SOMEHOW the whole Arab world became infatuated with a TV series. Newspapers featured articles about how people in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries, Egypt, Iraq and even Palestine were dedicatedly following a Turkish TV serial. Up to this point, the story has an element of interest related to how satellite TV can unite Arab viewers — or maybe how Arab viewers are eager to enjoy new forms of drama.
There are many explanations for the popularity of the series that is in fact much like any other popular form of TV entertainment; whether good or bad is something to be left to viewers’ judgments and tastes. The strange thing — for me at least — was to find out that a fatwa had been issued forbidding people to watch the program.
The fatwa, a religious edict, was issued by the Kingdom’s grand mufti and was, of course, carried in local papers. Arab News quotes the fatwa: “It is not permitted to look at these serials or watch them. They contain so much evil; they destroy people’s ethics and are against our values.” Presumably, the mufti took the trouble to actually watch a few episodes — otherwise how did he reach his decision? No doubt he has reasons for thinking the series has an effect on people, but I beg to differ on the seriousness of that effect upon our morals and values. Somehow, we are led to believe that our moral system is so weak that a TV show can destroy it. I can’t help feeling that we are much more consistent and solid than some scholars apparently give us credit for. Whatever the case, the fatwa has certainly had an impact; we learned later that members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice found that some shops were making profits from the popularity of the TV series by printing pictures of the principal actors on shirts. Naturally, the commission’s next move was to confiscate the shirts.
The fatwa and the zealous efforts by members of the commission can be debated by people; there are those who agree with their actions and those who do not. Nevertheless, in all our debates, there is something quite major that seems to be missing from the picture. It is all too typical for our scholars to concentrate on certain things and ignore others. We always hear sermons and fatwas that focus on the predictable: The place of women in society, mixing of the sexes and how people dress. Only last week in a Friday sermon, the imam of a mosque railed against the way young people dress and how they blindly imitate the West. This is an important issue, and deserves to be discussed and analyzed carefully.
That said, I wish our imams would make a practice of dealing with far more serious issues, issues which are much more central to our religion and the difference between what is professed and what is actually practiced. Why, for instance, don’t our scholars talk about and condemn the abuse of foreign workers in Saudi Arabia? What scholar has issued any kind of statement about a story that was in Arab News last week — the rape of a Nepalese maid and her being dumped in front of a placement agency?
This is not the first of its kind nor will it be the last. The reaction of our scholars to such cases — all of which are covered in the local press — is generally nonexistent. Surely for the benefit of our morals and values, this type of crimes and abuses is worth sermons and fatwas that all too often seem to concentrate on easy targets. The dedication which the commission shows in following women around and making sure their abayas are “properly” worn or the way they become vociferous about closing pet shops and confiscating shirts with pictures of a Turkish actor — all these make one wonder why the same active engagement could not be evident in other areas.
