got even more amplified because you got social media now, so there's people receiving their news or the information in their phones, but we see the same pattern repeating in terms of... of social media companies, big tech companies kind of closing down on people or or clamping down on censoring voices, would you agree? so this concept goes back to for example what nome chamsky, the professor from americas. said that they manufacture consent, so before social media in the last 15 years became really popular, they would use it through newspapers and then tv, cinema, radio, and now we have those, but then top of that we have social media, which is the one people more engaged with more, and we know from many um articles and uh news that came out that the american government is directly in contact with all the major tech companies, so facebook, instagram to the point where fbi would give the... request to remove these accounts or shut down people who use these hashtags and so forth and so on,

and we know all of us, i think all of us who watch this program would have realized now since what happened from september the 7th, lot of accounts have become shadow band, so you go in, you see a post that they've put on and you want to share it, you can't, the option of sharing that account is not possible because the enforcement by anti um anti-muslim uh groups has become so powerful that... "a lot of accounts have been impacted pro-palestinian by now so social media may be supposed to be democratic uh it's definitely more decentralized yeah and especially as you said - between since october the 7th it has been a case where um we've seen the media companies try to control it more but still you know the element does uh get through now i and islam spoke to people in london to ask them their thoughts on the responsibilities that believers have when it comes to these matters." okay, it's important and you can

practice it in your day-to-day life, and uh, you will do it by the people you speak to, through your actions, through your behavior, how you present yourself. obviously, as for myself as a muslim, i wear the hijab, and how i carry myself in public, how i speak to my colleagues, my friends, even strangers in public, even people on the tuper might be watching what i do, all of that is a part of that, and it will show um, it's combatting how others might see it. us and i think it is important, it's done that in that we little bit by bit every day, yes, during this time it's really important to do jihad tabin and to speak up, especially with what's happening in gaza and the genocide and everything that's being committed, so yes we do have to speak up more than ever, i think arguably is more important for the everyday muslim, even more so than say the important figures or the influential figures. is those people, the everyday person is the one whom the non-muslims get their impression of islam

from and they form their idea of this is what the typical muslim is. arguably that's one of our most important duties as muslims in the west um and it's a very important opportunity we have is to to bridge that gap to the non-muslims and historically this was one of the most important forms of dhawa for example. the thing is since 911 we thought we'd made lot of inroads in terms of the media in terms of representation. in terms of the media understanding our point of view and putting it forward, what we've recently seen with gaza is that either that was fasad or it's been tirely rolled back and there's been incredibly islamophobic outporing in the media, very one-sided view, a barely any sort of muslim or arab or middle eastern or global south voices being expressed except for example in el jazera and for a handful of other places, lot of journalists have been removed from their positions like mahdi hassan famously, so it's been an incredibly difficult time, but it's also a time where we are. we must fight back, where we must assert ourselves, assert our point of view, assert our narrative and champion our course. 100%'s

our islamic duty, whether it's on the micro scale by informing your friends and family and by people that you know in your workplace, or whether it's on the political on the macro level, whether we're joining political parties or joining political movements and joining protest movements and joining you know direct action causes where we're shutting down um and blocking uh what's it called weapons factories and so forth, it is definity. our duty, especially because i believe there's a hadith, the prophet forgive me if i must quote it, it is the duty of every believer he sees in justice to act upon it with their hands and if they cannot do so with their mouths and the lowest form of jihad is with their hearts, so certainly if we're able to, we must insert ourselves in all these spaces to push forward our points of view and to stand up for justice and human rights. so sister jab, we had the opinions of some of the muslim community there in terms their responsibilities, but in terms of yourself, what do you think are our responsibilities in terms of clarifying you misconceptions and lies that are pushed out

by the global hegemony? i think first and foremost we have to understand that we have a responsibility in the first place. many may be assume that a sheich or someone that's uh active on social media they can take on this role, but in reality it comes down to god chose for you a position in which you are in a geographic uh cultural systematic area for reason because you can have influence. a way in which someone else cannot, they are not equal, and so to have and recognize that you have the influence in the first place is necessary, then to understand that you have the language and the ability and the mechanism to do a form of... in which other people cannot is necessary, and so in the media right now, with the misconsumptions are happening, this is no different than the time of sayab and what she was going and fixing the misconceptions that were happening against her son, against her brother, imam hussein, and we need to take on the misconceptions that are happening against us and be a leader and be a representative towards them, and so it is obligation of

