During Ramadan there was also a documentary about Islam and arrange marriages presented. The programme showed a young man who was born and bread in the east of London to marry an eastern girl with first laying eyes on her on their wedding day. The documentary showed the journey of the boy going through each process of a Muslim wedding. Overall references were made to Islam but they were kept to a minimum.
The programme was set as a documentary; the idea of a documentary is to capture viewer’s interest, there not always religious most of the time it’s a story or adventure being told with religious backgrounds. Documentaries are for everyone they are produced in a way that they appeal to most people. The one I watched could appeal to anyone as it was humorous and informative for everyone. The reason for why it was religious was due to the fact of Ramadan as fasting is a pillar in Islam and Ramadan is a very important month for all Muslims.
Another type of specifically religious programme is songs of praise which is the only programme along with the one-off I mentioned to be specifically religious. This programme is on, on a weekly basis on BBC. During the one I watched they marked the Remembrance Day for all those who died in the war. Hymns from the bible and passages were read to mark the occasion. This was a programme where the language and content of the programme were formal.
The targeted audience wasn’t only Christians, although the bible was read out and hymns were sung. Contributes were made to the soldiers from everyone as almost everyone a lost someone in a war. This was however Remembrance Day on a normal Sunday programmes the targeted audience would most likely be Christians or people interested in Christian beliefs.
Analyse and explain the way in which a religious programme or moral issue of concern to Muslims has been dealt with in a television soap opera or in the National Daily press.
In society today there are many situations shown in the media and television which may distress some Muslims because of the way there portrayed. These issues are sometimes against the Islamic law and some Muslims believe it’s a bad influence on practicing Muslims. The media and soaps often deal with moral and religious issues a moral issue being a difference in opinion. Everyone has different principles so hence they have different ethics. Occasionally topics such as divorce, abortion and euthanasia have a link with religious issues as religions have there own moral code. A religious issue is one where either the matter is religious but is being argued over such as if a priest should be celibate or an issue which is to do with meaning and the purpose of life.
The programme I’m going to discuss is the well known soap opera Eastenders which has mostly moral issues involved. Soap operas are aimed at middle aged house wives and are normally have large amount of support because people can relate to them, this is another reason why Muslims may be affected as they may think soap operas allow these issues to be more acceptable in society. The incident I’m going to discuss involves both moral and religious issues and is to do with domestic violence and divorce. Domestic violence is when a family member is either physically, mentally or verbally abusing someone. In this case it’s a husband harming his wife for no apparent reason, or minor reasons. Divorce is when a couple decide they no longer want to be committed each other and sign a contract to sow they are no longer committed to each other in the eyes of God and are lawfully separated.
In Islam the holy book (the Quran) teaches that family life is the focus of Islam. Muslims get married and reproduce to maintain a family. The reason family is known to be important is because the example the prophet Mohammed (sws) and Kadijah and Muslims are taught to follow the example of the prophet this is why divorce is seen as such a stigma. In the Quran its stated family life is valued over everything and “with Allah the most hateful of things that are allowed is divorce”. This means divorce is not recommended it’s almost condemned. With this in mind divorce in Islam is permitted if the husband or wife are hurting each other and are making each other unhappy. This gives us a vivid idea of how domestic violence is viewed in Islam. In the Quran it states “the best of you are those who treat your wife best” and “the best of treasures is a good wife” and it’s evident a good wife/husband may not harm each other.
Like I stated before I’m going to analyse the relationship between Little Mo and Trevor in Eastenders. The characters in this programme are in a marriage and Trevor has been physically and verbally abusing Little Mo. The couple have been through a series of events which have caused Little Mo pain but she has suffered in silence because of the fear of getting hurt. These include incidents where Little Mo was raped by Trevor, brutally beaten over minor incidents, Trevor committing adultery, and continuous verbal abuse. These incidents went on for a while until Mo had enough and decided to take a stand this however did not go to plan and Trevor refused to let her go and in self defence she knocked an iron on Trevor’s head. This resulted in a court sentence for an attempted murder.
On her shortened release Little Mo returned still scared of Trevor until she met her new love Billy, he gave her confidence in herself and helped her overcome Trevor and file for a divorce. All was going to plan until Trevor assaulted his wife Donna and kidnapped their child and Little Mo to seek revenge on Little Mo and remind her he still had authority over her. During this period of time Trevor brought up the past, with the use of rhetorical questions and he had psychological power over her. Trevor manipulated Little Mo and took advantage of her weakness. This continued until Little Mo decided to stick up for herself and challenged Trevor to take up his threat to kill her. She brought up the past but showed he no longer affected her she was mentally free of him. This caused more friction which caused the carpet to catch alight. In the end of the seven year marriage which contained abuse of all kinds Trevor died in the house fire whilst the baby and Little Mo survived.
