In the past, when the Arabs were still illiterate people, opinion warfare was carried out through changes in poetry. This is because the level of fondness of the Arabs in memorizing poetry is far above their ability to read writing. At that time, they were still a memorizing nation, not a reader nation. At that time, poets occupied positions that were somewhat similar to the position of today’s mass media. When a famous poet composed a poem, the poem immediately spread to the public, memorized 17 and quoted everywhere, by word of mouth. Similar to the work of famous journalists in modern times. So, poetry was used by many as a media for raising opinions. That is what ultimately led to genre madah poems (praise) and hijâ ‘(ridicule) in classical Arabic literature, positioned quite strategically compared to other genres. In fact, the rulers and public figures are very common in possessing a poet ‘employee’ who is in charge of making the poet praise for himself and encourage ridicule for his opponents. The poets often get prizes for the poems they change.
When Islam comes, this tendency is still very thick. At that time, infidels also relied on poets to attack Islam and cornered the Messenger of Allah. Rasulullah r also offset their tendency. In Medina, the Messenger of Allah had several poets who defended Islam and praised him through their poems, as did the friend of Abdullah bin Rawwahah, Hassan bin Thabit and Amir bin al-Akwa ‘radhiyallâhu anhum. What the Prophet (pbuh) did by ‘appointing’ Muslim poets as a step to balance the pagan poets was an example we must follow. In the present context, when the Western media is busy cornering Islam and making unfair news about Islam,
When the West campaigned for their anti-Islamic attitudes through the pens of journalists and the mass media, we must also have journalists and mass media that are great for counteracting the war of opinions that they carry out. In terms of fighting opinions, we position the Western media as opposed. Print, electronic and cyberspace media are the main weapons of the West in their war of opinions against Islam in the information age as it is today. After the collapse of socialism, then Islam can be regarded as the only Western opponent in ideological battles. In this case, the West does not dare to rely on Christianity as the main theme in fighting Islam. It may be, because the West itself realizes that Christian teachings have a very weak and fragile foundation, both in terms of theological arguments and in terms of historical facts.
Christian teachings are considered not competent enough to fight Islamic teachings which have a very solid and rational foundation. Therefore, the West prioritizes democracy, tolerance, humanism, pluralism, and the like as a central issue to undermine the influence of Islamic teachings. So, they exploited terrorism and intolerance issues as the main weapons to attack Islam. Terrorism and intolerance are considered the most powerful issues to make Western society feel horrified and disgusted with Islam. The choice of the West to exploit the issue of terrorism and true intolerance is a very easy choice for us to break, if we have a balanced means with them. Even the cruel terror carried out by ISIS (if ISIS originated from Islam) is still nothing compared to the terror carried out by the West and Israel throughout the Middle East and Africa. Unfortunately, Muslims lose in terms of packing opinions, mainly because of weaknesses in information technology and the readiness of mass media facilities. So this is very important to be improved by Muslims if they want to reverse that opinion.
When the West corners Islam, Muslims will react to rise. But, when the West praises Islam, Muslims must be more critical and more careful. Psychologically, the lies conveyed a thousand times have a far greater chance to be trusted than the truth delivered only once. So, it is very unnecessary for us to mourn when Western media often corners Muslims and makes news tilted, as if Islam is evil. It is natural that Western media hates Islam, because they indeed position themselves as opponents of Islam – even though it is not vulgarly stated so. The West has high concerns with the rapid development of Islam in Europe and America.
Maka, media-media Baratpun aktif mengesankan orang Islam sebagai penjahat yang tidak boleh diterima di negeri mereka. Kita tidak perlu terlalu risau dengan semua itu. Yang perlu kita sikapi dengan sangat hati-hati justru ketika Barat menyanjung kita. Ketika Barat menyudutkan Islam, umat Islam akan bereaksi untuk bangkit. Tapi, ketika Barat memuji Islam, maka umat Islam harus lebih kritis dan lebih hati-hati: ada apa sebenarnya di balik sanjugan itu? Apakah karena umat Islam sudah kehilangan jati diri, sehingga menjadi entitas yang sesuai dengan selera lawan mereka!?. Ataukah, karena Barat menginginkan kita terlena dan tersanjung, sehingga menjadi lengah dan bersikap ‘welcome’ terhadap ideologi mereka!? Begitu pula, ketika media-media kita sendiri justru ikut-ikutan menyudutkan Islam. Maka, kita mesti bertanyatanya: Apakah orang-orang Islam sudah memiliki pikiran, perasaan dan pandangan hidup yang mirip dengan lawan-lawan Islam!? Ataukah, umat Islam sudah merasa rendah diri, sehingga mereka merasa tidak memiliki sisi apapun yang bisa dibuat kebanggaan!? Semua pertanyaan ini sama-sama merupakan hal yang amat buruk bagi kita.
Tentu saja umat Islam tidak boleh mengemis agar lawan berhenti menyerang. Yang harus kita lakukan adalah menyiapkan diri untuk menangkal serangan mereka dengan sebaik-baiknya. Jika umat Islam siap, maka apapun yang dilakukan oleh lawan tidak akan melahirkan akibat yang signifikan bagi nasib kita. Ketika umat Islam bisa menentukan nasibnya sendiri, maka langkah apapun yang diambil oleh orang lain tidak menjadi masalah besar. Dulu, kira-kira pada tahun 90 Hijriah, ketika Khalifah al-Walid bin Abdil-Malik memutuskan untuk mencetak dinar sendiri, Romawi sempat berang.
At that time, al-Walid instructed Muslims to leave the Roman print dinar because in the dinar the teachings of the Christian Trinity were written. Hearing this, the Romans threatened to print a dinar containing invective against the Prophet Muhammad r. So, what does AlWalid say? “Please! And, after that, we will come flooding your country with our war horses. “The Romans also failed to carry out the plan because it had the potential to produce terrible political consequences for them. So, perhaps, we must really wake up so that we can speak valiantly like Caliph al-Walid at that time! Do not beg your opponent, and always be ready with whatever they choose! If not, then Muslims can only hope and then wail. Yâ Wailâh …
Ahmad Dairobi / sidogiri Media