every muslim, it is necessary for us to be an active role, to to recognize our abilities, what we have to offer. um and then on that basis actually be an active member in society dealing with it and um brother yourself uh what do you think are the responsibilities of muslims and also i'll go to the next question as part of that do you think muslims are doing enough to fulfill those responsibilities? um i think there's always space to improve uh we have started in the last 10 20 years for muslims to be active in various fields so if we can break it down into let's say five engaging within media being part. participating in media, creating media content, we have lot of muslims who are active on social media, but we have some muslims are active in uh the mainstream media, so you have momar who did a show and he's proud to be a palestinian in it, we had someone like rami, fortunately some of the shows like rami's one had some problematic elements to it, but you see more engagement, but there's it's not enough, there's still a need for it, there's the utilization of

media, so we need people are active positive influences. on social media who don't sell out if you know what i mean, that's very important, so if i if i can name a person for example, i would uh sayid hussein maki, he's a very good influence on social media, he sticks to his values and he he tries to avoid sending out to uh mainstream concepts, community outreach, we used to do lot of programs like love muhammad which engaged with inter faith and intra faith, there's also the uh mosks opening up during uh ramadan, maybe that could be something that happens more often, not just one. year for example and also education and media literacy, i personally participate and love media literacy for our community so then they can engage with their children, i think that's important because we always think media is entertainment, we don't realize that ideology is embedded in media, so unless we can dissect it and take it apart, how do we explain it to our to our children, to our youth and to others, so it's very important

that we have media literacy as part of it, i think one thing always notice is especially in the uk but and other parts of the west as well is while the media is hostile, the culture, especially somewhere like london is actually very pro muslim because there are a lot of muslims here and a micro level there's a lot of micro influencing so you'll see you know non-muslims who all of their friends are muslim in school and they'll either accept the religion or they'll be fasting in ramadan in solidarity with their uh brothers and sisters or their friends and so i think that's also as important as like the higher level kind of... media work is literally influencing your own, yeah, your own people around you, your own communities a very like modular level, um, and sister just a maybe slightly related topic as as obviously a sister and a student of knowledge as well in in the house, what do you think is a responsibility for sisters, for women, especially in in these kind of responsibilities, so i would take it upon

myself, i never intended to be an active member on social media, i never wanted it, it wasn't something i was aiming for um but "my husband and i, who is also an islamic islamic seminary, we both felt like it was responsibility upon us to actually talk, take this role, be active members, speak on truth and actually represent islam and the hijab in a way in which suits uh us. right now lot of as the brother said, lot of muslim influencers are sell outs, especially when it comes to females, they think that their role, they've lost purpose of the hijab and they think their role as an influencer is to be someone that advertises uh clothing, but you have a bigger role to advertise what..." means to be woman in society, what it means to be member of zainabia, fatimiah, with women specifically, the reason in which uh their role and responsibility through the tongue is more important is because that's soly the role in which woman can perform, she does not have the right to go by arms and so her form of is to go by tongue and to speak

and to propagate, especially since woman has the ability to uh speak. eloquently um in a way in which she can actually impact society more so um than others and so whether or not she's influencing uh those around her and her family members or in society every woman has an act of responsibility yeah absolutely um and just to stay with you as well um what would you say are some of the projects that you are involved in or some of the kind of uh movements that you're involved in on this front so specifically on social media on instagram, that's definitely where i work the most in order to fix lot of misconceptions that we have uh towards islam, towards the hijab, towards femininity, our book publication is was was literally created and manifested just for that reason, it was manifested because i was afraid if i were to have daughter, how would i teach her about the hijab in a in a society in which we call woman a towel head or anything like that, so