Eastenders handled this problem with domestic violence by using family life as an important factor. Throughout the incidents Little Mo always had her family to. Also they have dealt with domestic violence by showings it’s unacceptable and will not be tolerated. The directors of the show showed if one doesn’t stick up to the assaulter they will never be freed with them. They also showed Trevor trying to seek sympathy from both the views and little this attempt was meant to be unsuccessful and reinforce the thoughts of Trevor being portrayed as a bully.
In Eastenders Trevor dies to solve the problem at first I found this very ridiculous as I felt that in real life cases people would have to wait and pray their abuser dies which may be unlikely. But analysing the programme more closely I found Little Mo actually completely removed all links between herself and Trevor just before the fire starts.
In Islam divorce is hated in the eyes of God, but the grounds of divorce are very serious for example if one commits adultery, physically or verbally abuses their wife and husband they are permitted to divorce. The husband and wife have different duties and roles to fulfil they are known to be equivalent but not the same. Bearing in mind Muslims are not allowed to watch TV soap operas I assume they would agree for the grounds of divorce. The reasons being abuse, assaults towards family because Trevor always abused Little Mo’s family and other offensive actions. I also think Muslims would be offended by the fact Little Mo has also committed adultery. The reason being she was still married to Trevor whilst holding a relationship with Billy. This is because Islam is against cohabitation and eastenders as a whole encourages this.
The reasons for why the relationship of marriage in Eastenders differed from Muslims beliefs is to do with the fact in Islam marriages require respect because if the two individuals respect each other they are more likely to get and this means the marriage will last longer. In this case there is no respect between the couple. Trevor had control over Little Mo he undermined her actions and there was o equality between them.
So overall I believe Muslims may show concern to programmes and soaps because of the way family and relationships are portrayed. Also because there are more kinds of families these days like re-constituted and more people choose to cohabitate this is against Islam so some Muslims may believe these programmes influence practicing Muslims. Also everything which goes on in soap operas is much more liberal and a contrast to Muslim beliefs.
Analyse and explain the way in which a religious theme of concern to Muslims has been dealt with in a film or television drama:
The film I decided to discuss was Ghost, which was released in 1991. The film contains mainly themes of life and death, the differences between good and evil and the result of actions heaven or hell. In the film there are a series of character that each have a significant role to play. There is a man called Sam who represents good and a man called Carl who represents the main evil.
Ghost is a film about a man Sam in a happily settled relationship with Molly but is murdered as he is an obstacle for his friend Carl who wants four million dollars and only Sam has the code. Sam becomes a ghost and is offered a chance to go to heaven but refuses as he wants to enquire his death and protect Molly. Sam finds out the reason for his death and contacts a medium who is able to let him communicate with Molly. Ota the medium is able to withdraw the money and is told to donate it to the church. When Carl finds out he tries to retrieve the cheque but in the process Willy is killed and taken to hell by the dark shadows. The same happens to Carl when he is trying to retrieve the cheque and is also taken to hell. In the end Sam is able to go to heaven and also able to communicate with Molly for a short time this is seen as a reward for them both being good.
The reason for why Ghost was seen as a suitable film was because it explores the theme of life after death. This is a religious issue as in Islam it’s one of the biggest beliefs of Muslims also this is a big issue for all the other main religions as they all believe in life after death and some believe they will finally see god or go through reincarnation.
Islam is based around the belief that life is a test and the whole purpose of this life is to prepare for the after life which is known as akhirah. As a Muslim I believe human life is divided in two parts with the eternal life being far more important. The first part of life allows God to test us; we are tested of our characters, our reaction to misfortune or fortune and our way of life. It is up to us to make sure our actions are worthy so when we are judged by god on the Day of Judgment we have done enough good to go to heaven. This is known as the day of judgement. The first part of our life is a build up to this moment where we still stand before God and a decision will be made on the amount of good and bad deeds we have committed accordingly we will be sent to Hell or Heaven.
Our after life will begin as soon as the soul is peacefully extracted by the angel of mercy for Muslims and re-born. The soul in Islam doesn’t die it remains unchanged and connected to the body so if the body feels pain so does the soul. We Muslims don’t believe in ghosts but we do however believe if a person visits the grave the soul is able to recognise them and listen to what they are saying the souls are also able to talk but can only be heard by animals. Also whilst in the grave if we don’t die on a Friday or during the month of Ramadan we will be asked to confirm our faith.
During the duration between death and the day of judgement the time is known as the BARZAKH, this is a place where the soul waits until the day of judgement and once a soul enters it’s not allowed to leave to warn others.
The film Ghost shows life after death to start immediately after the death and the decision of whether the person goes to hell or heaven is made. For those who go to heaven they rise above. The film showed Sam going to heaven with bright light shining from the sky this image reminds us of Jesus as there have often been pictures of Jesus with bright light shining upon him. This is different to what Muslims believe as they believe they will wait in the Barzakh before a decision is mad.
In ghost the dead are able to communicate with people and animals. This is a belief followed in Islam as they also believe the spirits .good man Sam to be murdered. As soon as Sam dies he becomes a ghost and his body is made whole again and is offered the chance to go to heaven.
