Where have all the opinions gone?
So, I've been writing this blog - this outpouring of personal thoughts and views - for the last four months, and I've been publishing regularly in The Muslim News. And all this time, I've been working on the premise that people out there reading all this have passion and opinion about these subjects. In the world of cyber-publishing its pretty easy to press your little pinkies onto your keys and say what's really on your mind. I mean, everyone has an opinion, right? I'm sure all of you have your own views on the stuff I write, the stuff you read in the papers.
So where have all the opinions gone? Where is the emotion, the argument, the debate, the passion? I was thinking of publishing some excerpts of debates and responses in The Muslim News itself, but it seems that apathy has set in.
Come on people, there must be something on this site, or in the paper, or somewhere in the world that has tickled or poked you. Spill the beans.
Assert your right to have an opinion by expressing it!
So where have all the opinions gone? Where is the emotion, the argument, the debate, the passion? I was thinking of publishing some excerpts of debates and responses in The Muslim News itself, but it seems that apathy has set in.
Come on people, there must be something on this site, or in the paper, or somewhere in the world that has tickled or poked you. Spill the beans.
Assert your right to have an opinion by expressing it!
posted by Shelina Zahra Janmohamed at 15:52
5 Comments:
From experience, people are pretty apathetic!
Shelina, recently in some focus group I attended, one participant stated that we as a community suffer from apolitical radicalism. He implied that events and issues have made become people so apolitical and apathetic that it is radical to remain silent.
I think that is a pretty interesting view. But nobody knows that you are making a point by being silent - a bit of a catch 22!
I'm also intrigued by the idea that at some point in our collective history, getting your comment into the newspaper was a deeply exciting thing. Now the prospect of doing so has lost its shine. Is blogging to blame?
I don't think Blogging is to blame, for example the one's who are blogging are those who are involved in some kind of activism, but because media has become 24 Hour, the shine is off the media.
What is needed are opinions on those things which a Muslim may not be accustomed to being linked with. But that is Catch 22, as fellow Muslims feel that howcome Palestine, Iraq and Faith are not covered? While the guilt trip comes in that surely I should use my talent to highlight these issues, rather than just about football.
You win some, you lose some.
Muslims need to realise that although these issues are important we need to learn to create our own community here. We're not just an off-shoot of the other communities, but an entity - albeit connected - of our own right
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