what's important for us is to actually understand that we have the ability to influence um through our work in media and that's a figs and olive publications right, okay we have to get that plug in there and yourself dr. vidadi, you're somebody that i've known for uh many years and you've always been at the forefront, what a just very quick. some of the uh kind of projects and the work that you've done or are doing to this and things that i like to promote would be uh media literacy, so if anyone watch this and is interested in the community to engage in media literacy so we can empower parents, we can empower individuals and they can empower their children, because i think is always best the parents educate their children, i'm happy to work with them uh, we have some events happening in april, i'm happy to do more, people interested in publishing as sister said, also i'm... thinking about uh bringing authors who've written interesting content, different world view from uh the east, bringing it to the west, and also people who may be interested

in films, film festivals, organizing al-quds, we can have al-quds international film festival that promotes the concepts of resistance to what's happening in imperialism, so these are things that i'm happy to engage with anyone who wants to reach out, they can use my name in social media, they'll find me, email me and i'm happy to work with them, and it's interesting that you say uh, about the importance of educating people about the media, i had very young education, my older sister when we were kids used to tell me and point things out in movies, so for example we watched back to the future and there was a very negative perception of libyans and arabs in the film, and very young, we must have been, i was seven, she was nine, and she said look how they portray the arabs in the film, so i had the education growing up, not everyone might have that in the home, so it's good that you are doing that work for people to understand the agendas behind some of this method. media and before we leave, i know that both of you have prepared small pieces of poetry uh, so i'll start with you, dr. vadadi, this to read perhaps a bit of poetry that is relevant to this topic, so my my poem is from famous

iranian poet, persian poet from the 13th century called sati, and it touches on the heart that we discussed and caring about the umah in general, and he starts with, and this is top of the un building, human beings are member of a whole in creation of one essence and soul, if one member is... afflicted with pain, other members uneasy will remain. if you have no sympathy for human pain, the name of human you cannot retain. thank you so much, and sister sah. so this poetry is half of shahida, who is the sister of shaheed sadar. if it is said old fashioned, you are, care not and stead fastly continue to be. say i am the daughter of the message, from its light i get guidance. my shyness has not prevented me from my highs, it has not shackled my hands, no, and this veil hinders me not from my aim, oh sister, the morrow is ours, go on your path upwards, oh sister, the

truth rises above, the cunning of the aggressors, and in in short this poetry really touches upon the idea that woman, her shhineness, her hayat, her modesty, these are all representation of propagation for a greater truth, she is capable to do more than to follow what the western forces her to believe she is, thank you. thank you so much for that poetry sister and dr. fadadi and thank you for your contributions to the show, sadly that is all that we have at time for this week and thank you at home for watching as well, we will uh be joined by yourselves and other guests next week for another edition of eye on islam.

ramadan in iran where ancient traditions blend with modern celebrations to create a truly unforg'. edible spiritual journey where everything comes alive with the spirit of the holy month, a unique experience like other. these and more on this edition of iran today. this week on expos a benjamin netanyahu. vows to reject any calls to hulk the rafah invasion as he and joe biden intensify their staged public spat over zionist israel's genocide in gaza. now following the statement

made by former president donald trump that there would be a blood bath if he is not elected in november, left his politicians and media personalities completely lose it on social media. and lastly, a recent politico ipso survey reveals that 50% of americans think trump is guilty and ought to be tried before the 2024 presidential election. stay tuned for expose. the truth is just the revelation away. last week we showed you vandday graph machine and how we would use proton beams emitted from it to determine the age of ancient artifacts. this week were also determining the age of ancient artifacts, but this time using gamma race so stay tuned to see how

that works. i'm back, not just here in the scene of many crimes, but on your screen with a brand new weekly show called have it out with galloway. there'll be panel, there'll be experts, there'll be me, but there will also be you, joining me here. a studio audience online, have a go, why don't you if you think you're hard enough?

first to be headlines this hour, israeli forces continue to attack gaza's hospitals and the displaced people taking shelter there as the regime's genocidal war enters its 177th day. thousands of israely protesters once again take to the streets across the oc territories, calling for early elections and the resignation of the regime's premier, and the islamic resistance in iraq carries out another anti-israely operation, this time targeting vital target in the occupied galilei with drones.