Also ghost states that those who committed suicide have to use there time up in earth until they
Muslims believe in life after death so they would be pleased that in the film it’s shown to exist, however they wouldn’t be pleased with layout as Sam was in a loving relationship with Molly, he had sex before marriage and that is one of the greatest sins which cannot be forgiven by God. However the concept of the good being rewarded is encouraged.
However in the film Sam was portrayed to be a good man so when he was rewarded by going to heaven, Muslims would generally be pleased with the outcome as in Islam we believe the good will be rewarded. In Islam those who have been good will get there reward in their after life.
In the film Carl was punished for murdering Sam and for his greed by suffering a painful death and was taken by the dark shadows to hell. Muslims would agree with this presentation of the bad being punished as it’s justice and Muslims believe those who were bad are punished in the after life and taken to Hell. However Islam wouldn’t agree with souls being taken away to hell or heaven straight after death as we believe we have to face god before our future is destined.
Television and Religion - Give your response to the view that television always presents religious people as out of touch with the modern world.
To answer the following question I must identify what I believe is the modern world. In society today I would say the modern world is one which finds more things acceptable then before. For example about fifty years ago relationships and families were different but now people have more liberal thoughts about them. A modern world can also be one where Religion doesn’t play a big part in people’s life, fifty years ago more people were religious and would actually live there life on the teachings of their religion. A person out of touch may be one who doesn’t believe in cohabitation and accepts divorce also has different opinions on abortion and euthanasia. They may be portrayed as being traditional and old fashioned. In the following evaluation I will first give examples for why the statement above may be true and then for against. I will conclude with my own opinion.
In the television programme Eastenders there is a character called Dot Cotton who is portrayed as a religious person. The reason for this is she visits the church regularly and makes references of God and the bible frequently. In Eastenders there is an incident where she finds it difficult to accept the sleeping arrangement of her step-granddaughter and her boyfriend Jamie. She is shocked to know they are sleeping together so this portrays her as out of touch because there are very little Christians who still get married before loosing their virginity. Even tough they are in a stable relationship she refuses for them to sleep together in her house. This is because in the bible it’s said to be wrong to have sex before marriage.
Another incident is on an Asian channel where a programme showed a religious person not understanding the need for abortion. The characters were all Muslim. The girl involved was raped and wanted to get rid of child because she felt dirty and because she wasn’t married and studying she felt she had to get rid of her child. Her father was religious and refused to let her have an abortion as Islam is strictly against it. This may be seen as out of touch because the girl fell pregnant and it will ruin her life as she believes. The end result was her father not allowing her to go through the termination and the girl doing it secretly. The man was seen as out of touch because he couldn’t accept and realise his daughter was unhappy and couldn’t live with the fact she was carrying a rapists unwanted child.
In Neighbours the character Harold Bishop is a religious character and he is always quoting from the bible and trying to live his life as a good Christian. Harold is always trying to help and often finds it difficult to understand others don’t always think the way he does. Harold has fostered two boys called Tad and Paul who both want to have sexual relationship and never get the chance to do it at home because Harold always assumes they want to play board games and encourages them to always pray or get advice from the bible if something’s wrong. Harold also has rules with the type of music which can be played in the house. All of these actions cause Harold to come across as old fashioned and he may be seen as out of touch with the modern world.
Antonio was a protestant priest in Sunset Beach. He was portrayed as a hardworking and committed character. The focus of his life was work he was seen by others to be out of touch with the modern world until he had an affair. Antonio’s character was having an affair with his brother’s wife. This affair made him seem like a character that was in touch with the modern world.
In another programme called the True Christmas there was a priest who spoke about how we celebrate Christmas and the reason we celebrate Christmas. The priest was very lively and spoke about alcohol, music and gifs for this reason he was seen as in touch because he could joke around. The television producers and the priest tried to show although he is religious he is aware times have changed and not everyone will have the same opinion as him.
The vicar of Dibley and Father Ted are two programmes to do with priests. Both of these programmes are in the genus of comedy. For instance both are always joking around and seem in touch with the attitude to life and situations. Both of the characters are seen as lively and there ability to joke and understand issues as relationship crime and politics.
In my opinion I would say I tend to disagree with the statement above this is because most programmes which show religious people to be in touch with the modern world aren’t actually good followers of there religion. For example Antonio and Alex from Eastenders are both seen as in touch with modern society because they had an affair. In Christianity the priests are the role models and it’s strictly against Christianity to commit adultery and both these priests encouraging this made them intact with the modern world so hence they aren’t really religious any more. The same goes for Father Ted and the Vicar of Dibley, they both make jokes which some Christians may find offensive and are not religious.
Therefore I believe most of the time television shows religious people in such a way that it’s either you are religious and out of touch or your not a proper follower of your religion and are in touch with society. I think television presents religion in such a way that it’s thought it’s impossible to be capable of both.